German hopes on the Croisette

by German Films

23/04/2012 - Among the titles announced by festival director Thierry Frémaux on Thursday for the 65th Cannes International Film Festival (May 16–27), the German film industry is well represented.

After My Joy [trailer] (2010), Sergei Loznitsa will present a second film in competition, the Second World War moral drama In the Fog (pictured), co-produced in Germany by Ma.Ja.De Filmproduktions-GmbH

Loznitsa will be joined by an old friend of the French festival, the Austrian Palme d'or winner Michael Haneke. He will be running with Amour [trailer, film focus], a co-production between France, Austria and the Berlin outfit X Filme Creative Pool GmbH where the love of an elderly retired couple is tested after the wife suffers a stroke.

Another Austrian with previous experience in competition was selected again - after Import-Export, Ulrich Seidl will present Paradise: Love, about three women and three love stories(co-produced by Tatfilm, Cologne).

Mexican director Carlos Reygadas competes with Post tenebras lux, the European co-producers of which include The Match Factory from Cologne.

The competition section also includes Holy motors [trailer, film focus] by Leos Carax, a French/German title which follows parallel lives for 24 hours (co-produced by Pandora Filmproduktion, Pola Pandora).

Fatih Akin will be in Cannes for the third time, this time for the special screening of the documentary Garbage in the Garden of Eden, while Sylvie Verheyde was invited in Un Certain Regard to show Confessions of a Child of the Century (France/Germany/Belgium), inspired by Alfred de Musset and George Sand's passionate affair. Un Certain Regard also includes La Pirogue [trailer] by Moussa Touré, co-produced by Royal Pony Film GmbH & Co. KG in Munich.

Finally Eicke Bettinga will be a guest on the Côte d’Azur again with a short film, Gasp.

The programmes for The Directors' Fortnight and The Critics' Week are yet to be announced.