The red carpet is rolled out and ready for the film stars. At the Biennale di Venezia, the world’s oldest film festival, 24 films are competing for this year’s prestigious Golden Lion award, including three productions from Germany. The most prominent German representative in the competition at the 67th Venice international Film Festival (September 1 - 11) is director Tom Tykwer. He is presenting his tragicomedy “Three“ and competing alongside other renowned filmmakers, such as Sofia Coppola and François Ozon, for the jury’s votes headed by its president Quentin Tarantino.
Tykwer’s latest film reflects on the filmmaker’s roots. The story, about a couple in their early forties in Berlin who each fall in love with the same man, is Tykwer’s first film to be made in German for about ten years. In recent years German films have often been in the spotlight. German cinema has become increasingly exciting thanks to fascinating actors, imaginative directors, ingenious producers, good stories and innovative film funding strategies. For example, Florian Henkel von Donnersmarck celebrated a brilliant success with his film debut “The Lives of Others”. The drama about the East German Stasi won him the 2007 Oscar for the Best Foreign Language Film and had takings of more than ten million dollars in the USA alone.
German films have not enjoyed so much success abroad since the 1980s, reports “German Films”. Among other things the national marketing agency organizes the selection of German entries for leading film festivals, such as Venice or Cannes, and stages German film festivals around the globe together with partners abroad. Germany is also gaining in charisma as a film centre thanks to festivals, such as the famous Berlinale International Film Festival which takes place annually in February, or renowned film studios, such as the Studio Babelsberg which is one of Europe’s major film centres and a regular location for big Hollywood blockbusters.
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