20/11/2008

The 6th Franco-German Film Meetings – organised by Unifrance and German Films – kick off today in Hamburg.

The event will be opened by Eva Hubert (director general of FF Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein), Kirsten Niehuus (Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg), Peter Sehr (P’Artisan Filmproduktion) and Gilles Renouard (delegate general of Unifrance).

The issue set for discussion on Friday is Experiences and developments in French/German co-productions, whose number has increased sharply in ten years, from three in 1997 to 17 in 2007. Participants in the debate on this theme will include producers Yves Marmion (UGC YM), Alfred Hürmer (Integral Film), Martin Moszkowicz (Constantin Film), Stephan Arndt (X-Filme) and Antoine de Clermont-Tonnerre (Mact Productions), Olivier Wotling (head of film at the National Film Centre), Christine Berg (head of DFFF at FFA) and director Christophe Barratier.

On Saturday, there will be a round table on VOD rights: the current situation and recent developments, led by Pascal Rogard (director general of SACD) and Harald Baur (Arsenal/Good!movies). Other participants will include Antoine Virenque (delegate general of the Federation of French Distributors), Bernard Tani (head of TV and VOD at Orange), Alain Rocca (Universciné), Tobias Künkel (Deutsche Telecom-Videoload) and Leander Carell (Nowtilus).

The programme also features a pitching session led by Marieanne Bergmann (FF Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein) and Michel Reilhac (Arte France Cinéma). Producers in search of partners will present five German and five French projects.

Finally, at the initiative of Unifrance, 14 young actors and actresses from the two countries will take part in the Up & Coming Stars meeting. France will be represented by Anaïs Demoustier, Nora Arnezeder, Mati Diop, Adélaïde Leroux, Alexis Michalik, Nico Rogner and Robinson Stévenin; and Germany by Marie Bäumer, Paula Kalenberg, Florian Panzner, Alexander Scheer, Henriette Schmidt, Paula Schramm and Kostja Ullmann

Forthcoming releases of French titles in Germany include Philippe Claudel’s I’ve Loved You So Long [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (launched last week), Christophe Barratier’s Paris 36 [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (November 27), Claude Miller’s A Secret [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (December 18), Diane Kurys’ Sagan [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Olivier Megaton’s Transporter 3 (January 8, 2009); and Laurent Cantet’s Palme d’Or winner The Class [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carole Scotta
interview: Laurent Cantet
film profile] (January 15, 2009).

(Translated from French)