DFFF News

Significant proportion of films competing at Berlinale funded by the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF)

Many films showing at the 64th Berlinale (6-16 February 2014) have been made with DFFF support. Out of a total of 23 films selected to compete for an award, nine have been funded by the DFFF - five international co-productions and four German productions.

The Competition category includes two major international productions by respected American directors which were filmed almost entirely in Germany - Wes Anderson’s film The Grand Budapest Hotel (DFFF funding: 3.2 million euros), is scheduled to open the festival, and The Monuments Men (DFFF funding: 8.5 million euros), with an out of competition screening two days later, features a star-studded cast including George Clooney. Crucial to the decision to make these productions in Germany were the convincing, professional German studio infrastructure, unused locations - primarily in Saxony, Berlin, Brandenburg and Lower Saxony - and the attractive and, not least, reliable funding op-portunities available here.

The same applies to the Franco-German fantasy Beauty and The Beast, filmed in Babelsberg and to be premiered internationally out of competition in the Competition category, and to Lars von Trier’s film Nymphomaniac: Volume I, much of which was made in North Rhine-Westphalia (also to be screened out of competition). However, the main attractions of the festival also include low-budget films such as the German-Brazilian co-production Praia do Futuro (“Beach of the Future”), which received DFFF funding of approximately 300,000 euros.

All four German productions in the Competition category have received DFFF funding totalling 1.7 million euros. The German candidates for Golden and Silver Bear awards are the historical romantic drama Die geliebten Schwestern (“The Beloved Sisters”) by Dominik Graf and Zwischen Welten (Inbetween Worlds) set in Afghanistan, by Feo Aladag. Jack by Edward Berger and [B]Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross) by Dietrich Brüggemann are further award hopefuls.

The other categories include DFFF-funded productions as well. The Forum category features Los Ángeles, the debut film by Damian John Harper, a graduate of the University of Television and Film (HFF) in Munich, who, with his German team, shot most of the film in his former home country of Mexico. Stereo by Maximilian Erlenwein, with Jürgen Vogel and Moritz Bleibtreu in the leading roles, and Benjamin Heisenberg’s comedy Über-Ich und Du (Superegos), will have their world premiere in the Panorama category. The DFFF-funded co-production Das finstere Tal (The Dark Valley) by director Andreas Prochaska, which will have its premiere in the Berlinale Special at the Zoo Palast cinema, is also eagerly anticipated.

The list of DFFF-funded films at the 2014 Berlinale can be downloaded from www.dfff-ffa.de.

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