The Munich Film Festival (June 23 – July 2) is showcasing many of the highlights from last month’s Cannes Film Festival when it returns with a full programme of features for the first time since 2019.
Munich pivoted online in 2020 due to the pandemic, and programmed a reduced number of films in 2021, mainly in open-air locations.
Munich is opening this year with Marie Kreutzer’s Corsage, which saw Vicky Krieps win the Un Certain Regard best performance award for her portrayal of Empress Elisabeth of Austria.
Corsage will play in Munich’s main Cinemasters Competition, alongside Cannes competition titles including Leila’s Brothers by Iranian director Saeed Roustaee, Albert Serra’s Pacifiction, Charlotte Vandermeersch and Felix van Groeningen’s Jury prize-winner The Eight Mountains and Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker, which won best actor for Song Kang-ho.
In Munich’s CineVision competition – for rising international filmmakers - 70 percent of the selected features have been directed by women. The line-up includes Riley Keough and Gina Gammell’s Cannes Camera d’Or best debut winner War Pony as well as Erige Sehiri’s Under the Fig Trees and Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun.
German Cinema
Meanwhile, 60% of the directors in New German Cinema section are women. The line-up includes Katharina Woll’s psychological profile Everybody Wants to be Loved, Sophie Linnenbaum’s sci-fi satire The Ordinaires and Hanna Doose tragicomic drama Kiss My Wounds.
Munich has also added a new competition section, CineRebels, for 10 radical or experimental films that can win a new CineRebels Award worth €10,000. Jonas Kærup Hjort’s The Penultimate, Geoff Marslett’s Quantum Cowboys, Pietro Marcello’s Scarlet Ciro De Caro’s Giulia and Mira Fornay’s Cook F**k Kill are among the selected features.
The festival’s CineMerit Award is being presented to Italian actress Alba Rohrwacher, who stars in Laura Bispuri’s Peacock’s Paradise, which is playing in the Spotlight section.
Munich is also paying homage to German director Doris Dörrie, whose latest film is The Pool. The tribute will feature her early film Straight to the Heart (1983) and — in a newly restored version — Am I Beautiful? (1998).
Ukrainian and Russian filmmakers also feature in the programme. The Spotlight section features acclaimed Cannes film Mariupolis 2 by director Mantas Kvedaravičius, who was killed during the Russian invasion of Ukraine, while the CineVision section has Maksym Nakonechnyi’s Butterfly Vision, a portrait of a woman returning from a war zone.
Together with University of Television and Film Munich (HFF), Munich is accrediting six Ukrainian film-student refugees and incorporating them into the festival.
At the same time, Munich is presenting current Russian films that take a stand against violence and authoritarian systems. These include Tchaikovsky’s Wife by dissident Russian director Kirill Serebrennikov, which was recently screened in Cannes. The German premiere of Serebrennikov’s Petrov’s Flu will also play in the newly introduced CineRebels section.
The festival has programmed 120 films from 52 countries, including 35 world premieres.
“Finally, we’re once again able to celebrate the entire spectrum of filmmaking, from intricate experiments to surprising blockbusters, from political cinema to exceptional entertainment,” said Munich’s artistic director Christoph Gröner.
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