10/11/2009

Lower Saxony is hosting the 23rd Braunschweig International Film Festival (November 10-15), which opens with a film shot in the region: Carsten Ludwig and Jan-Christoph Glasner’s 66/67 - Fairplay Is Over [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. The directors will introduce their film in person this evening, accompanied by members of the cast, including Fabian Hinrichs (Sophie Scholl [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Christoph Bach (Dutschke).

The film, co-produced by Berlin-based companies Frisbeefilms and Jetfilm, recently won an award at the Zurich Film Festival. It looks at the highs and lows of friendship between six Braunschweig football team supporters.

Ten debut and second European films will vie for the Heinrich Audience Award (worth €10,000). These include Mia Hansen-Løve’s Cannes title Father of My Children [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Mia Hansen-Løve
film profile] and Juliette Garcias’ Be Good [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (France); Diederik Van Rooijen’s Bollywood Hero (Netherlands); Tom Hooper’s The Damned United [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (UK); Álvaro Brechner’s Spanish/Uruguayan co-production Bad Day to go Fishing [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which also screened at Cannes; Norbert Baumgarten’s Mensch Kotschie (Germany); Marco Pontecorvo’s Clown [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Italy), presented at Venice; and Liina Paakspuu’s The Wish Tree (Estonia).

The festival’s most important prize, the Europa European Actors Award (€10,000), will be given to UK actor John Hurt, whose career will be the subject of a retrospective.

The "Music and Film" section will be dedicated to French composer Alexandre Desplat. Braunschweig’s focus on film music doesn’t end there; the festival will host a concert by Traffic Quintet, a masterclass and a workshop, as well as present the Leo Award for Best Original Score in a Short Film.

The line-up also includes a section on recent international production, a sidebar devoted to New German Cinema, a series of films from Upper-Normandy and a selection of six titles from among which a young Franco-German jury will choose the winner of the Kinema Prize.

Finally, a section devoted to Cuban cinema will show the directorial debut film by famous actress Hanna Schygulla (winner of the festival’s Europa Award in 2007), Alicia Bustamante - Ein Film von Hanna Schygulla.