Hot Titles From Berlin Power European Film Promotion Companies at FilMart

Germany closed at the beginning of November as coronavirus cases increased, but authorities earlier this month eased restrictions to allow some museums, galleries and certain other cultural venues to begin receiving visitors again.Some cities, including Cologne, began last week and now the capital is following suit and reopening some of the collections on Berlin's Museum Island — one of the city's cultural highlights and a UNESCO World Heritage site — and other venues to visitors.“Nobody knows

BERLIN -- The manager of a prominent Berlin theater has stepped down in the wake of accusations by women of bullying and sexual harassment.Klaus Doerr announced his resignation from the German capital's Volksbuehne theater on Tuesday.

The Berlin International Film Festival has fixed the dates for its planned in-person event in the German capital this summer. The 71st Berlinale's "Summer Special" will run June 9 to 20, with red carpet galas and public screenings of this year's festival winners.

Mr. Bachmann and His Class took director Maria Speth years to research, six months to shoot, and another three years to edit.

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.

Young Europeans' swerve toward the right and far right gets another movie thrown at it with the premiere of Je Suis Karl, from German director Christian Schwochow (November Child, Cracks in the Shell).

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.

Denis Cotes' absurdist French language comedy Social Hygiene opens with a wide shot of Antonin, a philosopher-cum-petty thief, standing in a field more than two meters from his long-suffering sister Solvieg in a scene dominated by a lush Quebec countryside.

Petite Maman, Céline Sciamma's follow-up to her 2019 international breakthrough Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a more intimate affair. The acclaimed French filmmaker has switched the erotic charge and sexual politics of her 18th century period drama for a more personal story of love and loss in a tale of an eight-year-old girl trying to connect with her mother.

Laetitia Eido, the French actress known to fans of Netflix's Israeli drama Fauda as Dr. Shirin El Abed, has signed on to co-star in Nhiem, a new high-end television series set during the Vietnam War from New Zealand director Roger Donaldson (The World's Fastest Indian) and German production group Carte Blanche International.

Not long into I'm Your Man, Dan Stevens' character, a genial android named Tom, arranges a perfectly contrived combination of romantic clichés for his would-be partner, Alma. The rose petals are "artfully" strewn, the candles flicker, and flutes of bubbly are ready for sipping beside the bubble-filled tub.

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.

Late Wednesday night there was a sliver of good news for the German film industry —and for anyone trying to sell films into Germany at this week's virtual European Film Market: Germany plans to re-open cinemas. Sort of.

The Berlin International Film Festival has crowned winners from its youth-focused Generation and Shorts programs. In Generation Kplus, the Grand Prix for Best Film went to Han Shuai’s Summer Blur, with a special mention for Betania Cappato’s A School in Cerro Hueso.

The two most mature and emotionally insightful seven-year-old girls you’ve ever encountered in your life are the subjects of Petite Maman. Magnetically attentive to the serious “things of life,” as the French put it, Céline Sciamma’s 72-minute study of an intense brief friendship between two girls of extraordinary similar looks prioritizes insight and emotional awareness over any artificial plot constructs. The result is a piercingly satisfying chamber drama with a lovely intimate feel.

Lupin is “a great achievement, not only for us but for all producers around the world,” said Gaumont Vice CEO Christophe Riandée, who is also a producer of the hit Netflix series, during a panel at the European Film Market today. The Omar Sy-starrer which has been a worldwide smash on streaming, is produced by Gaumont Television and has scored record-breaking numbers for a French series on the service.

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterNeon has acquired North American rights to Céline Sciamma’s latest feature, “Petite Maman,” following its premiere at the Berlin Film Festival.The sale reunites Sciamma with Neon, the New York-based independent studio that released her acclaimed drama “Portrait of a Lady on Fire.”Written and directed by Sciamma, “Petite Maman” follows 8-year-old Nelly, who loses her beloved grandmother and goes to help her parents clean out her mother’s childhood home.

Carole Horst “Best Sellers,” a Berlinale Special Gala screener and debut feature from Lina Roessler, has scored deals from major territories, which were announced by film’s sales outfit Foresight Unlimited at the European Film Market.Universal Pictures Content Group has acquired major markets including the U.K., Germany, France and Latin America, among others.

John Hopewell Chief International Correspondent“Natural Light,” a portrait of the attrition and atrocity of war set at a benighted village in occupied Western Soviet Union in 1943, has clinched its first sales as Paris-based Luxbox rolls out the Berlin Competition player at the European Film Market.Nour Films, whose past pickups include Berlin Golden Bear winner “Touch Me Not,” has closed rights to France.Nour will open “Natural Light” “with great conviction and pleasure” on at least 60 prints

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.