21ST FESTIVAL OF GERMAN FILMS IN MADRID
The latest in German cinema was celebrated at the Festival de Cine Alemán in Madrid from 4 to 9 June. The opening in the Palacio de la Prensa, a cinema built in 1929 and steeped in tradition, was a great success with more than 800 guests. Following the screening of GUNDERMANN, director Andreas Dresen and lead actor Alexander Scheer spoke about the film in depth with the Spanish audience and gave a concert playing guitars and a ukulele. They did the Gundermann songs proud and included Dresen’s favorite song, “... and the grass keeps growing” (Gras by Gerhard Gundermann). But Dresen and Scheer weren’t the only ones to come to Madrid for the event: BEAUTY & DECAY director Annekatrin Hendel and DoP Martin Farkas, director Yasemin Samdereli (THE NIGHT OF ALL NIGHTS), director Erik Schmitt and actress Marleen Lohse (both for CLEO) and Fariba Buchheim with her short documentary SHAPES (from the NEXT GENERATION SHORT TIGER 2019 program of short films) also attended the festival.
CLEO was the audience’s darling and received the festival’s Audience Award, which was sponsored by the Spanish VOD platform Filmin. GUNDERMANN was also well received by Madrid’s cinema-goers, the second performance was a sell-out. Director Dennis Gansel and actor Henning Baum sent video greetings for JIM BUTTON AND LUKE THE ENGINE DRIVER. The performance of the children’s classic was packed with over 700 cheering and applauding young cinema fans. The hall was also almost full for the screening of ALL ABOUT ME which is being released locally by the Spanish distributor Wanda Visión on August 23rd.