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Filmfest Hamburg has unveiled the full programme for its 32nd edition, which is set to open with Louise Courvoisier’s Cannes prize-winner Holy Cow and close with Pedro Almodovar’s Golden Lion-winner The Room Next Door.
French filmmaker Courvoisier will be accompanied by lead actors Clément Faveau and Malwéne Barthelemy at the opening gala on September 26 for the German premiere of her debut feature, which premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes where it won the Youth Prize. The coming-of-age film will be released by Pandora Film in German cinemas on January 2.
The Filmfest’s new director Malika Rabahallah and her team of programmers have compiled a programme of 124 films from 55 countries for this year’s edition, which takes place from September 26 to October 5.
The festival is set to host five world premieres ranging from Chiara Fleischhacker’s graduation film Vena from the Filmakademie Ludwigsburg and Oliver Moser’s debut feature The Colour of Air from the German Film & Television Academy Berlin (DFFB) through actress Roxana Samadi’s documentary Freiheit Im Herzen - Lasst Es Uns Eilig Haben, Menschlich Zu Sein to Eileen Byrne’s tragicomedy debut feature Marianengraben, and Carly May Borgstrom’s mystery thriller Spirit In The Blood.
The line-up further includes German premieres of Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Sean Baker’s Golden Palm winner Anora, Magnus von Horn’s The Girl With The Needle and Maura Delpero’s Silver Lion winner Vermiglio. Also included are 26 debut features by emerging international filmmakers such as Giovanni Tortorici (Diciannove), Mersiha Husagic (Cherry Juice), Türker Süer (Edge of Night), Subhadra Mahajan (Second Chance) and Indra Donaldson (Good One).
This year’s Contemporary Cinema in Focus sidebar is dedicated to filmmakers Pia Marais and Joseph Oppenheimer, with screenings of their latest films Transamazonia and The End respectively as well as previous productions Layla Fourie and The Act of Killing.
The Douglas Sirk Award, named after the director born in Hamburg and presented to a personality who has rendered outstanding services to film culture and the film industry through their work, will go this year to two directors - Andrea Arnold and Jacques Audiard - rather than just one recipient as in past years.
France’s Audiard will receive the honour ahead of the German premiere of his Cannes grand jury prize winner Emilia Pérez on September 28, while UK filmmaker Arnold will be in Hamburg on October 2 to accept the award before the screening of her latest film, Bird.
Previous recipients of the Douglas Sirk Award include Jafa Panahi, Wim Wenders, Tilda Swinton, Leos Carax and Sandra Hüller.
Awards with prize-money totalling $138,000 (€125,000) will be presented to films screening in various sections include the Hamburg Producer Award for German Cinema Productions, the Hamburg Producer Award for International Cinema Co-Productions, the Art Cinema Award, the Audience Award, and the MAJA Film Award for a film screening in the MICHEL - Kinder und Jugend Filmfest programme.
A new element introduced this year by Rabahallah following financial support from Hamburg’s Culture and Media Authority will be a Day of Free Entrance on October 3, the Day of Germany Unity.
Audiences will be able to obtain free tickets for screenings of 35 films in 14 festival venues during the day. The titles include Moroccan film Everybody Loves Touda, Ngo The Chau’s comedy Der Buchspazierer, Arnold’s Bird, the Irish Oscar submission Kneecap by Rich Peppiatt, and Lamin Leroy Gibba’s six-part series Black Fruit, which had its world premiere at Tribeca in June.
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