German Films Previews to present 19 films including Womb and The Silence

Previews “regulars” such as Norwegian distributor Frank L. Stavik of AS Fidalgo Film Distribution, Evgeny Kozlov of Russia’s Eurasia Cinema, and veteran Israeli distributors Ephraim and Nizhona Gilad will be joined by several first-timers, including Yuji Sadai of Bitters End and Coco Takahashi of Twin Co. from Japan, Gerard Huisman from the Dutch outfit Contact Film, Margherita Chiti from Italy’s Sacher Distribuzione, Seymour Wishman from New York-based First Run Features, and William Schopf and Ed Arentz from Chicago-based Music Box Films.

Last year more than 80 international buyers came to the Previews in Cologne.

The four-day event, which is organised by the promotion agency German Films and is supported by the regional film fund Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, Studio Hamburg and Hamburg Marketing, will be staging market screenings at the CinemaxX multiplex of new German titles and international co-productions with German involvement.

The 19-title programme ranges from Eric Friedler’s docu-drama Aghet about the genocide perpetrated against the Armenians between 1915 and 1918 and Christine Hartmann’s family film Hanni & Nanni through Joseph Vilsmaier’s Himalayan drama Nanga Parbat to Baran bo Odar’s The Silence (Das letzte Schweigen) which had its world premiere at last month’s Filmfest München and will be screened on the Piazza Grande in Locarno next month.

Meanwhile, The Match Factory will be showing Benedek Fliegauf’s first English language film Womb and Bent Hamer’s latest feature modern Christmas carol Home For Christmas in addition to its Cannes titles The Light Thief and The City Below.

Stelios Ziannis’ Aktis Film International will be in Hamburg with its latest pickup, Wolfgang Panzer’s The Day Of The Cat (Der grosse Kater), as well as Srdjan Koljevic’s Karlovy Vary competition title The Women With A Broken Nose, while Beta Cinema is represented with three titles: the family film Tiger-Team, Ralf Huettner’s box-office success Vincent Wants To Sea (Vincent Will Meer), and Uli Edel’s rapper biopic Electric Ghetto (Zeiten ändern dich).

In addition, buyers will be able to see promo-reels of such forthcoming titles as Tom Tykwer’s urban love story Three, Adnan G. Köse’s musical fairytale Homies and Lars Kraume’s drama The Days To Come as well as screen films from the 13 participating sales companies in a DVD library.

The Previews will also offer the local Hamburg film industry, including Corazon Film International’s Klaus Maeck, Riva Filmproduktion’s Michael Eckelt and Ute Schneider of schneider+groos filmproduktion, various opportunities to meet and network with the guests from abroad.