18/09/2003

The jury from the Export-Union of German cinema which had the task of selecting the national film to compete for the Oscar for Best Foreign Film has chosen Good bye, Lenin! [+see also:
trailer
interview: Wolfgang Becker
film profile] by Wolfgang Becker. It had its premiere at the 2003 Berlinale, where it immediately won its first prize, as Best European Film. It then went on to collect a further series of prizes, winning hands down at the Lola awards for German cinema. The film has also been a big hit with the public: it has now been distributed in German cinemas (by X Filme) for 30 weeks and it has been one great success of the season, with an audience of around 6.2m.

Bavaria Film International has bought the rights to distribute the film in 65 countries and it has become the most successful German film in Italy, France and Britain. In France, where it was released on September 10, distributed by Ocean Film, in its first week on release it had already registered an audience of 125,000.

Meanwhile, the other German film in competition at the Berlinale, Distant Lights by Hans-Christian Schmidt is being shown in competition at the 30th Flanders International Filmfest in Gent, the event which is dedicated to film works where the music plays a special role in the plot.

(Translated from Italian)