12/12/2005

The five German films eligible to be nominated for the 63rd Golden Globe Awards, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association's awards, which will be handed out on 16/1/2006 in Beverly Hills, are Head-on by Fatih Akin, Snowland by Hans W. Geissendörfer, Sophie Scholl – The Final Days by Marc Rothemund, the German and Indian co-production Shadows of Time by Florian Gallenberger ,and Schultze Gets the Blues by Michael Schorr. If nominated, the latter (which is up against 59 candidates as possible 'Best film in foreign language') would be the first feature to represent the Konrad Wolf Film and TV School in this prestigious competition.

Schultze Gets the Blues focuses on a provincial man whose daily routine (from his work to the pub to fishing and enjoying folk music) is suddenly interrupted when he and his friends are fired. Since his daily life has lost all meaning, Schultze is forced to look to new horizons, which will lead him eventually to the USA.
This film written by its young director and produced in Dresden by Produktionsfirma Filmkombinat GmbH & Co. KG was shot in Autumn 2002 in Saxon-Anhalt, Louisiana, and Texas. It won the Special Director's Award in Venice 2003, starting an amazing success story involving many festivals and prizes, such as the German Film Prize for the best actor (Horst Krause) and the best picture, and the German Critics' Award as Best debut. This national success (distr. UIP) was soon distributed abroad, in Italy, in the Netherlands, in Austria and Hungary. This year, it was even screened in Canada and the United States. With a nomination for the Golden Globe Awards, Schutze's career would really reach an apex.

The list of nominees (in all 24 categories of the Golden Globes) will be officially announced tomorrow morning.

(Translated from French)