2025 is shaping up to be a significant year in the life of Berlin-based production company One Two Films, run by Sol Bondy and Fred Burle.
The pair produced Ido Fluk’s well-received jazz tale Köln 75, which world premiered over the weekend as a Berlinale Special.
Burle also co-produced Ira Sach’s Peter Hujar’s Day, starring Ben Whishaw and Rebecca Hall, which had its international premiere at the Berlinale following its debut at Sundance last month.
They follow Armand from Norwegian filmmaker Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, which premiered in Cannes Un Certain Regard last May winning the Camera d’Or for best debut feature, and went on to make the Oscar’s international feature shortlist as Norway’s submission. The drama starring Renate Reinsve was co-produced by One Two.
Usually, One Two has about one film a year coming out, ranging from majority productions like Ali Abbasi’s Holy Spider to co-productions like Jennifer Fox’s The Tale or Juho Kuosmanen’s The Happiest Day In The Life Of Olli Mäki.
But this year there will be five. As well as Köln 75 and Peter Hujar’s Day, One Two is co-producing three more films that are currently in post.
Kléber Mendonça Filho’s The Secret Agent, starring Wagner Moura, is set during the final years of Brazil’s military dictatorship in the 1970s. The historical thriller wrapped filming last year, and is being sold by mk2 Films.
It is also co-producing Blue Caftan director Maryam Touzani’s upcoming Spanish-language feature Calle Malaga. The film stars Almodovar favourite Carmen Maura as a woman who unexpectedly rediscovers the possibility of love in Tangier. Films Boutique is handling sales.
The third co-production is Maltese-American filmmaker Alex Camilleri’s Zejtune, a contemporary comedy-drama set in the world of Maltese folk music.
One Two also plans to shoot three films this year: The Station, the debut of Yemeni filmmaker Sara Ishaq, who has been Oscar- and Bafta-nominated for her short films; Any Other Night, a comedy from Dutch director Michiel Ten Horn whose Fabula opened Rotterdam film festival last month; and Yellow Chrysanthemum, the debut feature by Japanese Brazilian filmmaker André Hayato Saito which extends his 2024 Cannes competition short Amarela.
World cinema
It’s a big and diverse slate of world cinema and English-language speaking films that very much sets One Two Films apart from many other German production companies.
Since it launched in 2010, One Two Films has been resolutely international in outlook and less focused on the German market. Its first co-production was Israeli filmmaker Tom Shoval’s 2013 title Youth.
Back then, Bondy worked with Jamila Wenske at One Two; Wenske left to join Berlin producer Achtung Panda! in 2019.
“I came fresh out of film school in 2010 and I was really struck by Israeli cinema at the time… then the film went to Berlin and all of a sudden we were on the slate of The Match Factory and the film sold to other countries. On a personal level, I realised I wanted to do more of this kind of thing,” recalls Bondy.
The world cinema focus also reflects the upbringing of Bondy and Burle. Bondy has a British mother and German father. “I’m very much rooted here in Berlin, but always felt international,” he says.
Meanwhile, Burle hails from Brazil. He joined One Two as project manager in 2017 having previously worked as a critic, curator and in film sales at The Match Factory. He became a partner in One Two in 2023.
“Coming from Brazil, it’s important to bring another perspective and other colours to the table – we have films from Morocco, Brazil, Yemen and Palestine. These are worlds that interest me because I can identify with their histories and their struggles.”
German story
In many way, Berlinale premiere Köln 75 is something of a rarity in being both a German story and having One Two as the lead production company.
One Two are well-known as co-producers. For Köln 75, Bondy says, “It has been a real passion project for us – we’ve put a lot of work, love and effort into it.”
Germany is rich in funding opportunities, but Bondy says it is rare to be able to find internationally appealing projects to maximise them all.
“Köln 75 is a story with an international appeal because it tells the backstory of [Keith Jarrett’s] world-famous concert with 4.5 million records sold worldwide since the ’70s. There’s a built-in audience. But the story is in Germany. And it has English players, so we could also shoot parts of it in English. It ticked so many boxes.”
Köln 75 also allows One Two to “show what we can do out of Germany. On an independent level like ours, without big players coming in financially, the €7-9m range is probably the ceiling.”
Burle says One Two’s involvement as a production partner varies from project to project, from helping to access funding to script development or finding sales and distribution partners. “Sometimes we do post-production here in Germany, sometimes we send cast and crew abroad, as with Calle Malaga. Or we do the music composing in Germany. It depends on the project.”
Bondy adds: “Our flexibility here is key. We have a deep knowledge of sales companies, distributors and very short lines to all of these financiers, TV stations. We have a history with a couple of success stories along the way, so some people are eager to work with us again.”
He cites Holy Spider as an example of this flexibility: “We started on Holy Spider as minor co-producers and then Covid came, and all of a sudden we became the majority producer. We took over the prep, the shoot and the post – the whole thing. Initially, we were just supposed to handle some of the post-production in Germany. But things change. This is where we can offer tailored solutions and opportunities for every film that we want to get involved with.”
The projects mainly come via One Two’s network that it has built up over the years. As well as festivals such as Cannes and Berlin, One Two will attend events such as European Work in Progress Cologne and TorinoFilmLab (TFL). For example, Burle picked up André Hayato Saito’s Yellow Chrysanthemum at TFL last year.
German funding
Looking ahead, one potential cloud on the horizon is reforms to the German film funding system including an improved version of its German Film Law (FFG), a 30% tax incentive and investment obligations for streamers. While the reforms are welcome, it is clear that 2025 will be a “transition year” for German producers, says Burle.
“For the German financing system and also for us, it’s very difficult to understand with which cards we can actually play for projects, partially because of the many delays in the negotiations about this new system last year.”
Another change to navigate is the departure of Kirsten Niehuus as the head of the important regional funding organisation Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, who retires in June to be replaced by Sarah Duve-Schmid. At this year’s Berlinale, MBB supported 15 productions, among them Köln 75, Tom Tykwer’s opening film The Light and Jan-Ole Gerster’s Islands.
When Duve-Schmid takes over, MBB funding decisions will taken by committee rather than by the managing director alone for the first time in its 30-year history; but this means a hiatus period for funding decisions.
Says Burle: “It is a very difficult year. Hopefully from next year on, we’re actually going to be way more competitive in the international scenario for co-productions.”
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