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The historical drama “Sisi: Austrian Empress” graces our screens once again with its third season, premiering Friday, January 17, 2025, on the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel. Picking up the threads of Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s story, this season finds Sisi (Dominique Devenport) and Franz (Jannik Schümann) confronting fresh threats to their reign and their […]

“Sisi: Austrian Empress” Returns to PBS Masterpiece for a Third Season...

Quick Links Susanne Wolff and Sandra Hller Give One of a Kind Performances A Complicated and Curious Friendship Sisi & I Is Unashamedly Punk Redefining a European Icon

Empress Elisabeth of Austria (commonly known as Sisi) is one of the most popular figures in European historical dramas. The Empress has been the focus of 10 feature films to date (with the first made as early as 1922), countless TV shows, books, plays, poems, ballets, and even architecture. Yet, director Frauke Finsterwalder completely reinvents her, transforming the commonly perceived shut-in into a whirlwind force of freedom and empowerment. Telling the complicated story of the friendship between Sisi (Susanne Wolff) and Irma (Sandra Hller), Sisi & I is a thought-provoking, rebellious, and exciting adventure, exploring the later years of Sisi's life.

Told through the lens of Irma as she applies for a job as Sisi's Lady in Waiting, Sisi & I explores the complicated friendship between the pair.

Tim Roth and Trine Dyrholm hit the festival circuit this month with Désirée Nosbusch’s emotionally raw drama Poison, in which they co-star as an ex-couple who meet up years after the death of their young son which drove them apart.

The feature, which world premieres at Germany’s Munich Film Festival on July 5 and then heads to Ireland’s Galway Film Festival, is adapted from Dutch writer Lot Vekemans’ award-winning 2010 play.

It unfolds against the backdrop of the cemetery where the son is buried, with the reunion sparked by a letter notifying the ex-partners that their son’s grave is being moved due to building work.

When Roth and Dyrholm agreed to take on the roles, neither had an inkling of the personal events that would lend an extra emotional layer to the shoot.

Having signed for the film, Roth learned of son Cormac Roth’s diagnosis with stage...

The Empress kicked off its story with a marriage based on love, unlike many historical dramas, focusing on intrigue and romance. Fans of The Empress will enjoy Sisi, Vanity Fair, and Reign, which offer similar tales of scandal, romance, and powerful female leads. Cable Girls, Downton Abbey, and Call the Midwife are modern period dramas with strong female characters fighting for their rights and independence.

Historical dramas remain one of the most popular genres of television and shows like The Empress prove there are still more stories to tell from European history. Based on the life of the real Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837-1898), Devrim Lingnau plays 16-year-old Elisabeth as she falls in love with and marries her sister's intended fianc, Emperor Franz Joseph. Released in 2022, the show was one of the most popular non-English Netflix series of the year and the streaming service immediately ordered a second season and...

Leading European distributor Global Screen, part of Telepool, has secured further international sales of high-end drama “Davos 1917” at MipTV. New acquisitions of the six-part thriller include Sbs Australia, Tvp in Poland and Big Tree Entertainment in India and the subcontinent.

“Davos 1917,” which launched at the end of last year on Srf in Switzerland and Ard in Germany, has already been bought by a strong lineup of premium international broadcasters and streamers across North America, Europe and Asia.

Inspired by real events that occurred in the early days of the European secret services, “Davos 1917” boasts a stellar cast headed by Dominique Devenport (“Sisi”), David Kross (“The Reader”), Jeanette Hain (“Never Look Away”), Max Herbrechter (“Rauhnächte”), Sunnyi Melles (“Triangle of Sadness”) and Stipe Erceg (“Vienna Blood”).

The show is set in 1917 as World War I is ravaging Europe. By contrast, Switzerland seems like an oasis of peace. But behind the scenes of neutral Switzerland,...

Exclusive: Beta Film has has sold a slew of dramas to Australia’s Sbs including big-budget TIFF entry Estonia as part of the pair’s multi-year license deal.

Several of the German-headquartered major’s dramas will head to the Sbs On Demand platform as the multi-year deal enters its second year.

Included in the partnership is Estonia, one of Scandinavia’s most expensive TV series of all time that launched at TIFF. Speaking to Deadline recently, the creatives behind the show opened up about the ethical issues surrounding a series spotlighting a tragedy that claimed the lives of 850 people.

Sbs has also picked up the third season of Rtl’s Sisi, which stars Dominique Devenport as the Bavarian tomboy turned Empress, along with crime thriller Pagan Peak. Sbs also relicensed the first seasons each of these dramas.

Sbs has also bought Alpine thriller Snow, YA drama Saving the Fucking Planet and I Am Scrooge.

German actress Sandra Hüller has a remarkable feat on her resume this year. She starred in not only one best picture Oscar-nominated film, but two: Justine Triet’s Anatomy of a Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest both garnered the coveted nomination.

Notably, this is also the first time in which two international foreign-language movies have been nominated in the best picture category in the same year. And Hüller also nabbed a best actress nomination for her performance in Anatomy of a Fall.

Hüller did not have much time off between shooting The Zone of Interest and Anatomy of a Fall. In fact, she shot another film in the midst of both.

“The Zone of Interest came first,” she explained on the morning of the Oscar nominations. “It was planned for 2020 and then the Covid crisis came and we started shooting in summer of 2021. I was on set for a whole month.

Two heavyweights of German television and film are uniting.

Nico Hofmann and Jan Mojto are teaming with Jan Wünschmann, a producer at Mojto’s company Beta, to create films and TV series in Germany and Europe. Projects will be targeted at the international market.

Hofmann, was the longtime boss of German production giant UFA, and Mojto said they are “connected by half a lifetime of producing” title such as TV event series The Tunnel in the early 2000s and newer series such as Generation War, Dresden, The Tower and The Same Sky.

“Jan Mojto and I have been close colleagues and friends for more than 20 years – our eye for programming, uncompromising quality, and passion for our profession unites us,” said Hofmann. “It is the next logical step in my career to join forces and produce together with Beta Film. The individuals and their creativity are the building blocks for a long-lasting bond.

Iconic German film and TV executive Jan Mojto is launching a partnership with longstanding friend and UFA head Nico Hofmann that will produce German and European series and films for the international market.

They are joined in the unnamed venture by Beta producer Jan Wünschmann.

The partnership was announced Wednesday, on the eve of the annual Berlin Film Festival. No projects were disclosed.

Hofmann and Mojto are connected by half a lifetime of producing. With “The Tunnel”, the duo pioneered the TV event genre in Germany in the early 2000s. Since then, two dozen collaborative and internationally successful television and film productions have followed. These include hits “Generation War,” “Dresden,” “The Tower” and “The Same Sky.”

“This partnership is the fulfillment of a long-held wish. Nico Hofmann is one of the best German producers; He is a gifted storyteller. His professional and personal qualities, which I have known for more than 25 years,...

Veteran German film and TV executive Dirk Schweitzer has left his position as CEO of producer/distributor Splendid Medien and has taken over as CEO of Mmc Group, the parent company of Cologne’s Mmc Studios.

Björn Siecken, former CFO at Splendid, will join Schweitzer as CFO of Mmc. Nico Roden will stay on as managing director of Mmc Studios, who run the Cologne backlot, and Bastie Griese will remain managing director of production division Mmc Movies, working together with Schweitzer to expand the company’s film and TV operations nationally and internationally.

Former Splendid boss Andreas Klein, son of company founder Albert E. Klein, has returned to run the company as CEO. Schweitzer took over operations at Splendid from Klein in 2020, with Klein continuing as an advisor to the company. Schweizer joined Splendid in 2013 from producer/distributor Tele-München Group, where he was managing director. Before that, he spent 10 years...

This story about Sandra Hüller first appeared in the Race Begins issue of TheWrap magazine.

Justine Triet has a word for Sandra Hüller, her star in the dark family drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” which won the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival: ungraspable.

“It is a word in English that I didn’t know before yesterday,” she said in early October. “And now I want to use it all the time, for Sandra.”

The word certainly applies to Hüller’s character in “Anatomy of a Fall,” in which she plays a successful writer (also named Sandra) who is accused of murdering her husband. Triet never tips her hand to reveal whether Sandra is innocent or guilty, with Hüller finding a way to suggest both alternatives at the same time as the thorny film swings between a portrait of a fracturing relationship and a charged courtroom drama.

Bye-bye, Peak TV. After more than a decade of unprecedented production growth, the international television industry is bracing for an era of tighter budgets and more bean counting.

“Instead of subscriber growth at all costs, now the focus is on production and investment and getting the balance sheet right,” says Cathy Payne, CEO of Banijay Rights, the sales arm of the production giant behind reality TV hits Big Brother and high-end dramas Peaky Blinders and Black Mirror. “I hate using the phrase because everyone says it, but the focus now is on ‘fewer, better, bigger shows.’ ”

The variety of shows on offer at this year’s global TV market in Cannes, MIPCOM, suggests every buyer, at every budget, should find something to fill their slots. And while THR’s annual hot list of the market’s best new drama series ranges from a by-the-book NBC procedural to an erotic comedy...

Germany’s Story House Pictures, also behind “Sisi” and “Dignity,” has boarded upcoming series “Hildur,” joining forces with Finland’s Take Two and Iceland’s Sagafilm.

The international studio of the Bavaria Film Group, Story House Pictures will co-produce and has acquired rights to Germany and world distributor rights, but Take Two will be the company taking the creative lead, Story House co-founder Andreas Gutzeit told Variety.

Presented at Spain’s Conecta Fiction and based on the bestselling novel by Satu Rämö and set in Iceland, “Hildur” is developed by Matti Laine, also behind “The Paradise.”

“We loved the pitch, loved the story and we saw a possibility in it,” said Story House Pictures’ Andreas Gutzeit.

“We are into brands and into franchises. When we saw that the book has already sold to 10 different territories, we quickly realized this could be a mainstream hit.”

In the story, a surfing detective...

Cannes — Germany’s Story House Pictures, producer of the Beta Film/Rtl mega-hit “Sisi,” sold to 120 territories, has optioned what looks like one of the biggest and most ambitious projects coming onto the market at this year’s Mipcom: “The Book of Longing,” a six-part English-language series with an international cast based on the international bestseller of the same name by Sue Monk Kidd.

The novel has been translated in 17 languages and will be the third adaption of one of Kidd’s bestselling works. Her 2001-novel “The Secret Life of Bees” sold 8 million copies and was turned into a major award-winning motion picture starring Queen Latifah, Dakota Fanning, and Jennifer Hudson.

Andreas Gutzeit, co-founder of Story House Pictures, the international studio of the Bavaria Film Group,’ and producer and showrunner on “Sisi,” will serve as showrunner leading an international writers room.

Now in development, “The Book of Longings” is set in 20 A.

World War I spy drama “Davos 1917” was inspired by real stories, says head writer and creative producer Adrian Illien. As well as real women.

“There were all these Swiss nurses who would go abroad during the war. When you read their diaries, there is a sense of adventure. They could finally get away. I don’t think these female characters have been portrayed before. Until now.”

In the six-part show, unmarried nurse Johanna Gabathuler (“Sisi” star Dominique Devenport) gives birth to her daughter. When the child is taken away, Johanna finds herself stuck in the resort town of Davos. But soon, the German secret service comes knocking.

“Women actually held prominent positions there. With my co-writers [Julia Penner, Thomas Hess and Michael Sauter] we stumbled across one who was a handler of Mata Hari. We always talk about Mata Hari, but I found the spy behind her much more interesting,...

Fabula’s “Superman’s Bodyguards,” “Sisi” head writer Andreas Gutzeit’s thriller “Disgrace” and “Hildur,” from Finland’s Matti Laine, who scored with “The Paradise,” all feature at this year’s still vastly expanded Conecta Fiction & Entertainment, the Europe-Latin America TV and networking forum, now in its seventh edition.

They will be presented to an audience of producers and distributors at the industry centerpiece at Conecta Fiction.

Set up at Juan de Dios and Pablo Larraín’s Fábula, producer of Oscar winning A fantastic Woman” and “Spencer,” “Superman’s Bodyguards” tells the true story of Christopher Reeve’s perilous mission to Chile to attempt to save the lives of 78 Chilean actors under death threat from an extreme right faction in a Chile still ruled by Augusto Pinochet.

A fast-paced thriller, “Disgrace” is from Story House Pictures’ Andreas Gutzeit, head writer on the banner Beta/Rtl Canneseries 2021 smash hit “Sisi,” sold to over 120 countries,...

Lille, France — Germany’s Beta Group is a company for our challenged times, Moritz von Kruedener, Beta Group managing director told an audience at Series Mania’s Lille Dialogues on Thursday.

He also broke down Beta’s business model which takes elements which hark back to the past – a powerful, ultra connected territory-by-territory international sales apparatus – combined with Beta’s biggest pivot in recent years: a move from picking up and selling finished shows into far larger production involvement, be its financial support or early upstream input on maximising a project’s international potential.

Beta Group and Series Mania have also scored heavily at this year’s festival with the first edition of Seriesmakers, a mentoring program for filmmakers making their TV creator debut.

“Distribution DNA, combined with our creative input, is what production companies look to Beta for,” von Kreudener said.

The Beta Group, as a sizzle model shown at Series Mania underscored,...

Series Mania has always been about discovery: Of drama series as an art form, in its early days from launch in 2009; then of key players on a burgeoning international premium TV scene.

Series Mania’s International Panorama now catches a new wave of creatives transitioning from film to scripted TV – Israel’s Yaron Shani with “Innermost,” Spain’s Isaki Lacuesta and Isa Campo with episodes of “Apagón”; and highlights notable emerging auteurs: Denmark’s Kasper Møller Rask, Canada’s Alexis Durand-Brault, Spain’s Fran Araujo, Pakistan’s Assim Abassi and Germany’s Jakob and Jonas Weydemann.

But for having already bowed at national festivals, some of the 12 titles below could well have been in the running for a Competition berth.

Below, the Series Mania’s rich 2023 International Panorama:

“Apagón,” (“Offworld,” Spain)

One of Variety’s Best International TV Shows of 2022, a realistic, sophisticated disaster thriller from Movistar+ and Buendía Estudios...

Ulrich Seidl on Rimini: “I had images in my head of fog, of empty beaches, closed bars and restaurants, and hotels. All of this wrapped in a beautiful wintry sentimentality and loneliness.”

About a day as beautiful as today that should never fade away sings a row of inhabitants in an Austrian nursing home, holding on to their walkers for dear life. So begins Ulrich Seidl’s heartbreaking Rimini (72nd Berlin International Film Festival), co-written with Veronika Franz (The Lodge and Goodnight Mommy with Severin Fiala), shot by Wolfgang Thaler (Maria Schrader’s Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe), with costumes by Tanja Hausner. Rimini is as close to a musical as the director will probably ever get, conjuring up an eternal return of suffering, memories, and curated forgetting.

Ulrich Seidl with Anne-Katrin Titze on costume designer Tanja Hausner: “We first look into the closets of the performer.”

Seidl exposes in...

Political assassinations, war, espionage, royal scandals, teen angst and magic: new German series are setting the bar ever higher in terms of challenging and risky subject matter.

The Berlinale Series Market’s Up Next: Germany showcase on Monday presented four forthcoming series projects that look set to entice international buyers:

Sperl Film’s political drama “Herrhausen – Lord of the Money,” about Deutsche Bank Chairman Alfred Herrhausen, whose mysterious assassination remains one of Germany’s most infamous unsolved murders; Studio Zentral’s “Feelings,” a coming-of-age mystery tale that boasts an innovative multi-platform distribution strategy; Contrast Film and Letterbox Filmproduktion’s German-Swiss co-production “Davos,” a spy-thriller set in the Alpine resort town during the World War I; and Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion’s “Juan Carlos,” an investigative documentary about the disgraced former Spanish monarch.

Presenting “Herrhausen,” creator Christer von Lindequist and actor Oliver Masucci discussed the impact of the 1989 assassination, which continues to reverberate in Germany.

When a young Viesturs Kairiss started to dream about becoming a filmmaker thirty-some-odd years ago, he knew his path wouldn’t be straightforward or easy. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, aspiring Latvian directors would have to travel to Moscow or St. Petersburg to enroll in venerable Soviet film schools. After independence, Kairiss was among the first class of graduates from the newly launched film studies program at the Latvian Academy of Culture, one of many ways in which the small Baltic republic attempted to assert its own identity after half a century of Soviet rule.

“We didn’t have any technique,” Kairiss admits of he and his film school peers, laughing. For his first feature film, “Leaving by the Way” (2001), he enlisted friends for below-the-line work and recruited actors from the local theater school. When the film bowed in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival,...

When a rock festival held in Tallinn in the summer of 1988 was shut down by Soviet authorities, thousands of Estonians took to the streets, waving Estonian flags and singing patriotic songs in a bold show of defiance of Soviet rule. By the festival’s final night, some 200,000 people had joined what would later be dubbed the Singing Revolution, a catalyst for the non-violent movement that swept across Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the early-‘90s and paved the way for independence.

Even under Moscow’s thumb the Baltics demanded to be heard. For decades the three small nations have drawn on their historical, cultural and economic ties to create a sum that’s bigger than its parts, a collaborative spirit that’s also energized the countries’ growing screen industries, which will share the stage as joint Countries in Focus at this year’s European Film Market.

The showcase, which is...

The adventures of Sisi and Franz will continue.

German period drama series Sisi — a reimagining of the historic love story between 19th century Austrian Empress Elisabeth, nicknamed “Sisi,” and her husband, Emperor Franz — has received a third-season order from German network Rtl.

Swiss American actress Dominique Devenport will return as Sisi and Jannik Schümann as Franz for season 3, which Story House Pictures will produce, in collaboration with Beta Film.

Sisi was an out-of-the-gate hit for Rtl, which has success both streaming the show on its Rtl+ platform and broadcasting it on its flagship linear channel in Germany. Beta has sold the series to more than 100 territories worldwide, including to Mediaset in Italy, TF1 in France and Globoplay in Brazil.

In the Rtl series, Empress Elisabeth is depicted as a tomboy who falls, as a princess in Bavaria, head-over-heels in love with the the handsome and powerful Franz, Emperor of Austria.

The German sales company’s slate also includes titles by Margarethe von Trotta, Emily Atef, Tatiana Huezo.

The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.

The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.

The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...

Sisi & I

Sisi became all the rage with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage but another “Sisi” film was also in the works. Topically we’d love to see how this one measures ups but also expounds on the later years of Empress Elisabeth of Austria from the point of view of her lady-in-waiting, Irma Sztáray. Sandra Hüller, who toplined Frauke Finsterwalder’s first feature-length film Finsterworld (2013) is onboard here as well. Susanne Wolff takes on the Empress role. Principal photography took place in September of 2021 in locations in Bavaria, Vienna, Malta and Switzerland. The German filmmaker first got her start in docu film – apparently this second swim in fiction film was filmed in Super 16 mm film.…...

Updated with latest grosses, more on Women Talking: New Yorkers braved the cold this weekend for Corsage at two theaters as Marie Kreutzer’s biopic of Empress Elisabeth of Austria starring Vicky Krieps grossed an estimated 32,500 over the three-day weekend for a robust 16,250k per screen average.

The four-day estimate for the IFC Films biopic of Empress Elisabeth of Austria – known as Sisi — is 37k, a PSA of 18.5k.

“We are so proud of the journey Corsage has been on as it continues to find support with critics and audiences alike as they respond to a bold tour-de-force performance from Vicky Krieps and impeccable direction by Marie Kreutzer,” said Arianna Bocco, President of IFC Films.

The movie “has been resonating on a global scale since its premiere at Cannes and has set the stage for a timely pop-cultural moment with the real-life story of...

When the 2020 Oscar for original screenplay went to South Korea’s “Parasite” scribes, some were surprised, but they should not have been; the Academy has long been open to foreign-language contenders in all categories. As early as 1947, when the writing categories were a bit different, the Italian screenwriters Sergio Amidei and Federico Fellini nabbed a nomination for “Open City,” as did French scribe Jacques Prévert for “Children of Paradise.”

While during the 1940s and 1950s, barely a handful of foreign-language films reached the nomination stage for writing awards, by the 1960s, every year saw at least one non-English-speaking nominee, and some years, a whopping three. 1962 marked the first Oscar win for international scribes, with Ennio de Concini, Alfredo Gianetti and Pietro Germi claiming it for “Divorce Italian Style.” And in 1966, French screenwriters Claude Lelouch and Pierre Uytterhoeven nabbed a statuette for “A Man and a Woman.”

Although foreign-language writers continued...

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In IFC Films’ Corsage, Vicky Krieps stars as Empress Elisabeth of Austria (known affectionately as Sisi) during a particular life crisis: middle age. After turning 40, the celebrated beauty finds herself fading — at least, she’s convinced as much. With her children grown and her relationship with Emperor Franz Joseph I threatened by her indifference to royal obligations, the disaffected royal becomes bored with her life, wanting nothing more than to hide away from the public that still watches her every move as if she were a 19th century influencer.

Marie Kreutzer

Writer-director Marie Kreutzer’s irreverent biopic mixes the stoicism of a classic costume drama with postmodern twists, incorporating anachronistic songs (a chamber version of the Rolling Stones’ “As Tears Go By” is heard on the soundtrack) and modern-day vulgar hand gestures. The film also plays fast and loose with historical accuracy; rather than a traditional biography,...

Director Marie Kreutzer talks about her latest film, which aims to portray a complex female character – whose story resonates with modern pressures on royal women under the glare of media scrutiny

Marie Kreutzer grew up in Vienna, where the 19th-century empress Elisabeth of Austria is a tourist-shop darling. She smiles from tea towels, chocolate boxes and all manner of tat. “Her face is on every other souvenir. She is not someone who is cool or interesting here,” the director shrugs over Zoom from her apartment in the city.

So, when the Phantom Thread actor Vicky Krieps suggested they make a biopic about Elisabeth, Kreutzer laughed it off. “I didn’t think she was serious.” The pair had worked together on 2016’s We Used to Be Cool.

The high-end drama has been showcased at pitching events from Berlin to Turin.

German sales outfit Global Screen has acquired international rights to historical high-end drama series Davos, starring Dominique Devenport and David Kross, now shooting in Switzerland and Germany.

Inspired by true events during the First World War, the espionage thriller centres on a young Swiss nurse working in a Swiss health resort where various spies are meeting to hatch a daring plan.

Devenport most recently starred as Elisabeth Empress of Austria, in Rtl+ ‘s series Sisi.

The series is a co-production between Switzerland’s Contrast Film and Germany’s Letterbox Filmproduktion,...

Exclusive: German TV dramas are continuing to sell internationally ahead of Mipcom Cannes.

Beta has shopped MipDrama’s Buyers’ Coup de Couer Award Award winner House of Promises and thriller The Wall to several buyers, as the Munich-based distributor prepares a line-up of 25 dramas for Mipcom later this month.

The 12-part House of Promises, a visually striking banner series for Rtl+ set in 1920s Berlin, has gone to pubcasters Svt in Sweden, Dr in Denmark, Nrk in Norway, Yle in Finland, Err in Estonia and Lrt in Lithuania. The Middle East’s Mbc has also taken it for streaming service Shahid.

The shows follows a dazzling early 20th century Berlin from the perspective of a young woman and a Jewish family, owner of the newly opened Jonass department store at Berlin’s Torstrasse 1, which in reality is now home to the German’s city’s Soho House. Naemi Feitisch stars...

Munich-based Beta Film, one of Europe’s biggest truly independent TV-film groups, has licensed to Ppcw Media for Hong Kong and Macau International Emmy winner “Atlantic Crossing,” starring Kyle MacLachan and Sofia Helin.

Ppc Media has also acquired Alejandro Amenábar’s Movistar Plus+ original “La Fortuna,” with Stanley Tucci and Clarke Peters, a tale of piracy, court room battles and historical justice set between the U.S. and Spain.

Reaching more remote places, Beta has also closed Mongolia with Hulegu Media, on “Sisi” a mix of sex, politics and period glam from Rtl, Beta and Story House, a modern mindset take on a film icon.

In further banner title deals when it comes to far-flung lands,“Hotel Portofino” – escribed as “a high-profile, classy affair” by The Times, the period drama, toplining Natascha McElhone as a hotel owner on a swish 1926 Italian Riviera – has now been sold by Beta to New Zealand and South Africa.

The second season of the German TV series “Sisi,” which follows the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (also known as Sisi), is currently shooting in Lithuania, Film New Europe reports.

The series is produced by Story House Pictures GmbH for Rtl+ and serviced by the Lithuanian company Uab Nordic Productions. The shoot is benefiting from Lithuanian Film Center’s tax incentives.

The six-part second season is directed by Sven Bohse (“Dark Woods”) and Miguel Alexandre (“Spy City”), and it is written by Elena Hell, Svenja Rasocha, Robert Krause and Andreas Gutzeit.

More than 100 Lithuanians are part of the international team, including production designer Algirdas Garbačiauskas and costume designer Daiva Petrulytė.

The main filming locations in Lithuania are Vilnius and its surroundings, as well as Trakai, Kernavė and Rokiškis. The series will also be filmed in Latvia, with Cinevilla Films providing services, and Poland.

“We have been shooting in Lithuania and Latvia for years now.

Vicky Krieps should be up for Best Actress at Cannes this year. But as usual, festival programmers have slotted one of the best films at Cannes, Marie Kreutzer’s irreverently feminist Austrian royal drama “Corsage,” in Un Certain Regard.

Krieps’ time will come. Ever since she broke out in 2017 opposite Daniel Day Lewis in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Phantom Thread,” the Luxembourg actress has been making up for lost time, shooting one role after another, with no regard for making smart career choices, she told me at Cannes. “My choice always comes from my heart, which is why it doesn’t seem like a career choice, ever.”

Mia Hansen-Love’s “Bergman Island,” starring Krieps and Tim Roth as a fractious married couple, made a small arthouse splash last year after debuting at Cannes, while Mathieu Amalric’s Cannes title “Hold Me Tight” is finally coming out in North America this fall.

The Empress is unimpressed. Introduced to us at the beginning of Marie Kreutzer’s sneaky and terrific Un Certain Regard premiere “Corsage,” submerged in a bathtub during one of her many self-imposed endurance training rituals, Duchess Elisabeth Amalie Eugenie in Bavaria, Empress of Austria and Queen of Hungary, is holding her breath underwater for as long as she can. When she surfaces, the two nervous palace maids tasked with timing her cannot agree on the count, but even if they could, she would doubtless be dissatisfied. It is Vienna in 1877, Elisabeth is turning 40 and dissatisfaction — with herself, her political role, and a public image as restrictive as her whalebone undergarments — is fast becoming her default mode.

Even in repose, impatience rises off her like the smoke from one of her frequent cigarettes. She frowns at her reflection and has tetchy, bitten-off conversations with her stiff, remote husband, Emperor Franz Joseph...

Hamburg 1982. Andreas, in the family bathroom, spies his mother’s stockings, pulls one over his head breathing in deeply. His mother, still in a dressing gown, calls him to breakfast. As she makes him cheese on toast, he oggles her breasts.

Cut to the present. Andreas lives in a deeply religious Bavarian hamlet with Claudia, his besotted, church-frequenting, apron dress wearing wife. But he sinks into sexual reverie and perversion, unable to escape the distant past. Tragedy ensues, near inevitably, it could be argued.

Directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, helmer of the Oscar-nominated “Downfall,” “The Diver” is one of six episodes in anthology series “The Punishment,” in which six of Germany’s most exciting directors, established and up-and-coming, adapt six short stories by Ferdinand von Schirach collected in his latest anthology, “Punishment” (“Strafe”).

Few writers have plumbed with such terse and knowing nuance the distinction of public and private guild and punishment than von Schirach,...

Sales

Channel 4’s classic series “Fresh Meat,” a still-popular dramatic comedy about student life, will celebrate its ten-year anniversary this weekend with a cast and creators’ reunion in London, and global distributor All3Media has announced several recent sales deal for the program ahead of the event.

Agreements for the series have been closed in the U.S. and Canada on the Roku Channel (AVOD) as well as on Tubi (also U.S. and Canada AVOD) and on Crackle for AVOD in the U.S. The show is also available on Amazon Prime Video in the US.

Created by Jesse Armstrong and Sam Bain for Channel 4 from Objective Media Group, U.K., the series’ six key cast members – Jack Whitehall, Charlotte Ritchie, Zawe Ashton, Joe Thomas, Kimberly Nixon and Greg McHugh – will all return for the reunion. The group will be joined by the creators for an in-person discussion and...

The world over, major broadcasters are faced by the same issue: How to the make series that have a SVOD edge for their fast-growing in-house Ott platforms without alienating a free-to-air audience – which is often already accustomed to global platform fare.

Bowing at Mipcom, “Sisi” was one answer, from German TV giant, Rtl Group. Globo’s “Hidden Truths II,” from Latin America’s biggest TV company, is another.

Bowing its first 10 episodes on SVOD/AVOD platform Globoplay on Oct. 20, its first week near 9 million viewership hours decimated records for the biggest Brazilian Ott platform, proving four times that of Globoplay’s prior biggest release, “Grey’s Anatomy.”

Celebrating an online Buyers World Premiere on Nov. 5, to roll out international sales the second season will now look to build on large IP – 2015’s original “Hidden Truths” opened in over 75 countries – and an unprecedented marketing campaign.

“Hidden Truths II’s” global campaign included,...

Is it even Mipcom if The Grand is closed and a legion of bamboo planters is blocking off access to a vacant Grand Palais basement? As the global TV market convened in Cannes after two pandemic-stricken years, it was initially hard to say. But despite an understated affair with fewer U.S. delegates and hardly any presence from Asia, Australia and Latin America those who did attend got valuable face-time with key business contacts and a renewed sense of an industry quietly coming back to life.

Here are the 10 top talking points from Cannes:

Squid Game on Top

Few dared to travel to Mipcom without having seen at least a couple of episodes of Netflix’s smash hit from Korea, “Squid Game.” The show was name-dropped in virtually all content sessions, with breathless executives applauding its imagination and investment from the SVOD. Ironically, while Korea normally has a robust presence in Cannes,...

Winner Takes All. Maybe the biggest trend at this year’s Mipcom, judged by titles on show and announcements – think Rtl/Beta’s “Sisi,” the Alliance’s “Around the World in 80 Days” or Vis’ just-announced “Bosé” – was the move into big high-end event series based on big big IP.

The Hollywood studios have been doing this for years of course. Now, when it comes to bringing blockbusters onto the open market, it’s largely the turn of the the world’s big independents. Brazil’s Globo, Latin America’s biggest media company, is no exception. On Oct. 20, in a milestone move, it will bow the first 10 episodes of “Hidden Truths II,” its biggest 2021 scripted play.

It’s the second season of a jewel in Globo’s modern crown. Airing from 11 p.m. on TV Globo, the group’s main free-to-air channel, from June to September 2015, “Hidden Truths” hit massive...

Swiss-American actress Dominique Devenport believes in luck. “I was having a beer with a friend of mine in a canteen in Munich and talking about how I felt a connection to Sisi,” she explained to Variety in a one-on-one conversation.

“What I didn’t realize was that the next day, he was meeting the film’s casting director. He told her about me, and she called.”

Word had spread that the six-hour period drama was in the works in acting circles, and Devenport studied acting in Munich at the Otto Falckenberg Schule. She originally got into acting through singing, she explains. “I was one of two little girls asked to run across a stage for a director and I thought it was really cool,” she said.

As for “Sisi”: “I auditioned and was cast but it takes even more luck than that because then it has to work with the actor cast opposite Sisi,...

Jan Mojto’s Munich-based sales and production powerhouse Beta Film, whose Mipcom slate includes “Sisi” and “La Fortuna,” has closed pre-sales across the Nordic Region and in the Netherlands’ for the PBS-ITV period drama series “Hotel Portofino.” The British show, created and written by Matt Baker, stars Natascha McElhone, whose credits include “Ronin,” “Californication” and “Designated Survivor.”

“Hotel Portofino” has been acquired by Dr for Denmark, Svt for Sweden, Nrk for Norway, Yle for Finland and Syn for Iceland, as well as Dutch national broadcaster Npo. Further negotiations with several international broadcasters are underway.

In previously announced deals, ITV, BritBox, Sky Italia and Foxtel in Australia joined the drama, produced by Eagle Eye in association with Beta Film, while PBS Distribution took North American rights.

The six-hour series, centered around a British family who emigrate to open a high-end hotel in Italy, captures the long-established literary tradition of...

International television market MIPCOM has gotten off to a strong start, with multiple sales announced Monday as the TV industry meeting in Cannes, which runs through Thursday, kicked off.

Beta Film closed a raft of major deals for Sisi, a reboot of the classic royal romancer about teenage Empress Elisabeth, aka Sisi, of Austria, with Mediaset in Italy, Globoplay in Brasil, Npo in the Netherlands, Rtl in Hungary and Rtvs in Slovak Republic all taking the first six-episode season. Viasat World also grabbed Sisi, which stars Dominique Devenport and Jannik Schümann, for its Epic Drama channel throughout Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey. Beta earlier ...

Beta Film has closed a raft of major deals for the period drama “Sisi” ahead of its world premiere in Cannes on Monday. In addition, Rtl Deutschland has given the green light for the second season of the series.

“Sisi” will bow in Germany later this year on the streaming platform Rtl Plus and then on linear channel Rtl.

The six-hour period drama, produced by Story House Pictures, will be broadcast by Mediaset in Italy, Globoplay in Brasil, Npo in the Netherlands, Rtl in Hungary, Rtvs in Slovak Republic and Viasat World on its Epic Drama channel throughout Eastern Europe, Greece, Cyprus and Turkey.

Most recently, Beta Film signed a contract with Vtm Belgium. Previously, TF1 for France and Austrian pubcaster Orf joined as broadcasting partners. Numerous negotiations are ongoing.

The coming-of-age story of the Austrian Empress will celebrate its world premiere at the TV festival Canneseries on Monday, playing out of competition.

German sellers returning to Cannes’s Mipcom TV mart will be packing a wide selection of domestic and international TV fare heavy on high-end crime and historical series.

With a market that has become increasingly open to different formats, sales companies see good opportunities for diverse offerings.

“Crime is still the most in- demand genre in the market, as well as action,” says Julia Weber, head of international sales and acquisitions at Munich-based Global Screen. “But whatever genre you look at, the main driver remains the story. It needs to be compelling and speak to the audience.”

Weber adds that more and more historical dramas are also being produced, underscoring “an increasing need for series that are rather escapist and that cater to audiences in the post-lockdown world.”

Global Screen’s six-part “The Palace” is a prime example, she adds. Produced by Constantin Television for Zdf and directed by Uli Edel,...

Event series ‘Sisi,’ a new take on Empress Elizabeth of Austria from Rtl, Beta Film and Story House Productions, sets itself apart from the very get-go.

Romy Schneider’s ‘50s cult movie trilogy turned a historical icon into a decorous pop legend. Kicking off in 1854, “Sisi,” the new series, delivers scenes of gobsmacking glamor, as when the camera slowly rises to expose the grandeur of Sisi’s home, a lakeside chateau.

But its realism – sexual, political and psychological – brings an edge to such period money shots. A declaration of intentions, Sisi begins with the heroine (Dominique Devenport) as a teen, stealthily pleasuring herself in her bed until her sister barges in through the door. After a family dinner scene, cut to the dashing young Emperor Franz Josef (Jannik Schümann) astride a horse, riding – a reverse shot reveals – to a scaffold where he will personally authorize the public hanging of Hungarian rebels,...

Currently shooting “Sisi” for the Rtl Group and Beta Film, Germany’s Story House Pictures has added N’Gone Thiam to the core writing team of six-hour suspense drama “Mozart/Mozart,” another powerhouse IP production, currently in development, which it will unveil an Series Mania.

“We’re super proud to have a young German writer of African heritage writing with us,” said Andreas Gutzeit, showrunner and managing director at Story House Pictures.

He added: “We’ve known N’gone from some prestigious writing seminars where she wrote very loud and very colorful scripts and we said that’s exactly what this show needs. She’s a new exciting and very original voice on her first major international series.” Thiam was chosen as one of six Story House writers, out of over 600 candidates.

On “Mozart/Mozart,” a series which is inspired by true facts and has a large contemporary resonance, Thiam joins Gutzeit,...