Film festivals are no longer simply about prizes and specialist knowledge — they have an important new role to play. The Festival of German Films Ludwigshafen is hoping to make the most of this newfound purpose.
Image: Festival des deutschen Films/Norbert Bach/Ben Pakalski
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Top picks from home and abroad: The Festival of German Films Ludwigshafen
This year's festival at Ludwigshafen will offer a broader program, including an international film selection. Here are some of the films and awards to look out for.
In Greek mythology Styx is the river boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead. The film follows the story of a woman (Susanne Wolff) who comes across a sinking boat full of refugees while on a solo sailing trip. It premiered at the Berlinale this year and has been invited to take part in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the Toronto Film Festival in September.
Image: Benedict Neuenfels
The Captain: A brave take on Germany's past
Director Robert Schwentke is no stranger to Hollywood and his latest film, The Captain, had its international premiere in Toronto in 2017. Yet back home in Germany, the film has received little exposure. Nevertheless, The Captain is one of the outstanding examples of German films dealing with the delicate topic of National Socialism.
Image: picture alliance/dpa/Weltkino Filmverleih/Julia M. Müller
In my Room: An original dystopia
This is another film that will be making its way to Toronto later this year, but viewers in Ludwigshafen can get an earlier glimpse of the cinematic dystopia created by German director Ulrich Köhler. This hugely original parable follows a man (Hans Löw) who finds himself, all of a sudden, alone in the world.
Image: U. Köhler
Tehran Taboo: Double standards
At a time when most cinema programs offer wall-to-wall American blockbusters, film festivals can and should offer an alternative selection. That's especially important when it comes to covering taboo topics and representing foreign cinema. Tehran Taboo, from Iranian-German filmmaker Ali Soozandeh, is an animated drama exploring the double standards within Iranian society.
Image: Coop99 Filmproduktion
Ava: A platform for 'the other'
This is the first year that Ludwigshafen will host an international film selection. The festival organizers say this is a reaction to a recent rise in xenophobia worldwide, which is largely fueled by "ignorance of 'the other.'" Therefore the international program centers around films that deal with the other — including the excellent French film Ava, directed by Lea Mysius.
Image: eksystent distribution filmverleih
Nanouk: Far-off film
How often do you get the chance to watch a film from a Bulgarian director that was filmed in the icy wilderness of the Sakha Republic in the northeastern Asian part of Russia? Nanouk, which portrays the meager existence of an ice fisherman and his wife, is another international offering at Ludwigshafen.
Image: Neue Visionen Filmverleih
The Dumpster Kid Experiment: A look back and forward
In a documentary entitled Film Beyond Cinema: The Dumpster Kid Experiment and Other Utopias, German directors such as Werner Herzog and Alexander Kluge discuss their visions for the future of cinema. The title is taken from a series of short films made in the late 1960s by Edgar Reitz (pictured) and Ula Stöckl, both of whom appear in the documentary.
Image: Imago/teutopress
Hans Weingartner: Best director
Of course festivals are also there to bestow prizes upon filmmakers. This year for the first time there will be an award for best director at Ludwigshafen, and Austrian director Hans Weingartner will be the first recipient. He made his directing debut in 2001 with The White Sound. Weingarten's new film, a road movie entitled 303, will be shown at Ludwigshafen.
Image: Central Film Verleih GmbH
Iris Berben: Honoring an institution
German actress Iris Berben will also be honored at this year's festival. Politically engaged Berben is somewhat of a German cinema institution — she has had countless film and TV roles and has been President of the German Film Academy since 2010. Her new film, Hanne, will be shown at Ludwigshafen.
Image: picture alliance /dpa/J. Kalaene
C'est la vie! Films al fresco
The heart of any good film festival is a commitment to the simple idea of a big screen and a joint experience. In an age when many people are more used to consuming films on their smart phones than in a cinema, Ludwigshafen is making the most of its riverside location for the open air program, which includes such gems as the French offering titled C'est la vie!
Cinema, and in particular film festivals, are an excellent illustration of the changing cultural landscape. Once essentially seen as exhibitions of the film industry, such festivals have in recent years begun to accept and embrace their new role — as champions of the cinema-going experience.
Michael Kötz is the director of the Festival of German Films, which has been held annually since 2005 in Ludwigshafen, the city opposite Mannheim along the Rhine River. He says festivals used to provide the space for a "specialist, critical discussion" about new films and were in part responsible for "determining the economic value of cinematic products."
There's more to the Berlinale than winning the Golden BearImage: Getty Images/AFP/T. Peter
The latter, he points out, has become even more important in recent years, if only really for "20 or so of the roughly 2,000 film festivals worldwide."
Keeping the blockbusters at bay
Of course an important function of festivals today is to give space to films that would otherwise never reach an audience — either because they can't find a distributor or because they are jostled out of the mainstream cinema space by their mightier Hollywood blockbuster competition.
According to Kötz, this also helps the festivals to hammer home the "attractiveness of the cinema as a place" and the unrivalled quality of "an intensive film experience, which is only possible in that place."
More than 100,000 people are expected to attend the Festival of German FilmsImage: Festival des deutschen Films/Norbert Bach/Ben Pakalski
One window on the world
A final, vital role of the festival is to bring people together to "look at the world through a single window" and to be "deeply touched by what they experience together," says Kötz.
This doesn't mean competing with cinemas — in fact festivals are more of a "temporary but lasting celebratory advertisement for the cinema-going experience," Kötz explains.
While it doesn't get near to the kinds of visitor numbers seen at the Berlinale film festival each year, Ludwigshafen still draws a respectable crowd of around 100,000.
With an attractive location on the banks of the River Rhine and an increasingly broad program (despite its name, non-German films are also included), the Festival of German Films Ludwigshafen hopes it can make the most of the film festival's newfound role.