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Germany’s film industry may have been hit hard by the economic slowdown, resulting in an overall gloomy outlook, but it’s still celebrating the biggest number ever of local films and co-productions at this year’s Berlinale and looking forward to a diverse lineup of 2025 releases, among them a number of high-profile sequels.

Compounding the sector’s overall predicament was the collapse of the federal government in November, forcing snap elections scheduled for Feb. 23. The political crisis left an ambitious reform of the country’s federal film funding system only partially implemented and a matter to be tackled by the next government.

The industry nevertheless welcomed the current government’s last-minute extension and increase of two key funding incentives in December that has ensured planning security for producers, studio operators and production service providers.

In the meantime, the local film community is cheering the strong showing of German titles at the Berlin Film Festival.

Picture Tree Intl. has boarded international sales for Constantin Film’s comedy fantasy blockbuster “Chantal and the Magic Kingdom,” which will receive its market premiere in Cannes.

The film has been No. 1 on Germany’s box office charts for four consecutive weeks since its release on March 28, and reached more than 2 million admissions, with a gross of $22.5 million.

“Chantal” is the latest German-language hit from writer-director Bora Dagtekin and producer Lena Schömann. The duo previously delivered “Turkish for Beginners,” the “Fuck You Goehte” franchise and the German remake of “Perfect Strangers,” which have collectively grossed more than $300 million worldwide.

In “Chantal,” the beloved “Fuck You Goehte” character Chantal and her best friend Zeynep are sent on a fantasy adventure into the world of fairytales with a comedic and contemporary twist.

Chantal, an influencer without followers, and Zeynep stumble into the fairytale world through an ancient magic mirror, which they mistake for a social media gimmick.

They received the most automatic funding from the Ffa for German films at the German box office.

Constantin Film and Warner Bros Germany were the most successful local production companies and distributors for German films at the German box office in 2022, according to the German Federal Film Board (Ffa).

They have been dubbed ‘Industry Tigers’ by the Ffa and means both companies receive the most in the Ffa’s automatic ‘reference funding’ from the organisation, in line with the amount their German films grossed locally and were exposed at international film festivals in 2022.

Munich-based Constantin Film received €1.2m in production...

German films achieved their second biggest market share in five years.

Cinema-going in Germany in 2022 was down 33.1 to 73.5m compared to pre-pandemic attendance figures of 110m in 2019 - and 23.5 below 2018’s total of 96.1m.

The German box office grossed €694m in 2022, down 28.1 on pre-pandemic levels of €964m in 2019. This was up 92.5 on 2021.

The year’s top film - Disney’s Avatar: The Way Of Water - opened in Germany on December 14 and had been seen by over 5.3m cinema-goers by the end of the year, generating more than € 72m in box-office takings.

The first month of 2023 saw the film continue...

All three territories, plus Italy and Spain, down on UK figures.

Box office figures for North America, France and Germany are tracking at about two-thirds of pre-pandemic levels for the first half of 2022, with a gentler recovery still in Spain and even slower in Italy.

The figures, provided by Comscore, show all five territories are tracking behind the UK and Ireland’s recovery, which was at 80 of 2019 figures for the comparable first six months of 2022.

US

In the US (excluding Canada), the first six months of 2022 brought in 3.6bn – 67.1 of the 5.4bn from the equivalent period in 2019. That has been...

Pablo Larrain’s ‘Spencer’ has been nominated for best film.

Andreas Kleinert’s Dear Thomas has emerged as the front runner at this year’s German Film Awards, known as the Lolas, with 12 nominations.

The black-and-white biopic of East German poet, dramatist and filmmaker Thomas Brasch is nominated in the best feature film category, as well as for direction, screenplay, lead actor, cinematography and production design.

Andreas Dresen’s Berlinale competition title Rabiye Kurnaz Vs. George W. Bush is not far behind Dear Thomas with 10 nominations, the same number his Gundermann attracted in 2019.

Austrian director Sebastian Meise’s Great Freedom,...

Tighter national measures mean cinemagoers must be vaccinated or have proof of recovery from Covid-19.

As the Berlinale and European Film Market organisers continue to plan for physical events in February 2022, some German distributors are rearranging their schedules in reaction to further measures being brought in nationally to help curb the spread of Covid-19 in the country.

Constantin Film has postponed the release of three of its major upcoming titles: Caveman, starring Moritz Bleibtreu, due to open on December 23; Sönke Wortmann’s comedy sequel Der Nachname on January 20, and Anika Decker’s romantic Liebesdings, with Elyas M’Barek and Lucie Heinze,...