Women’s Power and Warmth
01. October 2024
After five days of the festival, FILMFEST HAMBURG draws a positive mid-term conclusion with national and international guests, full cinemas, impressive numbers, the first Douglas Sirk Award winner, and the presentation of the Hamburg Production Awards.
“The first few days of the festival were simply fantastic – full of warm moments, lots of smiling faces and a great atmosphere. Our great program is inspiring, and many people are infected by cinema fever. This is also reflected in the ticket bookings. For the first five days of the festival, we are already almost 32 percent above the number of tickets booked for 2023 in the same period,” says Festival Director Malika Rabahallah. “The start could hardly be better and only increases my anticipation for the coming days all the more.”
After opening with Louise Courvoisier’s debut Holy Cow, premieres have included Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Heavier Trip, MICHEL selection Niko – Beyond the Northern Lights, The Investigator and the Syntax of Death, Reproduction and Desert of Namibia.
Other highlights have been The Wild Robot, featuring Judith Rakers and Roz the robot on the red carpet, the German premieres of Transamazonia and The End by this year’s Filmmakers in Focus Pia Marais and Joshua Oppenheimer, and The Girl with the Needle by Magnus von Horn.
One of the festival’s major highlights was the packed premiere of Roxana Samadi’s debut film Souls unshackled – Let us be in a hurry to be human, starring Jasmin Shakeri, as well as the series Why Me? with director David Schalko and actors Merlin Sandmeyer, Nadeshda Brennicke, David Bennent, and Lisa Hagmeister. The first of two Douglas Sirk Awards was given to Jacques Audiard, with a laudation by Fatih Akin. Additionally, the Hamburg Production Awards honored the producers of Happy Holidays, Vena, Von uns wird es keiner sein, and Deadlines.
The second half of the festival promises more stars and highlights on the red carpet: Andrea Arnold will present her film Bird and receive the second Douglas Sirk Award. Diane Kruger is attending the German premiere of David Cronenberg’s The Shrouds, Thomas Vinterberg presents his first series Families Like Ours, Michel Hazanavicius brings his animated film The Most Precious of All Goods*, and Nora Fingscheidt showcases her latest film The Outrun.
The Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival kicked off on October 1 with the film Diagnosis: Dissent, with the festival team and director Denys Tarasov in attendance. This marks the third time the Ukrainian festival has been a guest in Hamburg, running until October 4. Meanwhile, selected films from the program are being shown at neighborhood cinemas as part of the FILMFEST UMS ECK initiative.
On October 3, Hamburg audiences are invited to celebrate Free-for-all Day. Thanks to the support of the Hamburg Ministry of Culture and Media, 35 films across 14 cinemas can be enjoyed free of charge. Films include the literary adaptation The Door-to-Door Bookstore, the six-part series Black Fruit, the Moroccan film Everybody Loves Touda, Spirit in the Blood, Way Home and Timestalker. Many of these films have been subtitled in German, thanks to additional support from the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation.
Upcoming guests include Emma Nova and Paul Wollin (Vena), Christoph Maria Herbst (The Door-to-Door Bookstore), Nina Kunzendorf (The Black Forest Murders), Luna Wedler and Edgar Selge (Marianengraben), and Maren Eggert (The Sparrow in the Chimney).
Today, on October 1, the Albert Wiederspiel Award, sponsored by the Hapag-Lloyd Foundation, will be presented to Georgian director Dea Kulumbegashvili before the premiere of the film April.
The FILMFEST HAMBURG INDUSTRY DAYS began yesterday with the Explorer Konferenz. The MICHEL Children and Youth Film Festival will conclude on October 3 with the awarding of the MICHEL Film Award and the screening of the Dutch film Jippie no more.
The first edition of the festival under the direction of Malika Rabahallah ends on October 5 with the film The Room Next Door by Pedro Almodóvar.
FILMFEST HAMBURG runs until October 5, 2024. Tickets are available online and at the box offices of festival cinemas Abaton, CinemaxX Dammtor, Metropolis, Passage, and Studio-Kino.
