01/02/2006

According to Thorsten Ritter, Head of Bavaria Film International (BFI), Marketing and Acquisitions, his company was approached by the film’s producers at post-production stage, when the film was available as a rough cut. «It was the first time we were collaborating with the producers but we were pleased they thought of us for the film. They obviously appreciated our work on German films (including the 2004 Berlinale winning film Head-On [+see also:
trailer
film profile], 2003 international hit Goodbye Lenin! and the 2003 Oscar-winner Nowhere in Africa [+see also:
trailer
film profile]). So they brought us the project. The film was very good so I was confident we would be able to do good business with it. It was an emotionally engaging film, although I anticipated some problems with the interrogation scenes for the subtitled territories» said Ritter.

So what were the key marketing hooks of the film for foreign distributors who first saw the film in Berlin?

Marketing hooks for international distributors
-Name of the sales company
Bavaria Film International is a credible, respected and quality oriented sales company.

-Name of German distribution company
X Verleih is a successful and reputable distribution company well-known for its strong marketing campaigns.

-Awards
For arthouse films in particular, festival awards can be important as a stamp of approval for potential audiences, but not determining per se.

-Box office hit in Germany
The success of a film in its domestic territory is among the key elements to attract buyers attention. Here, the film had a strong opening and is one of Germany’s biggest local hits of 2005.

-Success of previous films with a similar theme
As Downfall was one of the biggest German hits internationally in 2005, releasing another German film with a similar theme when Downfall’s success was still fresh in people’s mind was a good potential hook for distributors. Other recent WWII films such as The Pianist had also scored well at the international box office.

-Cast
The lead actress Julia Jentsch was quite well-known internationally because of The Edukators, and she really carried the film, so BFI saw her as a very strong asset for the promotion of the film. They had also worked with her on her previous film Snowland.

Positioning of the film
The film’s producers and BFI had heated discussions about the positioning of the film according to Thorsten Ritter: «The producers wanted to focus on the subject matter and wanted to make sure nobody would be able to accuse them of being unfaithful to the historical events that took place», he explained. «New documents had just emerged about the ‘White Rose’ movement from Eastern German archives, documents that nobody before had been allowed to see.
But we at Bavaria thought that the international audience wouldn’t need too much detail about the historical facts and background information. We wanted to push on the emotional side of the story.
There was also Michael Verhoeven’s film The White Rose that had been shot before on the subject, an internationally renowned film that most buyers had seen. So we thought having Michael Verhoeven’s comments on Sophie Scholl would be good to promote the film. We wanted him on our side as his film was a milestone on the subject matter that dealt with the whole White Rose Resistance movement, whereas Sophie Scholl focused mostly on the last 6 days of one of the White Rose’s heroines.
The producers also consulted Sophie’s sister and other survivors of the White Rose movement to have their approval of the film. »

Strategy for the Berlinale 2005
Sophie Scholl was ready just in time for Berlin 2005 and as soon as the film’s selection in official competition was announced, BFI started to work on the festival strategy and platforming of Sophie Scholl in Berlin.
The first thing for the sales company was to send out a mailing to the buyers and give personal calls to key accounts to inform them of Sophie Scholl’s selection in competition, to give them general information about the film and BFI’s contact details in Berlin.

Advertising
An advertising campaign was booked in the daily trade publication Screen International with a front page to give the film a stature in the Berlin competition. A billboard campaign in collaboration with X Verleih was also visible outside the festival.

Screenings
The film had two official screenings, the gala screening and the press screening, then four other market screenings. The film played in the beginning of the festival (on Sunday February 13) and was very well received.

Sales closed
As a result of Sophie Scholl’s positive word of mouth during the festival, several territories were closed during the market and a press release was issued on February 17 with the names of the buyers including Spain (Lola Films), Scandinavia (Future Film), Portugal (Ecofilmes) and the territories in negotiations such as France, the UK, and Italy.

Awards
A second press release was issued at the end of the Festival stressing the two Silver Bears won by Sophie Scholl, the territories sold and the upcoming release of the film through X Verleih.

Post-Berlin strategy
After Berlin, Sophie Scholl continued its international festival round and screened at over 30 different festivals, winning awards notably in Brasilia, at the German Film Festival in Paris, and at the Hampton Film Festival in the US. The film also received major honours at the German Film Awards (Lola), including the Audience Award and Best Actress for Julia Jentsch. For Thorsten Ritter, one festival was particularly important: the Jerusalem Festival last July. Jewish audiences didn’t know much about the non-Jewish resistance in Germany and received the film with a lot of enthusiasm.

Oscars® nomination
Sophie Scholl’s selection as Germany’s official entry in the Oscars nominations further boosted the sales on the film, and its subsequent official nomination in the Best Foreign Language Film category will only help promoting the film. The US distributor Zeitgeist (who previously released the 2003 Oscar winning film Nowhere in Africa sold by BFI) is now pushing to raise the awareness of the film in the US and will release Sophie Scholl across the Atlantic in February.
Now that the film has been short-listed for an Oscar in the Best Foreign Language Film category, BFI has hired hire a US publicist who will try to reach the opinion makers in the US and Academy members. BFI will use the successful campaign it put together for Nowhere in Africa in 2003 as a model for Sophie Scholl.

Marketing materials for international distributors
BFI wrote a synopsis for the film and had a set of stills selected by X Verleih. The German distribution company also created the teaser and trailer for the film that was made available to their foreign counterparts. The US distributor for instance loved the trailer but actually made a few modifications at the end, focusing more on Sophie’s courageous side, using an image of her at the end to stress her heroic stand.
Generally speaking, to help foreign distributors with the local release of a film, BFI provides them with the posters, all respective contracts, B.O. figures, print run and marketing campaign from other territories so that they can decide whether to use it or not or adjust and evaluate the data for their own market.
The Swedish distributor Atlantic Films created an excellent poster campaign for the Swedish release of the film last September which was then used for Denmark.

The producers of Sophie Scholl themselves are very experienced with helping with marketing materials. They helped BFI send emails to distributors, did a lot of travelling at festivals and collected many different promotional and marketing information for the various territories where Sophie Scholl was released and is going to be released.

MARKETING SUPPORT FROM THE MEDIA PROGRAMME

Over 14 territories benefited from the MEDIA Programme’s Selective Distribution Support Scheme offering a subsidy (up to €30,000/40,000) for dubbing and subtitling costs and up to 50% of eligible costs for the distribution campaign capped at €150,000.