Simone Baumann to remain Managing Director of German Films for Another Five years

It is fitting that 2024 when German Films is celebrating its 70th anniversary should also see another good piece of news: the contract with Managing Director Simone Baumann has been extended by another five years. This is also a relief in light of the fact that the five year contracts of the co-heads of the Berlin Film Feestival and the head of its European Film Market did not have their five year contracts renewed and will be leaving after this year’s festival.

“Simone Baumann has successfully managed the fortunes of German Films since 2019, including during the pandemic, with wisdom, foresight and great commitment. Under her leadership, the German Films team has launched and overseen new initiatives, organised successful Oscar campaigns and bolstered the international networking activities. The focus has always been on the films, their makers and, in particular, on young talent“, says Philipp Kreuzer, chair of the supervisory board responsible for the position. “We would like to express our sincere thanks to her for all of this. We are delighted that Simone Baumann will be accompanying German Films for another five years to successfully master the upcoming challenges for German cinema abroad.“

Simone Baumann studied Philosophy in Rostov/Don and worked as a research assistant at the Humboldt University in Berlin. Her career in documentaries began in the early 1990s at MDR in Dresden. In 1997, she became a managing partner for LE Vision Film- und Fernsehproduktion. As a producer, Simone Baumann was responsible for all of LE Vision’s documentary productions, ranging from news reports and TV documentaries through docu-soaps to docu-dramas. LE Vision’s films also received such prestigious awards as the Bavarian Television Award, the CIVIS Media Prize, the Hans Klein Media Prize and a Grimme Prize nomination.

In 2003, Simone Baumann was appointed a member on the boards of AG DOK and MFFV (Mitteldeutscher Film- und Fernsehproduzentenverband) and became German Films’ representative for Eastern Europe in 2005. She had been responsible as Executive Producer Documentary for the documentary projects at Saxonia Entertainment GmbH since 2011.

Simone Baumann: “I’m really looking forward to another five years at the helm of German Films and would like to thank the supervisory board for the trust they have placed in me. Together with my team, I will continue to work to ensure that German cinema and German filmmakers are visible and successful abroad. These are turbulent times, but German cinema need not fear comparison. Apart from internationally renowned filmmakers, we have many new talents who will be making a name for themselves in the coming years. Accompanying them on their journey to the world stage is a big challenge and an interesting task.“

As the successor organisation to the Export Union (founded in 1954), German Films is responsible for the promotion of German films worldwide. The activities of the Service und Marketing GmbH include close cooperation with major international festivals, the staging of Festivals of German Films in selected international territories, the promotion of young talent, distribution support and the organisation of the selection procedure for the German entry for the Oscar® for Best International Feature Film.

Simone Baumann has been Managing Director of German Films since 2019. Her contract has now been extended by a further five years as of 1 February, 2024.

 

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

The big three winter film festivals — Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin — are now showing the world what lies in store in top notch moviemaking, new moviemaking and some duds masquerading as art. And the Academy Award nominees are gearing up for their final sprint before Oscars on March 10 live on ABC 7e/4p. Noteworthy is the number of non-English language films nominated for Best Picture. This points to the Berlinale as a source of the next batch of Oscar noms in all categories.

Keep in touch with Sundance through Indiewire, with Rotterdam through Cineuropa and Berlin through me for now. During the festival and market the daily trades are supplied thanks to Penske Media Corp. who, btw, is now owner of SXSW (50%), American Pavilion in Cannes, Variety, Indiewire, Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Rolling Stone, et al., and often shares the auto racetracks through his IndyCar Series racing team Dragon Racing, with Saudi Arabia’s NEOM.

Carllo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek

As the last year of their five year terms ends for Administrative Director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and European Film Market Director Dennis Ruh, they have their hands full. In my informal talk over coffee this week in Berlin with Dennis Ruh, some of the current events needing to be reined in this edition include incendiary protests for and against Democracy, Hamas, Ukraine and how such a high cultural event as the Berlinale seeks to contain free and civil discussion. Funding for a special place in the Berlinale to keep awareness of the Ukraine-Russia war is supplied by USAid. On the Israel/ Palestine front, a special “little house” will stand in Potsdamer Platz where an Arab-Palestinian woman and a Jewish-Israeli woman will be available to anyone to discuss their concerns. The pair is often seen in Germany’s many public schools fostering dialogue.

Dennis Ruh, outgoing EFM Director

Next year 2025 will be filled with firsts and the reins for it all will be held by American-British Tricia Tuttle. Tricia Tuttle, the newly appointed Director of the Berlin International Film Festival, is currently Head of Directing Fiction at the UK’s prestigious National Film and TV School, but starting in April 2024 will be dealing with the German bureaucracy, the German language, raising money as the German government subsidies subside, an relocating as many of the usual festival cinemas will be closing including the Arsenal which will be moving to Moabit as the DffB (German film school) moves to Wedding; the Kinotek and Film Museum will also moving as their shared building in Potsdamer Platz undergoes renovation. The Martin Gropius Bau (MGB where the film market takes place) is also undergoing a renovation in 2025.

Tricia Tuttle, incoming Director of the Berlin International Film Festival

Officially, Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian post on the Berlinale.desite:

Film festivals provide a space for artistic expression and enable peaceful dialogue. They are places of encounter and exchange and contribute to international understanding. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding — even and especially in painful times like these.

Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognised and for our programme to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.

Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart, Adam Sandler, Lena Dunham, Sebastian Stan, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara are among the talent heading to Berlin where many have films in competition, including Mara, whose La Cocina(ISA: Hanway) — where life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush is depicted — is one of 20 competing alongside of Mati Diop’s Dahomey (ISA: Les Films du Losange) — charting the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin, voicing a new generation’s demands — and Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs(ISA: Finecut) starring Isabelle Huppert. Look for Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson in Small Things Like These (ISA: Filmnation); Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo in Another End (ISA: Newen, A TF1 Group Company), Fabrice Luchini in L’Empire (ISA: Memento) of Bruno Dumont.

See full list of films A-Z or those in Competition (Wettbewerb in German) and Encounters, thus far. The entire program — including seasons and locations — will be on the 6th of February, published here.

See you in Berlin! February 15–25, 2024 at Potsdamer Platz.

2024 Winter Film Fests and Awards are Underway: Sundance, Rotterdam, Berlin

 

The big three winter film festivals — Sundance, Rotterdam and Berlin — are now showing the world what lies in store in top notch moviemaking, new moviemaking and some duds masquerading as art. And the Academy Award nominees are gearing up for their final sprint before Oscars on March 10 live on ABC 7e/4p. Noteworthy is the number of non-English language films nominated for Best Picture. This points to the Berlinale as a source of the next batch of Oscar noms in all categories.

Keep in touch with Sundance through Indiewire, with Rotterdam through Cineuropa and Berlin through me for now. During the festival and market the daily trades are supplied thanks to Penske Media Corp. who, btw, is now owner of SXSW (50%), American Pavilion in Cannes, Variety, Indiewire, Deadline Hollywood, The Hollywood Reporter, Billboard and Rolling Stone, et al., and often shares the auto racetracks through his IndyCar Series racing team Dragon Racing, with Saudi Arabia’s NEOM.

Carllo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek

As the last year of their five year terms ends for Administrative Director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and European Film Market Director Dennis Ruh, they have their hands full. In my informal talk over coffee this week in Berlin with Dennis Ruh, some of the current events needing to be reined in this edition include incendiary protests for and against Democracy, Hamas, Ukraine and how such a high cultural event as the Berlinale seeks to contain free and civil discussion. Funding for a special place in the Berlinale to keep awareness of the Ukraine-Russia war is supplied by USAid. On the Israel/ Palestine front, a special “little house” will stand in Potsdamer Platz where an Arab-Palestinian woman and a Jewish-Israeli woman will be available to anyone to discuss their concerns. The pair is often seen in Germany’s many public schools fostering dialogue.

Dennis Ruh, outgoing EFM Director

Next year 2025 will be filled with firsts and the reins for it all will be held by American-British Tricia Tuttle. Tricia Tuttle, the newly appointed Director of the Berlin International Film Festival, is currently Head of Directing Fiction at the UK’s prestigious National Film and TV School, but starting in April 2024 will be dealing with the German bureaucracy, the German language, raising money as the German government subsidies subside, an relocating as many of the usual festival cinemas will be closing including the Arsenal which will be moving to Moabit as the DffB (German film school) moves to Wedding; the Kinotek and Film Museum will also moving as their shared building in Potsdamer Platz undergoes renovation. The Martin Gropius Bau (MGB where the film market takes place) is also undergoing a renovation in 2025.

Tricia Tuttle, incoming Director of the Berlin International Film Festival

Officially, Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian post on the Berlinale.desite:

Film festivals provide a space for artistic expression and enable peaceful dialogue. They are places of encounter and exchange and contribute to international understanding. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding — even and especially in painful times like these.

Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognised and for our programme to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.

Meanwhile, Kristen Stewart, Adam Sandler, Lena Dunham, Sebastian Stan, Amanda Seyfried and Rooney Mara are among the talent heading to Berlin where many have films in competition, including Mara, whose La Cocina(ISA: Hanway) — where life in the kitchen of a NYC restaurant where cultures from all over the world blend during the lunchtime rush is depicted — is one of 20 competing alongside of Mati Diop’s Dahomey (ISA: Les Films du Losange) — charting the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to Benin, voicing a new generation’s demands — and Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs(ISA: Finecut) starring Isabelle Huppert. Look for Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson in Small Things Like These (ISA: Filmnation); Gael García Bernal and Bérénice Bejo in Another End (ISA: Newen, A TF1 Group Company), Fabrice Luchini in L’Empire (ISA: Memento) of Bruno Dumont.

See full list of films A-Z or those in Competition (Wettbewerb in German) and Encounters, thus far. The entire program — including seasons and locations — will be on the 6th of February, published here.

See you in Berlin! February 15–25, 2024 at Potsdamer Platz.

A Conversation with Actor-Director Julie Carmen about Her Short Film and Her Career

 

“Because the world is too troubled for any of us to rest, “ says Julie Carmen recently who has now directed her third short film, ‘The Unnecessary Salvation of Mary McDaniel’, written by Herman Johansen with music composed by Maria Newman and Scott Hosfeld.

The Unnecessary Salvation of Mary McDaniel, in 22 minutes deals with women who are in prison for murder. Their ideas of salvation are very strong and very deep. The roots of their acts, you can imagine, are not shallow.

Julie Carmen

Julie Carmen: “We did not submit to many festivals because we felt the story was meant to be a springboard for dialogue and an opportunity to listen to the unheard so we shared it publicly but I was especially jazzed that it screened in Turkey at the Anatolia Film Festival since Istanbul is where #ChallengeAccepted started due to the high number of femicides there.

Our film is about four women in prison for retaliating against their abusers. Interestingly, when we went to Anatolia for our honeymoon, I was told that Anatolia’s name itself means, “place of women”.

Sydney: I think Julie’s giving voice to the women in such circumstances in the film highlights that bearing witness to one another’s traumas has its own curative effects.

Watch the short here and then come back here for our far ranging conversation about Julie’s purpose in making the film as well as her life as an actress and licensed psychotherapist. We talk as friends about everything from our feelings, the intersection of immersive empathy in psychoanalysis and in acting… and why acting is her mainstay.

Julie: I never felt intimidated by the profession, walloped, yes, but challenged in a profoundly centering way. My neurosis is that I am addicted to riding a carousel 🎠 and reaching for a ring but barely missing it round after round that makes grabbing it all the sweeter.

Psychoanalysis saved me. Without it I might have continued wandering among the selves in the scripts that came fast and fantastically at a developmental age.

Sydney: Julie’s memories are so vivid — how acting work finds her and “drops from the sky”, how working with John Cassavetes trained her to be an experiential actor vs. a presentational one. She played the female lead in two European films for the new wave Berlin cooperative Filmverlag der Autoren, Der Mann auf der Mauer (Man on the Wall) and Comeback. As the only American working with German crews it taught her that the essence of German filmmaking contrasts greatly from Hollywood mindsets. So many other subjects are covered which, if you care to, you can follow on the video conversation here.

Sydney: Where do we begin? How did you begin to become a storyteller through acting and directing the three shorts you have made?

Julie: Gosh, maybe it all began when, listening to my mom reading us fairy tales and telling us our great great grandfather Jonas Hoffa was the house doctor of the Brothers Grimm. Maybe that was the moment when I believed storytelling is an essential part of being human.

Sydney: You have quite a few fascinating ancestors. Aren’t you currently producing a documentary about your great grandfather, Afro Cuban child piano prodigy, José Manuel “Lico” Jiménez Berroa? I read that he was born in Trinidad de Cuba in 1851 and died in Hamburg in 1917, co-director of the Hamburg Conservatory of Music and Professor of Composition.

Julie: Yes, that’s my passion project. But working on a documentary with layers of relevance is consuming. It’s so important for me to complete this film that I felt the urgency to totally retire after 20 years from my private practice as a psychotherapist and from my teaching and clinic. As I got older, I couldn’t keep three careers in the air. I didn’t want to spread myself too thin. All of a sudden life feels short.

Sydney: Tell me about Lico. It’s a documentary? How far along are you?

Julie: We already filmed in France, Spain, Cuba, the USA and currently are filming in Hamburg, Leipzig, Bayreuth and Nuremberg. The documentary is called “Lico Jiménez the Ebony Liszt”. But the hardest part is raising money for an independent documentary. The 23 living descendants want to protect the authenticity of the narrative. Therefore, I’ve been “hat in hand” collecting donations through a fiscal sponsor.

Sydney: In Europe we don’t use fiscal sponsors in the same way as in the USA. Tell me about that.

Julie: When philanthropists, friends and family who believe in your film want to donate, a reputable 501 ©3 fiscal sponsor provides a letter the donor can use to reduce their federal taxes. The sponsor takes a small percentage and the rest of the donation can be used to pay camera crew, editors, etc.

Sydney: You created an IMPACT CAMPAIGN. What is that about?

Julie: Since we are relaunching the extraordinary music of Lico Jiménez, nicknamed, “The Father of Cuban Lieder”, we are selling the recently rescued and republished symphony, piano concertos and songs in classroom packs. People and orchestras who buy classroom packs not only receive the music and biography, they help underwrite the costs of making the documentary. Our director, Isidro Betancourt Benítez, re-mastered all the music. The heart and soul of our impact campaign are “Afro Cuban German Lieder Incubators and Salons” that we are launching wherever musicians master and perform Lico’s compositions.

Read more about the film and impact campaign here.

Julie Carmen & Sam Neill in In The Mouth of Madness 1994

Sydney: On IMDb it says you have co-starred in films for John Cassavetes, Michael Mann, Robert Redford, John Carpenter, Nicolas Roeg, William A. Graham, Seth Zvi Rosenfeld, Franc Reyes, Tommy Lee Wallace, Carl Schultz, Dan Petrie, Jr., Michael Olmos, Tom Dolby, Tom Williams, Reinhard Hauff, Christel Buschmann, Alfonso Ungria and on television for Karen Arthur, Betty Thomas, David Milch, Paris Barclay, Debbie Allen, Deborah Kampmeier and Quentin Tarantino. Any stories you want to share?

Julie: Actually, I’d prefer people see the films themselves. I’ve always hoped there would be retrospectives for Cassavetes’ Gloria or Tommy Lee Wallace’s cult classic Fright Night Part Two or “Films about Walls”, where Reinhard Hauff’s Man on the Wall could finally find a wider audience or a retrospective about Latino Noir where Marcus De Leon’s Kiss Me a Killer would screen. They were all cutting edge films that contributed significantly to their genres. I always prefer people see the films rather than talk about them.