News

Oscar contenders September 5 and The Seed of the Sacred Fig, and Andreas Dresen’s historic drama From Hilde, With Love are the frontrunners for this year’s German Film Awards, also called the Lolas, Germany’s equivalent of the Oscars.

September 5, Tim Fehlbaum’s real-life thriller based on the terrorist attacks on the 1972 Munich Olympics, picked up 10 nominations, including for best film and best director, as well as a supporting actress nom for Leonie Benesch, who plays a translator for the U.S. television network broadcasting the attacks live to the world.

Second and third in the running are Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love, which picked up seven Lola nominations, including for best film and best director, with Mohammad Rasoulof’s Iranian drama The Seed of the Sacred Fig right behind with six.

Rasoulof’s depiction of an Iranian family torn apart by conflicting loyalties to an increasingly oppressive Tehran regime,...

Documentaries

Filmmaker Adam Morse, who directed Billy Zane-starrer “Lucid,” is set to get in front of the camera in a new documentary, titled “Blind Ambition,” about his career. The unscripted project, directed by Ukrainian-British filmmaker Julia Varvara, will follow Morse’s journey from losing his eyesight at the age of 19 due to the incurable condition Lebers Hereditary Optic Neuropathy to shooting a SuperBowl commercial earlier this year. Among other achievements, Morse has walked the runway at London Fashion Week and did his own stunts in AppleTV+’s “See.”

Morvara Entertainment is co-producing the doc with Abrupt Films. Rocky Mudaliar produces. “This documentary is more than just a film, it’s a powerful message for people everywhere to stay positive and be more determined,” says Varvara.

****

A new two-part documentary from Wonderhood Studios (“The Kidnap of Angel Lynn”) is set to uncover the story of a Canadian chef accused of...

Picturehouse Entertainment has made its first animation pickup, acquiring UK-Ireland distribution rights to Sylvain Chomet’s The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol.

The Magnificent Life Of Marcel Pagnol follows the life of Pagnol, a playwright, novelist and filmmaker who became one of the world’s most inventive and prolific artists in the mid-20th century.

The film is currently in production ahead of completion in 2025. It is produced by Ashargin Poire and Valerie Puech for What the Prod. Co-producers are Lilian Eche’s Bidibul Productions, Adrian Politowski’s Align and Aton Soumache for On Classics (Mediawan Kids & Family), in...

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK-Ireland distribution rights to Steven Soderbergh’s Presence, following its world premiere at Sundance in January.

The film stars Lucy Liu, Julia Fox and Chris Sullivan, in the story of a family who moves into a suburban house and becomes convinced that they’re not alone. Neon International handles worldwide sales.

Presence was written by David Koepp, and produced by Julie M. Anderson and Ken Meyer.

The latest buy from Picturehouse’s revamped acquisitions team, it joins a slate that includes Alonso Ruizpalacios’ La Cocina, Matthias Glasner’s Dying and Andreas Dresen’s From Hilde, With Love.

The supplier of guns and dummy ammunition to the ill-fated Rust production has told a New Mexico court that his company never sent live rounds to the set where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died in October 2021.

Testifying in the involuntary manslaughter trial of armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Albuquerque-based Pdq Arm & Prop owner Seth Kenney said he provided dummy rounds to the Rust set on October 12, 2021, which had been used on the TV show 1883.

Kenney said he rattled each round prior to delivery. He said if he could not hear a rattle it was a sign the round was not to be...

The supplier of guns and dummy ammunition to the ill-fated Rust production has told a New Mexico court that his company never sent live rounds to the set where cinematographer Halyna Hutchins died in October 2021.

Testifying in the involuntary manslaughter trial of armourer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, Albuquerque-based Pdq Arm & Prop owner Seth Kenney said he provided dummy rounds to the Rust set on October 12, 2021, which had been used on the TV show 1883.

Kenney said he rattled each round prior to delivery. He said if he could not hear a rattle it was a sign the round was not to be...

Beta Cinema has revealed further sales on its Berlinale and Europe Film Market lineup, including “500 Miles,” “Führer and Seducer,” “Hammarskjöld,” “The Light” and “From Hilde, With Love.”

After a first deal on the upcoming Bill Nighy-roadmovie “500 Miles” with True Brit Ent. for U.K. was announced during the market, Beta Cinema has confirmed further territories have picked up the dramedy: Australia and New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery). Aardwolf Films picked up worldwide airline rights. BAFTA-winner Morgan Matthews will direct from a script by Malcolm Campbell, based on the novel “Charlie and Me” by Mark Lowery later in 2024. Roman Griffin Davis will star next to Nighy.

The market premiere for “Führer and Seducer” led to new deals with Condor Entertainment for France, Beta Film for Bulgaria and Tfg for Greece. Deals with Spain (A...

Picturehouse Entertiainment has picked up From Hilde, With Love, the new drama from German director Andreas Dresen (Stopped on Track) for the U.K. and Ireland, adding to a swath of European deals for the title, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last month.

Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin) stars in the 1940s-set drama as Hilde Coppi, a member of a left-wing anti-Nazi resistance cell. Beta, which is handling international sales for the movie, previously announced deals for From Hilde, With Love with Haut et Court in France, Teodora in Italy, Angel Film across Scandinavia, September Film for Benelux and Outsider for Portugal, among other deals. Palace Film will release From Hilde, With Love in Australia and New Zealand. Pandora Film Verleih is handling the German release and will bow the movie in German-speaking territories this October.

Beta also announced a series of deals for its upcoming Bill Nighy road movie 500 Miles,...

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired UK and Ireland rights to Andreas Dresen’s Berlinale competition film From Hilde, With Love from Beta Cinema.

The biopic stars Babylon Berlin’s Liv Lisa Fries as real-life German resistance fighter Hilde Coppi. The film depicts her relationship with Communist activist Hans Coppi, who brought her into the anti-Nazi resistance, and her subsequent arrest and imprisonment by the Gestapo while pregnant.

From Hilde With Love is written by Laila Stieler and produced by Claudia Steffen and Christoph Friedel.

Johannes Hegemann, Lisa Wagner and Alexander Scheer also star.

From Hilde, With Love is produced by Pandora Film Produktion,...

Following its world premiere in the competition section of the Berlin Film Festival, Beta Cinema has revealed first sales across Europe and to Australia and New Zealand for Andreas Dresen’s “From Hilde, With Love.”

The drama about anti-Nazi activists in Berlin, which is led by “Babylon Berlin’s” Liv Lisa Fries and introduces Johannes Hegemann in his first big screen appearance, will be released in France by Haut et Court, in Italy by Teodora and throughout Scandinavia by Angel Films. Beta Cinema also closed deals for Benelux (September Film), Portugal (Outsider), former Yugoslavia (Discovery), Hungary (Cirko) and Czech Republic (Film Europe). Palace Film picked up the film for Australia and New Zealand. Pandora Filmverleih will release the film in the German-speaking territories in October.

Variety film critic Catherine Bray praised “From Hilde, With Love” as “eternally urgent and relevant” and Fries’ performance was praised in the international trades. German...

Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.”

The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here).

Kirsten Niehuus, Martin Moszkowicz

Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.”

Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions,...

“From Hilde, With Love,” which world premiered Saturday in competition at the Berlinale, has debuted its trailer (below). The film, directed by Andreas Dresen, centers on a group of young anti-Nazi activists in Berlin during World War II. (Read Variety‘s review here.)

The film, which is being sold by Beta Cinema and is produced by Claudia Steffen and Christoph Friedel for Pandora Film, stars “Babylon Berlin” breakout Liv Lisa Fries and Johannes Hegemann.

The film is a love story about two real life members of the pro-Communist, German resistance movement known as the Red Orchestra, Hilde and Hans Coppi. More than 50 members of the group were guillotined in Berlin’s Plötzensee Prison between 1942 and 1943, including the Coppis. Hilde gave birth to her son in prison. He is alive today and was consulted about the production.

In an interview with Variety, Dresen said that when Laila Stieler’s script for...

Germany, Pale Mother: Dresen Locates the Good Germans of WWII

It comes as no surprise an old-fashioned director such Andreas Dresen is adept at making old fashioned period pieces, and the workmanlike approach to his latest, From Hilde, With Love is an altogether approachable, sympathetic film. Told out of order as we flashback to the passion and excitement its titular character experienced one defining summer as she awaits potential execution for defying the Nazis, it’s also a film which fails at being remarkable in any way. With a mousy, overtly passive lead character and performance, there’s a lot of inert space in a narrative which should instead provoke.…...

Iranian tragicomedy My Favourite Cake has taken the early lead on Screen international’ s 2024 Berlin competition jury grid, with scores for seven titles now in.

The latest from Iranian duo Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha follows a 70-year-old woman who breaks out of her solitary routine by trying to invigorate her love life. It scored a strong 3.1 average, including three fours (excellent) from Ahmed Shawkey (Egypt’s filfan.com), Rita Di Santo (UK’s Morning Star) and Screen’s own critic.

Click on the jury grid above for the most up-to-date version.

Currently in joint second on the grid with...

When Laila Stieler’s script for “From Hilde, With Love,” which world premiered Saturday in competition at the Berlinale, first came to director Andreas Dresen he was a little reluctant to take the project on.

The issue was not the script but the subject-matter: set in Nazi-era Berlin, “From Hilde, With Love” is a love story about two real life members of the pro-Communist, German resistance movement known as the Red Orchestra, Hilde and Hans Coppi. More than 50 members of the group were guillotined in Berlin’s Plötzensee Prison between 1942 and 1943, including the Coppis. Hilde gave birth to her son in prison. He is alive today and was consulted about the production.

“I was a little bit afraid of doing these films about Nazi times, because it’s always in sepia colors, you know, very historical, very artificial always, and this is not the style of cinema I like,” he tells Variety.

Filmmaker Andreas Dresen and actress Liv Lisa Fries took part morning in the press conference for new drama From Hilde, With Love, which debuts this weekend in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Dresen’s affecting and resonant film, set in Berlin during the Second World War, charts the little known story of Hilde and Hans Coppi, a young couple who courageously become members of an anti-Nazi group known as The Red Orchestra (Die Rote Kapelle). The two spend a summer together until they get caught by the Gestapo and Hilde is imprisoned, eight months pregnant.

Dresen’s film received a warm response from journalists this morning at the press conference, with many noting they had been moved to tears by the feature.

The German director told the media he was initially attracted by the “humanity” of the story and the character of Hilde Coppi, who he described as “such a decent and brave woman.

Fries’s new role is as a real-life resistance fighter in From Hilde, With Love, opening at the Berlin film festival. She says her job is not to campaign against the AfD but to make people feel

To prepare for her role in From Hilde, With Love, a Nazi-era period drama that premieres at the Berlin film festival on Saturday, actor Liv Lisa Fries met the person she would have to cradle in her arms as a baby.

In the film, by veteran German director Andreas Dresen, Fries plays Hilde Coppi, an anti-fascist resistance fighter who was arrested for treason by the Gestapo and sentenced to death along with her husband Hans.