CoverGFQ4_2016_Proof.qxp_Layout 1 21.09.16 15:35 Seite 1 GFQ GERMAN FILMS QUARTERLY SPECIAL ISSUE: ANIMATION & VFX DIRECTORS Toby Genkel & Ansgar Niebuhr PRODUCERS Studio Soi & Trixter ACTOR Kostja Ullmann ISSUE 4-2016 S.02-03_Anz_ACTRESS_CAMPAIGN_Layout 1 23.09.16 16:41 Seite 1 Paula saskia lilith Beer rosendahl STANGENBERG S.02-03_Anz_ACTRESS_CAMPAIGN_Layout 1 23.09.16 16:41 Seite 2 sandra julia liv lisa Hüller jentsch fries © German Films/Mathias Bothor/The Dream Factory S.04_Contents_GFQ_4_2016_Layout 1 26.09.16 12:50 Seite 1 CONTENTS GFQ 4-2016 28 29 30 31 32 34 34 35 36 36 37 38 4 S.05_CONTENTS_GFQ4_2016_Layout 1 28.09.16 11:40 Seite 1 GFQ 4-2016 CONTENTS IN T H I S I S S U E SPECIAL REPORT & PORTRAITS NEW SHORTS ANIMATION & VFX IN GERMANY ..................................................... 6 AM ENDE DER WALD WHERE THE WOODS END Felix Ahrens ......................................... 36 “IT’S A HIGH-PRESSURED SYSTEM” A portrait of director Toby Genkel .................................................. 14 AYNY Ahmad Saleh ................................................................................... 36 PULLING THE ELEMENTS TOGETHER A portrait of director Ansgar Niebuhr ............................................ 15 ETAGE X Francy Fabritz ................................................................................ 37 SOMETHING A LITTLE DIFFERENT A portrait of Studio Soi .................................................................... 16 INVENTION OF TRUST Alex Schaad ..................................................................................... 37 FOCUSED AND KEEN TO EXPAND A portrait of Trixter .......................................................................... 17 SEVINCE WHEN YOU LOVE Süheyla Schwenk ............................................... 38 START SMALL AND CARRY ON A portrait of actor Kostja Ullmann ................................................. 18 UPCOMING FILMS NEWS & NOTES ................................................................................ 20 BIBI & TINA – TOHUWABOHU TOTAL NEW FEATURES Detlev Buck ...................................................................................... 39 DOLORES HANNI & NANNI 2016 Michael Rösel ................................................................................... 26 Isabell Šuba ...................................................................................... 39 FAMILIE VERPFLICHTET KEN – THE MOVIE FAMILY COMMITMENTS Hanno Olderdissen .................................. 27 Claudia Rorarius ............................................................................. 39 DIE HÄSCHENSCHULE – JAGD NACH DEM GOLDENEN EI LOMMBOCK RABBIT SCHOOL – GUARDIANS OF THE GOLDEN EGG Christian Zübert .............................................................................. 40 Ute von Münchow-Pohl ................................................................... 28 PLAYING GOD RICHARD THE STORK Karin Jurschick ............................................................................... 40 Toby Genkel, Reza Memari .............................................................. 29 DAS PUBERTIER – DER FILM ROBBI, TOBBI UND DAS FLIEWATÜÜT Leander Haußmann ....................................................................... 40 ROBBY & TOBY’S FANTASTIC VOYAGER Wolfgang Groos ............................................................................... 30 ROCK MY HEART Hanno Olderdissen ......................................................................... 41 SIMPEL Markus Goller .................................................................................. 31 UNTER DEUTSCHEN BETTEN Jan Fehse ........................................................................................ 41 DIE VAMPIRSCHWESTERN 3 – REISE NACH TRANSSILVANIEN VAMPIRE SISTERS 3 – JOURNEY TO TRANSYLVANIA Tim Trachte ..................................................................................... 32 Shareholders & Supporters ............................................................ 44 NEW DOCUMENTARIES Film Exporters ................................................................................. 46 ER SIE ICH HE SHE I Carlotta Kittel .................................................................. 33 Imprint .............................................................................................. 47 FOUR PASSPORTS Mihajlo Jevtić .................................................................................. 33 NICHT OHNE UNS! NOT WITHOUT US! Sigrid Klausmann ........................................... 34 SEHNSUCHT NACH MYANMAR TO BE WITH YOU – MY FAMILY IN MYANMAR Seng Mai ........................................................................................... 34 ZWISCHEN DEN STÜHLEN TO BE A TEACHER Jakob Schmidt ................................................. 35 5 S.06-13_ANIMATION_VFX_GERMANY_Layout 1 28.09.16 11:50 Seite 1 SPECIAL REPORT GFQ 4-2016 KNIGHT RUSTY (courtesy of Sola Media) of Sola (courtesy KNIGHT RUSTY ANIMATION & VFX IN GERMANY hile the first German anima- Another key figure from the silent movie era the development of the experimental film tion films were made before was the avant-garde animator and painter move ment in America. the First World War, the first Oskar Fischinger, who experimented with Wanimator to command an in- photographing multiple forms such as ANIMATION UNDER THE SWASTIKA ternational reputation was Lotte Reiniger, melt ing wax, cardboard cutouts and swirling who became famous for her silhouette films liquids. He worked at the UFA studios in Meanwhile, back home under the Nazis, there created from back-lit paper cut-outs. She Babels berg on special effects for Fritz Lang’s was little chance of German animators being made her first animation film – THE ORNA- silent science fiction film WOMAN IN THE able to explore new artistic channels in the MENT OF THE LOVESTRUCK HEART – in MOON (1928) and also received commissions new climate, although Josef Goebbels’ Film 1919, while her 1926 classic THE ADVENTU- from the advertising industry. While Ministry ordered those filmmakers who had RES OF PRINCE ACHMED is regarded by Fischinger’s work earned him increasing remained in Germany to step up their produc- many as the first ever feature-length anima- inter national attention, the Nazis, however, tion and concentrate on animation features tion film consisting of 250,000 single images. did not share this enthusiasm, declaring his which could be released in the cinemas. In addition to shooting experimental shorts work to be “degenerate“ in 1936. Forced to and silhouette films from the late 1920s to leave his native Germany, he made a new Hans Fischer – also known as Fischerkoesen the mid-1930s, Reiniger also worked on sil- home in Los Angeles, working for such – directed and produced animated fairy- houette sequences for such live-action fea - studios as Paramount, MGM and Walt Disney tale fantasies such as WEATHER-BEATEN tures as Georg Wilhelm Pabst’s DON QUIXOTE (he was responsible for the memorable scene MELODY (1942), SNOWMAN (1943), and THE (1933) and Jean Renoir’s LA MARSEILLAISE of broomsticks marching in goose-step style SILLY GOOSE (1944) which were regarded by (1937) before emigrating to Great Britain in in THE SORCERER’S APPRENTICE episode of many as being on a par with the productions 1936 where she lived and worked until 1980. the 1940 classic FANTASIA) and spearheaded from Walt Disney. After the war, he resumed 6 S.06-13_ANIMATION_VFX_GERMANY_Layout 1 28.09.16 11:50 Seite 2 GFQ 4-2016 SPECIAL REPORT his career, working on commissions for the POST-WAR YEARS 1962 also saw Hamburg-based Helmut advertising industry with shorts for such Herbst establish his animation studio Cine- brands as Aral, Haribo and AfriCola, and is After 1945, Germany was flooded with ani - grafik to work on animation sequences for in- also credited as being the creator of the mas- mated films from the US, particularly from dustrial films and TimeLife as well as cot for public broadcaster Hessischer Rund- Walt Disney. After living under 12 years of the promotional trailers for the Third Channel of funk, the cartoon seal known as “Uncle Otto“. Nazi terror and excluded from the latest films public broadcaster NDR. Herbst subsequently (and music) from across the Atlantic, the also served as the producer for such indepen- As Jennifer Lynde Barker notes in her essay Germans were naturally keen to catch up on dent filmmakers as Hellmuth Costard and on Fischerkoesen in the 1950s for the book the pleasures forbidden them by the Nazis Harun Farocki as well Franz Winzentsen, a accompanying the Locarno Film Festival’s and this included films from Hollywood. collaborator at Cinegrafik, who made many Beloved and Rejected retrospective dedicated animation films for children’s TV schedules to the cinema in the young Federal Republic As Albrecht Ade, the founder of Stuttgart’s in- at NDR and WDR, including HIN- UND of Germany from 1949 to 1963, “Germany’s ternationally renowned animation festival, RÜCKFAHRT (1984/5) and TELEFONFIEBER Walt Disney“ was adept at tapping into inter- pointed out in a publication celebrating the (1984/5) and continues to make short anima- national trends of animation from filmmakers new generation of animators in the mid- ted films, combining the functions of director, as diverse as Disney, the Fleischer brothers, 1980s, Disney and other studios set the screenwriter, camera, animation and produ- Norman McLaren, Claire Parker and Ladislav agenda from the 1950s as far as the German cer, among others,