Binnenalster Filmfest:
Music and cinema on the Alster
27. August 2024
Four magical movie nights with dancing and singing on Jungfernstieg: Together with City Management Hamburg, the association Lebendiger Jungfernstieg and the Hamburg State Opera, FILMFEST HAMBURG will be hosting a festival preview including a special open-air season opening one week before the start of FILMFEST from September 19 to 22, 2024.
Visitors can make themselves comfortable on the steps of the Jungfernstieg and enjoy the selected film program on the floating screen on the Binnenalster.
On September 19, the festival opens with the Oscar-winning film The Artist by French director Michel Hazanavicius. This homage to the golden age of Hollywood tells the moving story of film star, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), whose career is threatened by the rise of sound film. In contrast, the aspiring actress Peppy Miller (Bérénice Bejo) experiences her breakthrough in the new age of cinema. Shot in black and white, the film links to this year’s FILMFEST HAMBURG program with Hazanavicius’ latest film The Most Precious of Cargoes. The animated film, which premiered in Cannes, tells a poignant and poetic story about humanity and hope in dark times, based on the book of the same name by Jean-Claude Grumberg. It centers on a couple who live in an abandoned forest and take in a little Jewish girl who escaped from a deportation train to Auschwitz.
The film Shrek, produced by DreamWorks Animation Studios, is on the program for the second evening. The animated film is about the eponymous grumpy ogre who lives in a remote swamp. His quiet life is disturbed when a group of fairy tale characters, banished by the evil Lord Farquaad, seek refuge in his swamp. In order to get his home back, Shrek sets off on an adventurous journey with his talkative friend Donkey to rescue the beautiful Princess Fiona. This Oscar, BAFTA and Golden Globe-winning film marks the beginning of DreamWorks Animation Studios’ most successful series, whose latest work, The Wild Robot, is celebrating its German premiere this year in the “Transatlantic” section at FILMFEST HAMBURG. Narrated by Judith Rakers in the German dubbed version, with the original voices of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, Catherine O’Hara and Bill Nighy, the film is about friendship and adventure, inspiring both children and adults. As in the books by Peter Brown, the robot Roz has to adapt to nature and learn more about himself and his surroundings after a shipwreck on a desert island.
The third day of the Binnenalster Filmfest is under a special heading: between opera, oratorio and cantata, the tenth season under the directorship of Georges Delnon opens with Carl Orff’s “Trionfi”. Staged by Calixto Bieito and under the musical direction of Kent Nagano, the monumental trilogy will be broadcast live on the floating screen at the Jungfernstieg from the Staatsoper and tells of earthly pleasures, the omnipotence of Eros and the awakening of spring in the three important choral works “Carmina Burana”, “Catulli Carmina” and “Trionfo di Afrodite”. The title roles are supported by the choir of the Hamburg State Opera, the Hamburg Boys’ Choir, the Choir of the Liatoshynski Capella (Kyiv, Ukraine) and the Alsterspatzen – Children’s and Youth Choir of the Hamburg State Opera
“See that girl, watch that scene” is the motto on the last evening of the Binnenalster Filmfest. Between picturesque Greek islands, wedding planning and ABBA hits, the musical comedy Mamma Mia! tells the story of young Sophie (Amanda Seyfried), who wants to solve the mystery surrounding her father’s identity shortly before her wedding. Without her mother Donna’s (Meryl Streep) knowledge, she invites three men (Pierce Brosnan, Colin Firth and Stellan Skarsgård) from Donna’s past, all of whom could be her father.
All films at the Binnenalster Filmfest start at 8.15 pm. The opera program on Saturday for the season opening of the Hamburg State Opera starts at 7 pm. Admission is free for all visitors.
FILMFEST HAMBURG will take place from September 26 to October 5, 2024. Over 120 productions from all over the world will be shown as world, European, German or Hamburg premieres. The festival cinemas are the Abaton, Alabama Kino, CinemaxX Dammtor, Metropolis, Passage and Studio-Kino. The complete program will be announced on 10 September. Advance ticket sales start on September 12.
