Berlin: 'Mr. Bachmann and His Class' Director Maria Speth on 'Holding a Mirror to German Society'

Before Bridgerton, before The Crown, there was Sisi. The real-life, 19th-century royal romance between Elizabeth "Sisi" of Bavaria and her husband, Austrian-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph, was turned into a series of iconic films in the 1950s, starring legendary Austrian actress Romy Schneider as Sisi.

EXCLUSIVE: Fresh off its world premiere in the Berlin International Film Festival’s competition program, where it won the Silver Bear Jury Prize, Maria Speth’s feature documentary Mr Bachmann And His Class has sold into multiple territories.

David Hasselhoff is going meta in Ze Network, a new German TV series in which he will star as Hollywood actor David Hasselhoff. The plot of the dark comedy sees the Hoff cast in a theater play in Germany only to be caught up in an international conspiracy of former Cold War assassins.

CBS Studios and German producer Syrreal Entertainment are teaming to create a series for RTL streamer TV Now in which David Hasselhoff will star as himself in a fictional international conspiracy story.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBleecker Street has acquired U.S. rights to Maria Schrader’s “I’m Your Man,” which won the Berlinale’s Silver Bear for leading performance for Maren Eggert.

International buyers have jumped on Maria Schrader's I'm Your Man, and the Daniel Brühl-directed Next Door, both of which premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival last week.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorBerlinale Competition entries from two actors turned directors, Maria Schrader and Daniel Brühl, were among titles on the Beta Cinema slate at the European Film Market to prove popular among international distributors.Schrader, an Emmy Award winner as the director of “Unorthodox,” premiered comic-tragic tale “I’m Your Man,” starring Dan Stevens (“Downton Abbey”), Maren Eggert (“I Was At Home, But…”) and Sandra Hueller (“Toni Erdmann”), at the virtual

Jessica Kiang The public, the private and the deeply personal run on parallel tracks in French director Alice Diop’s documentary “We,” a series of vignettes of life along the RER B, a railway line running through the suburbs and exurbs of Paris out to the surrounding countryside.

When filmmaker Maria Speth brought her documentary crew to a provincial German school, her goal was "open-ended observation." Observing a classroom where jam sessions and juggling lessons are as likely as lessons in math and grammar, she achieves that and more with Mr. Bachmann and His Class, one of the most effortlessly absorbing and deeply encouraging nonfiction films of recent memory.

It’s 1943. A particularly cruel winter has swept through the occupied Soviet Union.

Hours after his Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn won the Golden Bear for best film at the first-ever virtual Berlin International Film Festival, Romanian director Radu Jude took aim at what he called the "bullshit of red carpets" and the false glamour of in-person film festivals.Jude said he was "quite happy" not to have had to attend a fancy awards gala in Berlin on Friday to receive his Golden Bear.

EXCLUSIVE: Indie stalwart Cassian Elwes is making a move into management via his Elevated banner, kicking off with signing Best Sellers director Lina Roessler, whose debut feature starring Michael Caine and Aubrey Plaza screened in the Berlin Film Festival’s Special Gala section this week. It’s the first time the film producer and former co-head of William Morris Independent has moved into the management space.

Thomas Jane tracks down his prey in this exclusive first-look image from upcoming western thriller The Last Son. The film — previously entitled The Last Son of Isaac LeMay and being sold at Berlin's virtual European Film Market by VMI Worldwide, which first announced it at the AFM in 2019 — also stars Sam Worthington, Machine Gun Kelly and Heather Graham.

BERLIN -- One of Germany's best-known TV directors and scriptwriters has been formally charged with raping an aspiring actress almost 25 years ago, Munich prosecutors said Friday.Dieter Wedel was the first prominent figure in the country named when the #MeToo movement targeting alleged sexual abusers in the media and the arts gathered pace in Germany three years ago.Wedel, 81, has denied claims by several women that he pressured them for sex.The 20-page indictment against Wedel claims that in

Colson Baker — the man also known as musician Machine Gun Kelly — continues to expand his onscreen acting résumé with his latest film, the thrillerOne Way. Baker plays Freddy, who finds himself on a bus headed into the California desert with a potentially fatal wound after a robbery of his former crime boss goes wrong.

You have to wonder when she sleeps. The tireless Maria Schrader — fresh off an Emmy win as outstanding director of a limited series for Netflix's Unorthodox and another critically acclaimed turn in front of the camera as East German spy Lenora Rauch in Amazon's Deutschland 89 — somehow managed, during a pandemic, to shoot her fourth feature film.

Ben Croll Playing in Berlin’s Encounters sidebar, the French documentary “We” spins a tapestry of small moments and personal recollections, finding connections in the lives of migrants, immigrants, lovesick teens and retirees without downplaying their hardships.

True Blood's Stephen Moyer and Golden Globe nominee Colm Meaney (Con Air, Gangs of London) exchange bloody vows in this exclusive first-look image from upcoming thriller Confession, which Signature Entertainment are shopping worldwide at the European Film Market.

Emiliano Granada One thing’s clear from the 2021 Berlin Film Festival’s get-go:  Its Berlinale Series strand grows stronger every year, and features for the first time two Latin America series which underscore the creative excitement of the limited miniseries format.“The Last Days Of Gilda,” Gustavo Pizzi and star Karine Teles’ adaptation of the same-titled stage play by Rodrigo de Roure is in its style, a playful portrayal of a woman trapped in a political and social tsunami now storming

Lise Pedersen The new action-horror film set to be shot by acclaimed blockbuster director Renny Harlin (“Die Hard 2,” “Cliffhanger”) is being introduced online at Berlin’s virtual European Film Market.