Editor

For the fifth time German Films is joining with the Goethe Institutes in Sydney und Melbourne to stage a Festival of German Films in four cities and would like to achieve the record admissions from 2005 – last year more than 16,000 cinemagoers had the opportunity to see German films. From April 20 - 30, the festival will be showing a broad spectrum of German filmmaking in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, and Canberra.

The following films are in the programme, including some new titles from the Berlinale:
A PASS FROM THE BACK (AUS DER TIEFE DES RAUMES) by Gil Mehmert, BAREFOOT (BARFUSS) by Til Schweiger, THE FISHERMAN AND HIS WIFE (DER FISCHER UND SEINE FRAU) by Doris Doerrie, THE FREE WILL (DER FREIE WILLE) by Matthias Glasner, NETTO by Robert Thalheim, ONE DAY IN EUROPE by Hannes Stoehr, THE RED COCKATOO (DER ROTE KAKADU) by Dominik Graf (opening film in Sydney), REQUIEM by Hans-Christian Schmid, SOPHIE SCHOLL – THE FINAL DAYS (SOPHIE SCHOLL – DIE LETZTEN TAGE) by Marc
Rothemund (opening film in Melbourne and Brisbane), SUMMER IN BERLIN (SOMMER VORM BALKON) by Andreas Dresen (opening film in Canberra), ABOUT THE LOOKING FOR AND THE FINDING OF LOVE (VOM SUCHEN UND FINDEN DER LIEBE) by Helmut Dietl, THE WHITE MASAI (DIE WEISSE MASSAI) by Hermine Huntgeburth, the documentary MEASURES TO BETTER THE WORLD (WELTVERBESSERUNGSMASSNAHMEN) by Joern Hintzer and Jakob Huefner and the young people's film WILD CHICKS (DIE WILDEN HUEHNER) by Vivian Naefe.

As part of a focus on "Strong Women", the actress Heike Makatsch will be a guest of the festival and present the films ALMOST HEAVEN by Ed Herzog, AGAINST ALL ODDS - MARGARETE STEIFF (APPOLONIA MARGARETE STEIFF) by Xaver Schwarzenberger and NO SONGS OF LOVE (KEINE LIEDER UEBER LIEBE) by Lars Kraume.

Other guests are the producer and screenwriter Fred Breinersdorfer, Andreas Stroehl (director of the Filmfest Muenchen) and the film journalist Andrea Dittgen, who will also participate in a panel discussion on "The Future of Arthouse Cinema".

‘’This event in Australia is our first big German film festival after the Berlinale and thus particularly attractive for a commercial exploitation. We have therefore invited Stefanie Zeitler of Bavaria Film International to come to the festival this year," explains Christian Dorsch, managing director of German Films.

“2005 was an especially strong year with DOWNFALL and GO FOR ZUCKER!” says Klaus Krischok, director of the Goethe-Institut Sydney. “We would like to continue this success in 2006, particularly with the films from the Berlinale.”


In collaboration with AG Kurzfilm, a selection of eight shorts - BOB LOG III’S ELECTRIC FENCE STORY by Tina Stock, Sébastien Wolf, ANOPHTALMUS by Katharina Pethke, EGO SUM ALPHA ET OMEGA by Jan-Peter Meier, SQUEAK (QUIETSCH) by Baran Bo Odar , SWIMMING LESSONS (TRIUMPH DES NICHTSCHWIMMERS) by Martin Dolejs, SPIRITS OF LIFE (LEBENSGEISTER) by Joern Staeger, ELSA'S BIRTHDAY (ELSAS GEBURTSTAG) by Claudia Lehmann and MORNING FLIRT (MORGENSCHWARM) by Thomas Froehlich - was made to accompany the main programme. In addition, there will be a programme block with nine shorts screening under the motto of LEAPS IN TIME (ZEITSPRUENGE), including OUR MAN IN NIRVANA by Jan Koester, VINCENT by Giulio Ricciarelli, CHAIM by Jonathan Greenfield, HOME (HEIM) by Marc Brummund, LADY MARMELADE by Nils Borge T. Sandvik, FEMALE/MALE by Daniel Lang, DEAD AT THE MOMENT (ZUR ZEIT VERSTORBEN) by Thomas Wendrich and HEIN FACH by Sebastian Poerschke.