Film Festival Cologne Gets Physical With In-Theater Screenings

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentGerman film and TV company Leonine Group, which was formed through the merger of Tele München Gruppe, Universum Film, i&u TV, Wiedemann & Berg Film and W&B Television, has rearranged its long-term group financing.The financing includes long-term loans and revolving credit lines totaling Euros 189 million ($222 million), which also cover the company’s film production financing, with the exception of the publicly listed Odeon Film AG, which also

Tom Grater International Film ReporterProminent Chinese filmmaker Jia Zhangke has announced he is departing the Pingyao International Film Festival, which he co-founded four years ago.The fest has not yet made an official statement but the director made the surprise announcement yesterday during the closing day of the fourth edition, telling local media he was looking for the event to “get rid of Ji Zhangke’s shadow and let it gain independent vitality” and that he was opting to “leave when it

Andreas Wiseman International EditorGerman Films has released a list of ten films that were submitted by German producers for consideration to become the country’s International Feature Oscar contender.Among the front-runners for selection are likely to be Julia Von Heinz’s And Tomorrow The Entire World, Caroline Link’s When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit, Burhan Qurbani’s Berlin Alexanderplatz and Christian Petzold’s Undine.The ten films:•    WHEN HITLER STOLE PINK RABBIT – Caroline Link (Sommerhaus

Michael B. Jordan and Black Lives Matter co-founder Opal Tometi have unveiled the line-up for their virtual Social Justice Now Film Festival (SJNFF).The new initiative is set to launch with the Black Panther star and the activist as co-ambassadors and on Monday (October 12, 2020), organizers for the event announced the socially conscious productions they plan to screen.The documentaries 40 Years a Prisoner and Freedia Got a Gun will be featured while original films Us Kids, Reefa, and SNCC,

Angelique Jackson Michael B. Jordan’s award-winning films “Just Mercy,” and “Fruitvale Station” will serve as opening night screenings for the inaugural Social Justice Now Film Festival (SJNFF).Both films will play on Wednesday, Oct.

Ed Meza @edmezavarReal Film, the Berlin-based co-producer of the hit Emmy-winning Netflix series “Unorthodox,” looks set to continue its recent success with a slew of hard-hitting fact-based series.The Studio Hamburg subsidiary is focusing on German-language productions aimed at the international market, including a take on one of the biggest automotive industry scandals in history and an exploration of Germany’s role in international money laundering.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentBeta Film has closed multiple pre-sales deals on “Atlantic Crossing,” the prestige Norwegian period drama starring Sofia Helin (“The Bridge”) as Crown Princess Märtha, and Kyle MacLachlan (“Twin Peaks”) as U.S. President Franklin D.

Steve McQueen helped raise the curtain on the 2020 BFI London Film Festival on Wednesday night, with his feature Mangrove — one of his five films in the BBC/Amazon Small Axe anthology — getting its European premiere in London and simultaneously across select cinemas around the U.K.

Constantin Film, Germany's leading independent studio, has brought up the release of three films —including Monster Hunter starring Milla Jovovich—to help local theaters fill the void left by studios pushing their 2020 tentpoles to next year. Constantin will release Monster Hunter in Germany Dec.3, three weeks ahead of Sony's U.S.release of the film on Dec.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentDavid Bowie origin story “Stardust,” starring Johnny Flynn as the musician, has secured distribution in Italy with a deal inked with I Wonder Pictures ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Rome Film Festival this month.Flynn and director Gabriel Range will be in Rome for the red carpet event on Oct.

The Berlin Film Festival has come clean about its founder, Alfred Bauer, acknowledging the man who launched Germany's premier cinema event 70 years ago had close ties to the Nazi regime and was a key figure in Joseph Goebbels' propaganda efforts. The festival on Wednesday announced the findings of an independent study it commissioned with the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History to look into Bauer's past.

Jake Kanter International TV EditorThe Berlin Film Festival has published research showing that its founding director Alfred Bauer contributed to the “functioning, stabilisation and legitimation” of the Nazi regime in Germany.Bauer’s name was stripped from the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize in February after German newspaper Die Zeit published a story alleging that he held a previously unknown “high-ranking position in the Nazi film bureaucracy.”Berlinale commissioned the Leibniz Institute for

SAN SEBASTIÁN, Spain -- Georgian writer-director Dea Kulumbegashvili’s first feature film “Beginning” triumphed at Spain’s San Sebastian International Film Festival, scooping up four of its top prizes including best film and best director.The story about a community of Jehovah’s Witnesses in a isolated village in Georgia amid the aftermath of an extremist attack also won best screenplay and best actress for Ia Sukhitashvili in the awards ceremony Saturday night.“Beginning,” a Franco-Georgian

American audiences might not be very familiar with Ester Exposito, but she’s a huge international star thanks to her hit Netflix series Elite!

American audiences might not be very familiar with Ester Exposito, but she’s a huge international star thanks to her hit Netflix series Elite!

Joe Alwyn gets caught in the middle of a wind and rain storm while walking the red carpet at the closing ceremony of the 2020 San Sebastian Film Festival on Saturday (September 26) in San Sebastian, Spain.

Naman Ramachandran Acclaimed British director Amma Asante (“The Handmaid’s Tale,” “Mrs America”) will direct a drama series adaptation of acclaimed novel “Smilla’s Sense of Snow” for German outfit Constantin Film.Based on the bestselling book by Peter Höeg, and created and written by Clive Bradley (“Trapped”), the series will follows Smilla Jaspersen, whose investigation into the mysterious death of an immigrant Inuit child from the projects evolves into a much grander supernatural epic.

Andreas Wiseman International EditorThe San Sebastian Film Festival has withdrawn the accreditation of U.S.-born French filmmaker Eugène Green for refusing to wear a mask.According to the Spanish festival, Green refused five requests for him to don a mask at last night’s premiere of his film Atarrabi Et Mikelats and he was ultimately asked to leave the auditorium.

Matt Dillon holds hand with Roberta Mastromichele while attending The Great Fellove premiere during the 2020 San Sebastian International Film Festival held at the Victoria Eugenia Theater on Tuesday evening (September 22) in Spain.