09/06/2010

German Films is celebrating a jubilee: the 25th anniversary of the exclusive German Premieres screening for US distributors and buyers, to be held in Soho’s Tribeca Cinemas. June 14 will see the presentation of Ralf Huettner’s successful feature film Vincent Wants to Sea, which has garnered over 500,000 admissions at home so far.

German Premieres offer buyers of foreign-language films who are mainly based in New York the possibility to see a new film from Germany on a regular basis. Apart from the opportunity to speak with the film’s director and conduct negotiations on the spot with sales company representatives, the screenings often result in invitations to festivals or other events.

Moreover, of the 24 films presented in the series since it was launched in November 2004 with Dennis Gansel’s Napola, eight have found a US distributor. They include: Marc Rothemund’s Sophie Scholl: The Final Days [+see also:
trailer
film profile], picked up by Zeitgeist even before it was submitted as Germany’s Best Foreign-Language Oscar contender; Oskar Roehler’s Agnes and His Brothers; Dani Levy’s Go For Zucker [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Florian Opitz’s The Big Sell-Out; Chris Kraus’ Four Minutes [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; and Anno Saul’s Kebab Connection.

More recently, Eva Distribution sealed a US deal with Corinth Films during this year’s Cannes Film Festival for Juraj Herz’s Habermann [+see also:
trailer
film profile], which had shown at the beginning of this year’s German Premieres, in March.