The Country Needs New Films

At the Awards of the Association of German film critics (VDFK) in February 2010 films funded by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg won in all nine categories. The big winner is »Das weiße Band« by Michael Haneke which was nominated in four categories and succeeded in all of them: Best Film, Best Screenplay, Best Camera and Best Actors.

Berliners can experience the increasing significance of the region’s film industry on a daily basis – whenever a road or a square is closed they can observe the film crew filming. »Action« is called over 40 times a day in Berlin. The film business is a growth sector and Berlin-Brandenburg GmbH is the central agency for both states for media affairs.

And ... action!

Major international productions, including »In 80 Tagen um die Welt« (Around the world in 80 days) and Quentin Tarantino's »Inglorious Basterds«, have been filmed in the region in recent years, not least thanks to the highly developed infrastructure for film production.

High-tech cinema, nevertheless, appears to have reached its peak. This can be seen in the dramatic decrease in visitor numbers of spectacular Hollywood films. The time has come for another type of cinema, for example »24h Stunden Berlin - Ein Tag im Leben« («24 hours Berlin - A Day in the Life»), a co-production by rbb and ARTE: The documentary lasting for 24 hours about a day in Berlin was nominated for the Adolf Grimme Prize in 2010 in the categgory »Information & Culture«. Additionally director Volker Heise and producer Thomas Kufus were nominated as well.

Kirsten Niehuus, Managing Director of Film Funding of the Medienboard on the further development of the location: »The emphasis of film funding will continue to be on cinema films. The region has an excellent creative potential which is also one of the region‘s most important economic factors.« This potential must be maintained and strengthened.