Editor

The Berlin & Beyond Film Festival (Sept 27-Oct 4) is excited to announce that it will honor legendary German acting talent Mario Adorf with a lifetime achievement award in acting and a four-film tribute as part of its 17th annual program. The festival will screen the actor’s classic films The Tin Drum (Saturday Sept 29th, 8:45PM), Ship of the Dead (Friday, Sept 28th, 4:30PM) and Lola (Tuesday, Oct 2nd, 6:00PM) and will present the award at the screening of his most recent film The Rhino and the Dragonfly, on Friday, September 28th at 6:15PM at the Castro Theatre. Mr. Aldorf will also be in attendance at the screening of the recently released Director’s Cut of The Tin Drum for a brief Q&A. Berlin & Beyond’s Lifetime Achievement Award was last given to Wim Wenders in 2009. This is the first such honor for Mr. Aldorf at a major US Festival.
 
With more than 200 roles for cinema and TV, Mario Adorf is one of Germany’s most loved actors. He was still a student at Munich’s Falckenberg Drama School when discovered for a role in the soldier trilogy 08/15. Shortly after he played the serial killer Bruno Lüdke in The Devil Strikes at Night, directed by Robert Siodmak in 1957. This role was awarded with the Bundesfilmpreis, the first of innumerable prizes that accompanied Adorf’s career. The tally of directors Adorf has worked with reads like a hit list of world cinema: Sam Peckinpah, Franco Rossi, Wolfgang Staudte, Edgar Reitz, Billy Wilder, Helmut Dietl, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Claude Chabrol and Sergio Corbucci and Volker Schlöndorff. The term New German Cinema is unthinkable without Adorf. In addition to The Tin Drum and Lola, there was Roland Klick’s Deadlock (1970); Volker Schlöndorff’s The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum (1975); Reinhard Hauff’s The Main Character (1977); the omnibus movie Germany in Autumn (1978). In 2010, he received an Honorary Doctorate from the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, his alma mater. For his lifetime achievements, he received the Carl Zuckmayer Medal in 1996, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2001, the German Film Award in 2005, and the Golden Camera on February 4th, 2012.
 
Complete info for the programs mentioned above can be found on our website: www.Berlinbeyond.com
 
Admission: Price varies per program, check website www.berlinbeyond.com
 
Tickets for all programs can be purchased at: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/producer/98451
 
For photos and press materials, email the festival publicist at jackson.scarlett@gmail.com.
 
17TH BERLIN & BEYOND FILM FESTIVAL
 
The 17th Berlin & Beyond Film Festival runs from September 27th–October 4th at San Francisco’s largest single-screen, the historic The Castro Theatre. A presentation of the Goethe-Institut San Francisco, Berlin & Beyond has been America’s premier festival of new cinema from Germany, Austria and Switzerland since 1996. The festival serves as a gateway for the American public to experience the diversity, history and progression of the German-speaking countries in Europe, while celebrating the universal spirit and vision of filmmakers from this global region. In the last 16 years, the festival has presented over 500 films to more than 110,000 people, and welcomed hundreds of emerging and established guests from the film industry.
 
For festival information, go to www.berlinbeyond.com or call 415-263-8763 (info only, please call 415-845-0232 during festival run).
 
GOETHE-INSTITUT
 
The Goethe-Institut is Germany’s official cultural center in over 80 countries worldwide. The Institut exists to promote art and films from Germany, the study of the German language, and encourage the international cultural exchange with Germany.
 
LEAD SPONSORS
 
Berlin & Beyond salutes the sponsors of its 17th annual edition! Presenting Sponsors are Lufthansa, Unitrans International Logistics and MetaDesign. Premiere Sponsors are the Consulate General of Germany in San Francisco, the Consulate General of Switzerland in San Francisco, San Francisco Grants for the Arts and Nissan Infiniti San Francisco. Principal Venue Partner is The Castro Theatre. The vivid roster of sponsors and supporters also includes The German American International School, German Films and Dish Network.