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Oliver Berben, who took the reins of German production and distribution powerhouse Constantin Film on March 1, faces a German media landscape that is “changing radically and quickly,” he says. In response, he is adjusting the company’s approach to the business.

He welcomes the government’s proposed reform of the German Film Law, which will change the country’s production incentives, including for television, and will introduce an obligation on broadcasters and streamers to invest 20% of sales generated in Germany back into European productions, 70% of which would have to be in the German language.

“You have stagnating funding of public broadcasters. You have declining revenues for the private stations. The question is: Is the model functioning altogether? It is not, if we just keep on doing the same thing again and again.”

He adds, “Everything is changing, and these changes, by the way, are good. Us, as producers, we need...

Palme d’Or winning director Ruben Östlund’s next film The Entertainment System Is Down has been awarded €500,000 in production support from Berlin-Brandenburg’s regional film fund.

It is one of 30 feature films and series projects, from directors such as David Wnendt and Ulrike Ottinger, to share more than €7.2m in Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb)’s latest funding round.

Phlippe Bober’s Berlin-based Essential Filmproduktion received the €500,000 for Östlund’s second English-language production The Entertainment System Is Down, starring Daniel Brühl, Kirsten Dunst and Keanu Reeves. The long gestating project is set on a long-haul flight whose inflight entertainment system breaks down.

Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all worldwide rights to Don’t Let’s Go To The Dogs Tonight, the directing debut of Embeth Davidtz that screened at the recent Telluride and Toronto festivals.

Davitz also stars and wrote the screenplay, based on the memoir by Alexandra Fuller. Set and shot in South Africa – where US-born Davitz was raised – with a local cast and crew, the film centres on an eight-year-old girl living on her family farm in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) at the end of the country’s late-seventies war of independence.

The cast also includes Lexi Venter, Zikhona Bali, Fumani N Shilubana,...

Welcome to Deadline’s International Disruptors, a feature where we shine a spotlight on key executives and companies outside of the U.S. shaking up the offshore marketplace. This week we’re talking to leading German producer Fabian Gasmia, whose credits include Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper, Leos Carax’s Annette and, more recently, Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry starrer Treasure, which had its North American premiere at Tribeca last weekend. Gasmia, who set up production banner Seven Elephants in 2018 with directors Julia von Heinz, Erik Schmitt and David Wnendt, talks us through building that outfit, his “special relationship” with France and why he thinks German cinema is having a “renaissance.”

International relationships are proving more significant than ever in what is now a fragile and economically strained independent film market and Fabian Gasmia is proving to be a European partner with clout. The German producer, who recently produced Lena Dunham...

Exclusive: German actor Matthias Schweighöfer, who most recently starred in Oscar-winning film Oppenheimer, is joining forces with German director Erik Schmitt for upcoming project The Life of Wishes (working title).

The film, which is based on Thomas Glavinic’s best-selling novel Das Leben Der Wuensche, follows a disillusioned family man who is lost in a world where more is always better. When he is given the power to grant his every wish, he soon becomes confronted with his own dark and unconscious desires.

The film will be produced by Pantaleon Films’ Dan Maag, Marco Beckmann, Schweighöfer and Alexander Dreissig as well as ProU Producers United Film’s Willi Geike.

Fabian Gasmia of Seven Elephants, who most recently produced Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry starrer Treasure, will co-produce the project with Stefan Gärtner of SevenPictures Film. ProU Producers United Film will distribute the film in Germany and discussions for a sales agent are currently underway.

David Wnendt, the German director behind controversial coming-of-age movie “Wetlands,” Hitler satire “Look Who’s Back” and teen crime drama “Sun and Concrete,” is once again pushing boundaries with his next feature film project.

Backed by distributor-producer Constantin Film and with Seven Elephants lead producing, Wnendt has embarked on the feature film adaptation of the award-winning novel “Athos 2643” by Nils Westerboer.

Wnendt, who will both write the screenplay and direct the theatrical film, promises an “emotional and spectacular experience that will take the audience into the vastness of outer space,” according to a press statement.

“Athos 2643” has been described as “‘The Name of the Rose’ in Space.” In the distant future, a mysterious crime unfolds on the lonely Neptune moon of Athos. An artificial intelligence responsible for life support is suspected of murder. An inquisitor specializing in artificial intelligence is sent to solve the case.

In addition to sci-fi elements, the...

Christian Petzold’s anticipated Miroirs No.3 and Kaouther Ben Hania’s epic love story Mimesi are among the 19 projects awarded a total funding of almost €3.5m by Germany’s Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb) at the second funding session of 2024.

Miroirs No.3 will star Paula Beer in her fourth collaboration with Petzold after Transit, Undine and Afire. She will play a young music student who has to restructure her life when her boyfriend dies in a car crash in the countryside.

The film, which is being produced by Petzold’s production company Schramm Film Koerner Weber Kaiser, received €500,000 in production funding from Mbb.

Sebastian Stan, whose “A Different Man” screens in the Berlin Film Festival, Christoph Waltz and Tom Wlaschiha, the “Faceless Man” in “Game of Thrones,” were among the guests at Studio Babelsberg Night, the historic Berlin film studios’ party at Soho House Berlin held to celebrate the 74th edition of the festival. The event was supported by Mexican tequila brand Don Julio, the Motion Picture Assn. and Little Moons. Variety was the media partner.

Among the leading filmmakers welcomed by Babelsberg were Fatih Akin, who won Berlin’s Golden Bear in 2004, Julia von Heinz, whose film “Treasure,” starring Lena Dunham, plays at the Berlinale, and Tom Tykwer, who shot series “Babylon Berlin” at Babelsberg and recently shot feature film “The Light” there.

Christoph Waltz

Other directors and writers at the party included “Dark” creators Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, who shot Netflix’s “1899” at Babelsberg, Lars Kraume, Detlev Buck and David Wnendt.

German movie theaters staged an impressive comeback in 2023, with ticket sales rising 18.5 percent and box office revenue jumping 23.7 percent compared with 2022, according to preliminary results by box office analysis firm Comscore.

The figures, which cover the period from Jan. 5, 2023 to Jan. 3, 2024 show a total of 87.2 million tickets sold in the territory for a total box office take of $940 million (859 million euros). That’s slightly below Gower Street’s box office estimate for Germany, which put the market at $1.01 billion for 2023. Germany’s Federal Film Board, the Ffa, will publish official figures in early February.

The bump can be partially attributed to inflation, but average ticket admission prices in Germany only ticked up 4.4 percent last year, well below the general inflation rate in the country.

Greta Gerwig’s pink powerhouse Barbie, which earned $60.6 million (55.3 million euros) in Germany, and James Cameron’s sci-fi sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, which grossed...

More than 800 film industry professionals in Germany and Austria have signed an open letter opposing antisemitism, with the number of signatories continuing to grow.

The signatories include a wide range of directors, writers, producers and other film industry professionals. Those signing the letter include directors Caroline Link, whose “Nowhere in Africa” won an Oscar; Stefan Ruzowitzky, whose “The Counterfeiters” also won an Oscar; and Marie Kreutzer, whose “Corsage” won a prize at Cannes (all pictured above). Further directors include Julia von Heinz, Kilian Riedhof, Dominik Graf, David Wnendt, Dani Levy and Doris Dörrie.

Others signing the letter include European Film Academy director Matthijs Wouter Knol, “Resident Evil” producer Martin Moszkowicz, producers Oliver Berben and Fabian Gasmia, and Jürgen Prochnow, an actor best known for the Oscar-nominated “Das Boot.”

The letter was originally published on Nov. 9, the anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938, when the Nazis in Germany attacked Jewish people and property.

‘All Quiet’ leads the way with 12 nominations, followed by Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge with seven.

Edward Berger’s Bafta and Oscar award-winner All Quiet On The Western Front has garnered 12 nominations for this year’s German Film Awards (aka Lolas), including for best feature film, best direction, best lead actor (Felix Kammerer), and best cinematography.

Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge, which premiered in the Berlinale’s Panorama section last month, received seven nominations, including best feature film, best direction, best screenplay and best lead actress (Leonie Benesch), while Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider has received four nominations for best feature film,...

To no one’s surprise, Edward Berger’s epic WWI drama All Quiet on the Western Front is the front runner for this year’s German film awards. The Netflix feature, which picked up nine Oscar nominations and won four — both records for a German movie — received 12 nominations on Friday for Germany’s top cinema honor, known as the Lola.

The film, the first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel, is the clear favorite going into this year’s Lolas. In addition to the Oscar sweep — the film won best international feature, best cinematography, best production design, and best score at this year’s Academy Awards — All Quiet on the Western Front dominated the 2023 Baftas, taking seven trophies, including for best film and best director.

All Quiet was nominated in every Lola category it qualified for, including best film, best director for Berger, and best actor...

German cinema looks set for a major boom this year with a strong lineup of diverse works that span historical dramas, coming-of-age tales, high-octane nostalgia, animation and sci-fi fun.

The Berlin Film Festival is bowing a muscular selection of local titles, among them “Afire,” by Berlinale mainstay Christian Petzold (“Undine”), screening in competition. The films centers on a group of young people staying at a holiday house near the Baltic Sea during a hot, dry summer, exploring volatile emotions that start to sizzle when a wildfire spreads through the surrounding forest.

Likewise vying for the Golden Bear is Margarethe von Trotta’s biopic “Ingeborg Bachmann: Journey Into the Desert,” starring Vicky Krieps (“Corsage”) as the radical Austrian author. The film examines her relationship with Swiss writer Max Frisch and her 1964 journey of self-discovery through the Egyptian desert.

“Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything,” by Emily Atef (“More Than Ever”) and...

Leading German producer and distributor is prepping an ambitious 2023 slate.

One of Germany’s leading production and distribution companies, Constantin Film is delivering one of its “most ambitious” slates of films and series this year, according to executive chairman Martin Moszkowicz.

They include Berlinale gala screening Sun And Concrete (Sonne Und Beton), directed by David Wnendt, which Constantin co-producers and distributes, and Paul W.S. Anderson’s fantasy adventure In The Lost Lands, starring Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista. Hagen, a big budget feature and six-part series based on the epic German Nibelungen saga, has also started shooting, and Constantin is...

Festival to also honour French cinematographer Caroline Champetier with honorary Berlinale Camera.

The Berlinale has added the world premiere of documentary Love To Love You, Donna Summer and a tribute to a century of Disney animation to its upcoming 73rd edition.

The additions complete the lineup for the Berlinale Special sidebar at the festival, set to run February 16-26.

Love To Love You, Donna Summer is co-directed by Roger Ross Williams, Oscar nominated in 2016 for Life, Animated, and US actress Brooklyn Sudano, who is the daughter of Summer and makes her directorial debut with the film.

The documentary will explore...

2023 truly begins taking shape with next month’s Berlinale, which will run from February 16 to February 26 and feature more than a few of our most-anticipated films this year. Among them are Christian Petzold’s Afire (Roter Himmel), starring new muse Paula Beer; Hong Sangsoo’s In Water, which will appear in the Encounters section; and Philippe Garrel’s The Plough, once known as La lune crevée starring his three children Louis, Esther, and Lena, and (judging from the still) his first color feature since 2011’s A Burning Hot Summer. Meanwhile: Angela Schanelec will return with Music, and––six years after the wonderful Person to Person––it’s nice spotting a new feature from Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults.

Find the lineup below and head back next month for our coverage of the festival headed by Kristen Stewart’s jury.

Competition

20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)

The Shadowless Tower (Zhang...

The Berlin International Film Festival has added several out-of-competition world premieres to its 2023 lineup, including Golda, Guy Nattiv’s political biopic starring Oscar winner Helen Mirren as Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir. The feature, which co-stars Camille Cottin and Liev Schreiber, will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala at the 73rd Berlin festival.

Kill Boksoon, an action thriller from Korean director Byun Sung-hyun (The Merciless) featuring The Housemaid star Jeon Do-yeon and Mad Fate from Chinese filmmaker Soi Cheang (Limbo) will also have their world premieres as 2023 Berlinale special screenings. They will play alongside two Italian films: Andrea Di Stefano’s Italian crime feature Last Night of Amore with The Traitor actor Pierfrancesco Favino playing a cop in Milan on his fateful last night, and Mario Martone’s documentary Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me, about the star of the Oscar-winning The Postman. Two German dramas: Sun and Concrete...

Berlinale Special strand adds eight titles.

Guy Nattiv’s Golda, in which Helen Mirren plays former Israeli prime minister Golda Weir, will have its world premiere as a Berlinale Special Gala at next month’s Berlin Film Festival (February 16-26).

The film is one of eight additions to the Berlinale Special section, seven of which are world premieres.

Scroll down for the full list of new Special titles

Produced by Michael Kuhn for the UK’s Qwerty Films, Jane Hooks and Nattiv’s New Native Pictures, Golda focuses on the responsibilities and decisions of Meir faced during the Yom Kippur...

The Berlin Film Festival has added eight films to its Berlinale Special program, including “Golda,” starring Helen Mirren as Golda Meir, “Call My Agent!” star Camille Cottin, and Liev Schreiber.

Other films include Andrea Di Stefano’s “Last Night of Amore,” about the last night of a Milan policeman, played by Pierfrancesco Favino, documentary “Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me,” Mario Martone’s tribute to actor and filmmaker Troisi, and Byun Sung-hyun’s “Kill Boksoon,” starring Jeon Do-yeon (“The Housemaid”) as an unflappable female killer in South Korea.

Also selected is David Wnendt’s “Sun and Concrete,” an adaption of Felix Lobrecht’s novel of the same name, following seven days in the life of a bunch of 15-year-old boys in Berlin-Neukölln as they search for weed, girls, and a way to steal their school’s computers.

Other titles include “Mad Fate,” directed by Soi Cheang, who recently won...

“There is a new studio Star System…but instead of focusing on acting talent (as it did in the 1930s), it prioritizes those with the skills to create new stories, produce new shows and manage the evolution of new character IP…in other words, to make content that will succeed by the measures important in the new world order,” Ampere Analysis’ Guy Bisson announced at MipTV in a presentation.

By that measure, few figures were as important at this month’s buoyant French TV festival Canneseries than German author Ferdinand von Schirach and Constantin TV’s Oliver Berben.

Broadcast on Zdf and produced by Berben, 2013’s ”Crime Stories” and 2015’s “Shades of Guilt,” both based on von Schirach best-selling short story anthologies, scored up to 5 million viewers per episode and exceptional market shares of 17-18.

Inspired by a von Schirach stage play ”The Verdict” punched almost 7 million viewers and a...

Constantin Inks Rtl Licensing Deal

German mini-major Constantin Film has inked a multi-year licensing deal with local TV giant Rtl that covers exclusive free-tv and streaming rights for all of Constantin’s theatrical productions. The pact covers all of the producer’s in-house and co-productions that begin filming from January 1. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed. The deal will cover upcoming titles from filmmakers such as Paul W.S. Anderson (Resident Evil), David Wnendt (Look Who’s Back), Til Schweiger (Rabbit Without Ears), and Doris Dörrie (Cherry Blossoms). Among highlights is the new film from Bora Dagtekin, whose Suck Me Shakespeer school comedy trilogy is the most successful German-language franchise of the last decade. Constantin and Rtl have previously partnered on films and series including limited series The Allegation, comedy Weil wir Champions sind (Because We’re Champions), and Strafe (Punishment).

Zinc Appoints Former Shine TV MD

UK factual outfit...

When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit star Carla Juri in her Brooklyn sweatshirt in Iceland, on her role: “I was wondering, they describe her as a bit more difficult. Ha, Ha! I like difficult!”

Carla Juri has had a number of memorable performances since 2013, from David Wnendt’s adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s novel Wetlands to Frauke Finsterwalder’s Finsterworld, co-written with Christian Kracht, Denis Villeneuve’s Blade Runner 2049, and in 2021 Andy Goddard’s Six Minutes To Midnight and Caroline Link’s adaptation with Anna Brüggemann of Judith Kerr’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit.

The father Arthur Kemper (Oliver Masucci) reunited with his son Max (Marinus Hohmann), wife Dorothea (Carla Juri), and daughter Anna (Riva Krymalowski)

Carla Juri, Riva Krymalowski, Oliver Masucci (a Joseph Beuys look-alike in Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s Never Look Away), and Marinus Hohmann star as the Kemper family, with a terrific ensemble cast, including Ursula Werner,...

Akin’s new film is a gangster drama called ‘Rheingold’.

Fatih Akin’s gangster drama Rheingold and Michael Bully Herbig’s media satire 1000 Lines are among the new film projects to receive funding from Hamburg’s Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (Ffhsh) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).

Akin’s gangster biopic is based on the 2015 book Alles oder Nix by the German hip hop rapper and label boss Xatar. It received €700,000 – the largest single amount at last week’s sitting of Hamburg’s committee for high-end films and series with production budgets over €3.5m.

Akin’s bombero international is producing the film which...

Akin’s new film is a gangster drama called ‘Rheingold’.

Fatih Akin’s gangster drama Rheingold and Michael Bully Herbig’s media satire 1000 Lines are among the new film projects to receive funding from Hamburg’s Filmfoerderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein (Ffhsh) and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg (Mbb).

Akin’s gangster biopic is based on the 2015 book Alles oder Nix by the German hip hop rapper and label boss Xatar. It received €700,000 - the largest single amount at last week’s sitting of Hamburg’s committee for high-end films and series with production budgets over €3.5m.

Akin’s bombero international is producing the film...

Mandy Patinkin and Lena Dunham have joined German filmmaker Julia von Heinz’s next film, “Iron Box,” about a New York businesswoman who decides to take her aging father back to his native Poland, where she hopes to explore her Jewish roots.

In an interview with Variety during last year’s Venice Film Festival following the premiere of her latest pic, “And Tomorrow the Entire World,” von Heinz said she planned to send Patinkin and Dunham the script and expressed hope that they would do the film, an adaption of Australian writer Lily Brett’s bestselling novel “Too Many Men.”

The article led to meetings between von Heinz and Patinkin and Dunham.

Von Heinz also shared her current film with the actors. The critically acclaimed pic, about an idealistic student who joins an Antifa collective to fight the fascist menace of neo-Nazism spreading across Germany, has been selected to represent...

German filmmaker Julia von Heinz, whose latest film “And Tomorrow the Entire World” has been selected to represent Germany as the country’s 2021 Oscars submission, has signed with CAA.

“And Tomorrow the Entire World” is a coming-of-age story about a young activist concerned about the rising tide of right-wing nationalism in present-day Germany and has deep personal significance for the director and screenwriter.

“I waited 20 years to make this movie. I always knew this would be, for me, my most important film. So it was a relief to finally be able to make it,” she told Variety in an interview about the project last month.

The filmmaker and her husband (the film’s co-author) John Quester met each other while in an Antifa group in the 1990s, when they were the same age as the film’s protagonists. The film was originally set in that time period, before the duo...

Optimistic New Yorker Frances’ journey of self-discovery begins, like so many others, with a single step. Or more of a stomp, really, a proper rib-crushing stomp straight to her soul delivered by a trio of art critics before an audience of her peers. Then, before a summer of love in The Hamptons can soothe her scarred psyche, her boyfriend dumps her too. Leaving her to ride the Jitney home alone, hair still soaked with the water from his decadent pool.

Neither her single bunk in the cramped apartment her family shares nor the fragment of studio space her dad allots her leave Frances (Jenny Slate) room to grieve. Her sister just got engaged, her parents’ marriage is falling apart and her dreams are crumbling. So she heads to Norway to work as an artist’s mentee, to sleep in a caravan at the edge of a fjord and paint a...

Films Boutique sells German-French co-production.

Julia von Heinz’s political drama And Tomorrow The Entire World has been selected by an independent jury of experts to represent Germany in the best international feature film category for the 93rd Oscars on April 25, 2021.

The German-French co-production between Seven Elephants, Kings & Queens Filmproduktion, and Haiku Films beat off competition from such films as the Berlinale competition entries Berlin Alexanderplatz and Undine, as well as Oskar Roehler’s Fassbinder biopic Enfant Terrible.

And Tomorrow The Entire World – which is being handled internationally by Films Boutique – received its world premiere in competition at this year’s Venice Film Festival,...

Sometimes the music can make or break the movie, and Jenny Slate-starring comedy-drama The Sunlit Night certainly has great music behind it. Directed by David Wnendt and scored by Enis Rotthoff, The Sunlit Night premiered at the Sundance Film Festival last year and finally received a VOD release last month. Now Scoring Records is set to release The Sunlit Night soundtrack this […]

The post Get an Exclusive Behind-the-Scenes Look at the Making of ‘The Sunlit Night’ Score appeared first on /Film.

Julia von Heinz’s feature is the first made under her new Seven Elephants banner.

Berlin-based Films Boutique has taken world sales rights to Julia von Heinz’s hard-hitting “girl power” political drama And Tomorrow The Entire World, which will premiere in competition in Venice.

This is the first feature from German filmmaker von Heinz to be made through her new Berlin-based production company Seven Elephants, which she co-founded recently with fellow directors David Wnendt (Look Who’s Back) and Erik Schmitt (Cleo) and producer Fabian Gasmia (Personal Shopper).

Von Heinz co-wrote the script with John Quester. The Germany/France co-production’s cast includes Mala Emde,...

From director David Wnendt and screenwriter Rebecca Dinerstein Knight, the indie drama The Sunlit Night follows aspiring painter Frances (Jenny Slate), who finds herself leaving New York City to spend some time in Arctic Norway, for an assignment that she hopes will inspire her. Working for an unforgiving mentor who’s also a master painter (Fridtjov Såheim) turns out to be an unexpected experience, but it reinvigorates Frances, as she sets out on her own path forward. During this 1-on-1 phone interview with Collider, Slate (who also produced this film) speaks about this story of a woman …...

Norway Out: Wnendt Paints a Blank Slate in Slight Romantic Drama

Expectations seemed reasonably high for The Sunlit Night, the English language debut from provocative German director David Wnendt pairing him with the carefree Jenny Slate, a comic virtuoso who works best when digging out the melancholic marrow of life’s funny bone. But perhaps it was a project cursed by a fish out-of-water trifecta, its director and star both strangers in a strange land, whilst scribe Rebecca Knight Dinerstein makes her screenwriting debut adapting from her original source novel.

Whatever the case, the unassuming narrative relies on familiar tropes of an artist finding their voice amidst quaint and quirky scenarios with Slate relying upon the familiar aspect of the socially awkward persona who succeeds because of and not despite her authenticity.…...

Quirky dramedies can be an absolute delight. Especially when the actor or actress in the lead role can react properly to the quirk on display, the possibilities for quality cinema are strong. Independent cinema is littered with examples of this. Unfortunately, the indie film world is also filled with efforts that just don’t work, allowing the quirk to overtake the actual story on display. Opening today, The Sunlit Night is sadly closer to that sort of a production than one that fully works. A solid performance in the central role from Jenny Slate does paper over some of the issues, but the final result is just too uneven to actually recommend. The movie is a dramedy that eventually develops into a romance. Frances (Slate) is an aspiring painter struggling to make it in New York City. Her parents (both working artists) and sister live in a small apartment in Queens,...

The Sunlit Night is an arthouse romance oversaturated with eccentricity. Jenny Slate stars as a struggling Brooklyn art student who takes an apprenticeship in remote Norway. The quirky characters, settings, and stylized asides look fanciful but don't amount to much. A paper-thin attempt at depth detracts from the fleeting humor. The Sunlit Night is a superficial journey of discovery.

Frances (Jenny Slate) watches as her professors savage her artwork as uninspired. She trudges home to a cramped one bedroom Brooklyn apartment; shared with her bickering parents and sister. It doesn't help that her parents are successful painters. Or that her sister is in law school and engaged. Frances is desperate to escape her cluttered life. She eagerly accepts a residency with a Norwegian artist (Fridjov S&#225heim) in the country's distant Lofoten Islands.

Frances' surly host has one job for his new apprentice. She has to paint the inside of a barn yellow.

The usual rom-com formula is as follows: the lead breaks-up with their significant other, escapes to a far-flung place to pick up the pieces, and finds true love waiting. We’ve seen it countless times and always sigh when the fateful yet unlikely happily-ever-after proves itself to be another co-dependent Hollywood victory where romance trumps independence. So it’s hard to look past a film daring to travel beneath such fairy tale surfaces and get at the heart of what those types of escapes truly provide. They’re about new beginnings, introspection, and self-reflection. They’re about having the time and space to be ourselves without the weight of expectations thrown atop our shoulders by friends, family, and bosses. The love that’s waiting for us thousands of miles away is our own.

We are the ones who make ourselves happy. Another’s ability to coax a smile out of...

After breaking out with his debut Wetlands, director David Wnendt returned to Sundance Film Festival with his English-language debut The Sunlit Night, starring Jenny Slate, Zach Galifianakis, Alex Sharp, and Gillian Anderson. The film follows Slate’s character as a woman who has reached a dead end in her life in America and ventures to a Norwegian island for an art residency that becomes much more strange than expected.

Following its premiere last year at Sundance, the adaptation of Rebecca Dinerstein’s novel is now set for a release next month, and the first trailer and poster have landed. Unfortunately, reviews for this one weren’t too positive across the board, but for Jenny Slate fans, it’s nice to see her in another leading role after Obvious Child.

See the trailer and poster below.

The Sunlit Night follows an aspiring painter (Slate) from New York City to the farthest...

The trailer and poster for a new drama called The Sunlit Night which stars Jenny Slate and will be releasing on VOD on July 17th from Quiver Distribution. Also starring Zach Galifianakis and Gillian Anderson, check out the preview below.

The Sunlit Night follows an aspiring painter (Slate) from New York City to the farthest reaches of Arctic Norway for an assignment she hopes will invigorate her work and expand her horizons. In a remote village, among the locals, she meets a fellow New Yorker (Sharp), who has come in search of a proper Viking funeral only to find that the Chief (Galifianakis) is but a re-enactor from Cincinnati. The eclectic crew ranges from “home” to “lost,” within the extreme and dazzling landscape of the Far North. Under a sun that never quite sets, and the high standards of an unforgiving mentor, Frances must navigate between ambition, desire, obligation, and...

With readers turning to their home viewing options more than ever, this daily feature provides one new movie each day worth checking out on a major streaming platform.

Even before virtually all humankind became wary of physical contact, “Wetlands” flaunted its grotesque sexual provocations with rebellious glee. Now, this icky and poignant tale of anal fissures and semen-coasted pizza — all positioned within the perspective of a young German woman taking control of her troubled world — has become the ultimate fantasy of the social distancing age.

More from IndieWireStream of the Day: Watch the Original 'Candyman' Before Its New 'Spiritual Sequel' Comes OutStream of the Day: 'The Descent' Is a Feminist Horror Movie Not Afraid to Give Us Imperfect Women

The 2013 adaptation of Charlotte Roche’s controversial 2008 novel stars Carla Juri in a mesmerizing, confrontational performance propelled by one of the most sexually liberated female characters in history of cinema.

Zach Galifianakis will turn his interview series Between Two Ferns into a movie premiering September 20th on Netflix. The Between Two Ferns movie will feature a fittingly meta and ridiculous plot. The idea is that Will Ferrell discovered Galifianakis’ public access TV show, Between Two Ferns, uploaded it to Funny Or Die and turned the host into a laughing stock. In order to rehab his reputation, Galifianakis decides to take Between Two Ferns on the road to conduct a series of high-profile celebrity interviews.

Though Galifianakis and Netflix did not...

By the time things in Frances’ life have really gone topside — her boyfriend has dumped her, her little sister is marrying a guy her family hates, her parents are separating, she has nowhere to live, and that’s without even mentioning the leeches — the would-be painter is literally begging for scraps.

“Give me the thing that nobody wants!,” she implores an unimpressed New York City curator who previously tried to offer Frances another painting residency that nobody wanted, a desperate plea that lands Frances at the top of the world (a nightless Lapland in high summer). There, stuck with a gruff boss and a mostly boring apprenticeship — painting a decrepit barn sunshine yellow — Frances tries to find herself.

She’s not alone, as David Wnendt’s “The Sunlit Night,” while clearly centered on Frances’ journey, has teed up another lost soul to join her in the beautiful, alienating Norwegian environment.

In “The Sunlit Night,” Rebecca Dinerstein shows that she can write funny breakups, awkward Jewish family gatherings, and sweet-and-sour wedding speeches. One doubts she had to go all the way to the Norwegian Arctic to develop that skill, but at least her pilgrimage paid off in the form of the kind of personal writing sample — a twee running-from-romance-only-to-find-it comedy set at that far Northern remove — that, while unlikely ever to be produced, might easily score her work on the staff of a sitcom.

Except her screenplay (first published as a novel) did get produced, and now exists as the kind of movie that Sundance audiences love (the opening-night crowd laughed in all the right places) but hardly anyone goes to see in general release. Stranger still, it has been directed by German director David Wnendt — whose last film, “Wetlands,” was an outrageous celebration of the many things that can be...

Teutonic promotional organization German Films has announced that its annual initiative supporting German filmmaking internationally, Face to Face With German Films, will focus on actors and actresses as the campaign enters its fourth year.

Six of Germany’s leading thesps – Maria Dragus, Christian Friedel, Luise Heyer, Jonas Nay, Jördis Triebel and Fahri Yardim – will represent the German film and television industry’s recent accomplishments through activities at next month’s Berlin Film Festival, including a panel event in association with Variety and Drama Series Days, the European Film Market program focusing on serialized content.

The initiative launched in 2016 with six German actresses headlining the campaign – including “Toni Erdmann’s” Sandra Hüller, and Paula Beer of “Frantz” and the Golden Globe and Oscar-nominated “Never Look Away.” In 2017, the second phase of the initiative launched during Cannes and featured six of Germany’s most exciting actors, including established names such as Alexander Fehling and Tom Schilling,...

Comprising a considerable amount of our top 50 films of last year, Sundance Film Festival has proven to yield the first genuine look at what the year in cinema will bring. Now in its 41st iteration, we’ll be heading back to Park City this week, but before we do, it’s time to highlight the films we’re most looking forward to, including documentaries and narrative features from all around the world.

While much of the joy found in the festival comes from surprises throughout the event, below one will find our 20 most-anticipated titles. Check out our picks below and for updates straight from the festival, make sure to follow us on Twitter, and stay tuned to all of our coverage here.

20. Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile (Joe Berlinger)

From Brother’s Keeper to his Paradise Lost films to Metallica: Some Kind of Monster, documentary extraordinaire Joe Berlinger is...

The Sunlit Night

German filmmaker David Wnendt goes international with his sixth film, a German-Norwegian-American co-production which will also serve as his English language debut. The Sunlit Night is produced by Jenny Slate, Fabian Gasmia (Hamburg’s Detailfilm), Ruben Thorkildsen (Norway’s Ape&Bjorn) and American producers Michael B. Clark, Alex Turtletaub, the international cast includes Slate, Alex Sharp, Gillian Anderson, Jessica Hecht, and Zach Galifinakis. Wnendt’s breakout feature was his fourth film, the outré Wetlands (read review), which competed in Locarno 2013 and also went on to compete in the World Dramatic lineup at Sundance in 2014.

Gist: Based on Rebecca Dinerstein’s debut novel (who also wrote the screenplay), New York based artist Frances meets the mourning Yasha in Northern Norway, where she has absconded to jumpstart her career as a painter while he’s there to bury his father.…...

Last year’s Premieres section gave us offerings such as the Zellner Bros.’ Damsel, Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace and Elizabeth Chomko’s What They Had. Usually the section with higher profile items up for grabs, we have the modified title trio of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s The Mustang, Scott Z. Burns’ debut The Report and Jacob Estes’ Relive, plus highly anticipated items from Joe Berlinger’s Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, David Wnendt’s The Sunlit Night and Dan Gilroy’s Velvet Buzzsaw. Here are all the premiere section titles.

After The Wedding / U.S.A. (Director and screenwriter: Bart Freundlich, Producers: Joel B.…...

David Wnendt broke out big (so did his star Carla Juri) with his four feature film 2013’s Wetlands (read review). With a Us and Norwegian backdrop and players Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Zach Galifianakis, Gillian Anderson and Jessica Hecht, The Sunlit Night sounds like on paper like a solid Park City offering. Filming began way back in April in NYC, with the production moving to Norway for a summer into early fall shoot.

Gist: An adaptation of Rebecca Dinerstein’s novel, this follows an American painter Frances and émigré Yasha — an unlikely pair who find each other in the Arctic circle.…...

The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.

The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.

Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day event will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.

The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.

Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...

The 46 projects include 25 feature and documentary works.

The Venice Gap-Financing Market has selected the projects for its 5th edition, to be held from August 31-September 2 during the Venice film festival.

Organised as part of the Venice Production Bridge, the three-day even will present 46 projects from around the world in the final stages of development and funding.

The titles include 25 feature fiction and documentary projects; 15 virtual reality works; and six projects developed during the workshop of Biennale College Cinema.

Fiction projects include Kiyoshi Kurosawa’s To The Ends Of The Earth (working title), which shot in Uzbekistan in April and May,...

Marc Turtletaub discusses Big Beach upcoming slate at Edinburgh Film Festival.

Rising Us actor and rapper Awkwafina, now on global screens in Ocean’s 8, is set to star in Lulu Wang’s as-yet-untitled feature set in China for Us production outfit Big Beach Films.

The film is based on the experiences of a Chinese-American woman and her Chinese grandmother and will shoot in Los Angeles and in China. Tzi Ma and Diana Lin are also in the cast.

The feature is being produced by Marc Turtletaub, Peter Saraf and Dani Melia of New York outfit Big Beach, Chris Weitz and...

German director David Wnendt, best known for his films “Look Who’s Back” and “Wetlands,” has lined up a pretty great cast for his next film.

Screen Daily is reporting that Jenny Slate, Alex Sharp, Zach Galifianakis, and Gillian Anderson have signed on to star in the film “The Sunlit Night.” The film follows an American painter, played by Slate, who meets Yasha, played by Sharp, in the Arctic Circle.