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Filmmaker presents the exclusive trailer premiere of German filmmaker Natalia Sinelnikova’s directorial debut We Might As Well Be Dead. The film was the opening night title at the 2022 Berlinale in the festival’s German Perspective category and winner of Best Cinematography at last year’s Tribeca Festival. Hope Runs High will release We Might As Well Be Dead in New York City this month before expanding to more U.S. and Canadian cities over the summer. Originally, We Might As Well Be Dead was conceived by Sinelnikova as a thesis film to win comparisons to Yorgos Lanthimos‘s The Lobster. The film’s official synopsis […]

The post Exclusive Trailer: Natalia Sinelnikova’s We Might As Well Be Dead first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Filmmaker presents the exclusive trailer premiere of German filmmaker Natalia Sinelnikova’s directorial debut We Might As Well Be Dead. The film was the opening night title at the 2022 Berlinale in the festival’s German Perspective category and winner of Best Cinematography at last year’s Tribeca Festival. Hope Runs High will release We Might As Well Be Dead in New York City this month before expanding to more U.S. and Canadian cities over the summer. Originally, We Might As Well Be Dead was conceived by Sinelnikova as a thesis film to win comparisons to Yorgos Lanthimos‘s The Lobster. The film’s official synopsis […]

The post Exclusive Trailer: Natalia Sinelnikova’s We Might As Well Be Dead first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.

Berlin-based sales agent

Berlin-based Salzgeber is to handle international sales for actor Fabian Stumm’s feature directorial debut Bones And Names, which premieres in the Berlinale’s Perspektive Deutsches Kino section.

A sensitive and humorous reflection on relationships, the film has been nominated for the Teddy Award, Compass-Perspektibe Award and Heiner Carow Prize.

Stumm, whose acting credits include Cate Shortland’s Lore and Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom, directed the short Bruxelles in 2020 and the award-winning medium-length film Daniel a year later before developing Bones and Names as his feature debut.

“Everything happened in a very short period: I wrote...

This is van Vugt’s feature fiction debut after several award-winning documentaries.

Amsterdam-based sales outfit Fortissimo Films has snapped up international sales rights to Dutch director Jacqueline van Vugt’s Dutch feature Crossing, now in post-production.

This is van Vugt’s feature fiction debut after several award-winning documentaries, among them Borders (2014) and Up To G-cup (2022). It will be introduced to buyers at the European Film Market (EFM).

Crossing is an ensemble drama set in real time on a ferry crossing from Morocco to Spain as.a couple and their two sons travel home from their holiday, the ferry captain smuggles...

Aspect Ratio and Hope Runs High have struck a deal to give North American theatrical and non-theatrical releases to dystopian German film “We Might as Well Be Dead,” from first-time filmmaker Natalia Sinelnikova.

The 2023 theatrical distribution of the film in the U.S. and Canada will be a partnership between the two companies and be followed by a digital release later in the year. Jordan Mattos of Aspect Ratio will oversee the non-theatrical distribution. The rights deal was struck with the film’s Amsterdam- and Beijing-based sales agent Fortissimo Films.

The film, which focuses on the residents of an apartment block situated on the edge of a forest and the inhabitants’ increasingly paranoid behavior, had its world premiere in February this year in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlin film festival. “At the film’s center is the power of fear – a self-replicating system that can shatter social cohesion,...

Also in contention is Berlin title Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush from Andreas Dresen.

Berlinale titles Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush from Andreas Dresen and We Might As Well Be Dead from Natalia Sinelnikova are among the nine titles in the running for Germany’s submission for the 95th Academy Awards.

Dresen’s comedy-drama screened in competition at this year’s Berlinale where it picked up a Silver Bear for best screenplay and Meltem Kaptan’s lead performance. The Match Factory handles international sales.

Sinelnikova’s social satire We Might As Well Be Dead opened Berlinale sidebar Perspective...

Coming-of-age drama Good Girl Jane, written and directed by Sarah Elizabeth Mintz, took the Tribeca Festival Founders’ Award for Best U.S. Narrative Feature on Thursday while its star Rain Spencer won for Best Performance at the fest, which announced its winners ahead of wrapping this weekend.

The film follows lonely teenager Jane, bullied out of private school and at odds with her divorced parents, who spirals out of control after falling in with a hard-partying crowd and becoming smitten with a dangerously charismatic bad boy, played by Patrick Gibson. Andie MacDowell is Jane’s beleaguered mom. It’s produced by Fred Bernstein, Dominique Telson, Lauren Pratt, Mintz and Simone Williams.

January (Janvaris) by Viesturs Kairiss, from Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, about an aspiring filmmaker searching for identity against the backdrop of Latvian independence, was named Best International Narrative Feature.

Best Documentary Feature and Editing awards went Laura Checkoway’s The Cave of Adullam.

We Might As Well Be Dead Review — We Might As Well Be Dead (2022) Film Review from the 21st Annual Tribeca Film Festival, a movie directed by Natalia Sinelnikova, written by Viktor Gallandi and Natalia Sinelnikova, and starring Ioana Iacob, Pola Geiger, Jörg Schüttauf, Siir Iloglu, Susanne Wuest, Knut Berger, Moritz [...]

Continue reading: Film Review: We Might As Well Be Dead: Comment on Tribalism Shows More Than It Tells [Tribeca 2022]...

Natalia Sinelnikova, a rising writer-director who emigrated from St. Petersburg to Germany as a child, is exploring the disrupting force of fear through her critically acclaimed feature debut “We Might as Well Be Dead.”

The film, which world premiered at the Berlinale and is having its North American premiere at Tribeca, is both a dystopian and tragicomic satire taking place in a high-rise, secluded building which harbors a carefully-curated community in a world that has fallen apart. The movie follows Anna, who works as a security officer for the building and lives there with her daughter. When a dog disappears, the picture-perfect world of the community derails and turns into chaos, leading to irrational fears, mistrust and cruelty. The movie is represented in international market by Fortissimo Films.

Sinelnikova spoke to Variety about what drove her to write “We Might as Well Be Dead” and the underlying themes of this timely allegory.

The satire opens Perspective Deutsches Kino.

Amsterdam-based sales outfit Fortissimo Films has acquired international rights to We Might As Well Be Dead, a social satire and debut feature from St Petersburg-born and Germany-raised director Natalia Sinelnikova.

The title will world premiere at next month’s Berlinale, opening Perspective Deutsches Kino – the sidebar dedicated to German films. Sales will be launched at the European Film Market.

The film is set in a high-rise building at the edge of a forest, where the inhabitants have been carefully selected to form a safe and secure utopia. When a dog disappears, the utopia is disrupted.

Swedish director Katarina Launing’s ‘You Can Dance’ named the winner of Screen International ’s best pitch award.

The 2021 Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival has named the winners of its Industry@Tallinn & Baltic Event awards.

The industry showcase took place as a hybrid of in-person and virtual events, with the winners announced today (November 26) following a week of presentations and networking with around 700 delegates.

Swedish director Katarina Launing’s feature project You Can Dance was named the winner of Screen International’s best pitch award at the Baltic Event Co-Production Market, which guarantees coverage on Screen throughout the project’s lifecycle.