"Spielzeugland" wins Oscar for Best Live Action Short

Two weeks ago, the 2007 German short film Spielzeugland won the Oscar in its category.

Oscar.com has a nice site for the winner, where you can read Jochen Alexander Freydank's acceptance speech and learn more about the film. You can find it here.

Filmfest München

The Munich Film Festival (Filmfest München) comes to a close Saturday in the Bavarian capital. The annual midsummer festival presents six series of films: Neue Deutsche Kinofilme (New German Films), Deutsche Fernsehfilme (German TV Movies), Nouveau Cinéma Français (New French Cinema), American Independents, Retrospektive (Retrospective), and Kinderfilmfest (Children's Film Festival). The films compete for eleven prizes.

I like this festival especially for it's support and showcase of new films coming out of Germany. It's not as glitzy an affair as Berlinale, but it's an event not to be missed, and one of few major festivals that take place in the summer.

I'll post the winners of the prizes after the close of the festival.

Austrian film wins Oscar

The 2007 film Die Fälscher (The Counterfeiters), directed by Austrian director Stefan Ruzowitzky, has won the 2008 Academy Award for Best Foreign Film.

check back for updates

The New Metropolis

They are remaking Metropolis.

Let's hope the remake, from the producer of Alexander, won't star Angelina Jolie as Maria....

Here's the article from SciFi Wire.

Das andere Leben in Auschwitz

An article from the Sueddeutsche Zeitung about Israelis' reactions to Robert Thalheim's film Am Ende kommen Touristen. The film about a civil service worker who makes friends with a Holocaust survivor will be shown at the Jewish Film Festival in Jerusalem.

(only available in German)
http://www.sueddeutsche.de/kultur/artikel/571/147227/

The Rise of the High Rise

Deutsche Welle Online ran an article last week on the role of high rise apartment buildings in Wir sagen Du! Schatz, a new film by Marc Mayer. It's an interesting reflection on the "pre-fab landscape" in German cinema since 1989. The article is available here.