Stories about families and friendship supported by the FFA
- Half of the new batch of films that are receiving production support from the FFA in Germany will be directed by female filmmakers
![Stories about families and friendship supported by the FFA](imgCache/2016/07/26/1469528901804_0570x0400_0x0x0x0_1679322670097.jpg)
Popular novels, international arthouse cinema, new adventures involving famous children’s heroes and promising debut features are among a dozen projects that have been greenlit by the German Federal Film Board (FFA), which is giving out €4.2 million in production support. Half of the movies will be directed by female filmmakers, such as the comedy High Society by writer-director Anika Decker (Dreamgirls [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and Emily Atef’s new film 3 Days in Quiberon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emily Atef
film profile], about Romy Schneider’s attempt to rid herself of her empress image from the Sissi – Forever My Love trilogy.
Renowned German actor Josef Bierbichler (The White Ribbon [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michael Haneke
film profile]) is going to direct his first feature, Zwei Herren im Anzug [+see also:
trailer
interview: Josef Bierbichler
film profile], which is based on his novel of the same name and is inspired by his own family history in Bavaria. Produced by X Filme Creative Pool, the film will portray three different generations. With Neue Road Movies Dritte Produktionen, Wim Wenders will bring Jonathan M Ledgard’s novel Submergence to the big screen; it is about a young couple separated by their work as they head off on different missions in Somalia and the Arctic Ocean (read the news). The drama will star Academy Award-winning actress Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Paco Delgado
film profile]) and James McAvoy (X-Men).
After his successful trip to Hollywood with films such as Flightplan and R.E.D., German writer-director Robert Schwentke returns home, where he is due to shoot the historical drama The Captain [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Robert Schwentke
film profile], about a group of soldiers in crumbling Nazi Germany. Meanwhile, Mongolian filmmaker Byambasuren Davaa (The Story of the Weeping Camel) will return to the Gobi Desert, where a 13-year-old who is going blind is fighting to keep his father’s car-repair shop.
Thanks to FFA support, there are also several new children’s movies coming up. Tradewind Pictures has got the green light for the live-action film Pettersson und Findus – Findus ziehtum, which will be directed by Ali Samadi Ahadi, while Detlev Buck will continue the successful Bibi & Tina [+see also:
trailer
film profile] series. Produced by DCM Pictures, the new adventure, Bibi & Tina: Tohuwabohu Total, tells a story about finding asylum for three young Syrian refugees in a castle. Another film for horse lovers will be produced by Bantry Bay Productions: in Dagmar Seume’s Wendy, a teenage girl is not amused when she has to spend her holidays at a rundown horse farm, but her encounter with a wounded pony starts to change her mind.
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