News

Beta Cinema has given a sales update on a trio of titles on its slate as the Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du Film gets into its stride.

Swedish comedy Let It Rain, directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Hannes Holm, has sold to All German speaking territories (Leonine), to Benelux and Singapore (September Film), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Israel (Lev Cinemas).

Robert Gustafsson (The 100-year-old Man) stars as a grumpy widower who finds himself at the center of an event that could transform not only his own life but the fate of his entire village, and possibly the world.

The Physician II – sequel to the 2013 hit, with Tom Payne reprising the role of gifted healer Rob Cole – has pre-sold to Spain (Dea Planeta), Portugal (Outsider Pictures), Austria (Orf), Czech Republic and Slovakia (Bonton), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Poland (Monolith), Lithuania, Latvia and...

Leading sales agency Beta Cinema has revealed a tranche of sales to major territories for “Let It Rain,” “The Physician II” and “The Light.”

The Swedish comedy “Let It Rain,” directed by two-time Oscar-nominee Hannes Holm, was sold to Leonine (German-speaking territories), Benelux and Singapore (September Film), Czech Republic (Film Europe), Former Yugoslavia (Blitz), Bulgaria (Beta Film) and Israel (Lev Cinemas).

Robert Gustafsson (“The 100-Year-Old Man”), Jonas Karlsson (“The Snowman”) and Karin Lithman (“The Bridge”) star in the tale of a grumpy widower who, by miracle or coincidence, finds himself at the center of an event that could transform not only his own life but the fate of his entire village—and possibly the world. Holm earned two Academy Award nominations for “A Man Called Ove” in 2015. The film became an international box office hit in 2016, grossing over $30 million worldwide, and was later remade as “A Man Called Otto,” starring Tom Hanks.

German director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Hysteria has been awarded the Europa Cinemas Label for Best European Film in the Panorama section at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.

The behind-the-scene conspiracy thriller follows the drama on a German film shoot, a production about real-life arson attacks on a Turkish family by German skinheads, that kicks off when a copy of the Quran is burnt on set. That kicks off a cleverly plotted whodunit that also examines the issue of who benefits from fictionalizing real-world violence. “Imagine Knives Out meets François Truffaut’s Day for Night, but set in a present-day Germany rife with tensions about immigration and Islam,” The Hollywood Reporter critic Jordan Mintzer said in a rave review.

The Europa Cinemas jury—comprising Klaudia Elsässer (Art+ Cinema, Hungary), David Kelly (Light House Cinema, Ireland), Constanze Oedl (Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Austria), and Cenk Sezgin (Cinemarine Cinemas, Turkey)—praised Büyükatalay...

Hysteria, directed by German filmmaker Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay, has been named Best European Film in the Panorama section at the Berlin International Film Festival. The film received the Europa Cinemas Label, granting it additional promotional support and incentives for theaters to feature it in their programming.

The jury described Hysteria as a tightly constructed conspiracy thriller with unexpected developments leading to a tense final sequence. They noted its ability to spark discussion on pressing social issues while keeping audiences engaged.

The jury panel consisted of Klaudia Elsässer, David Kelly, Constanze Oedl, and Cenk Sezgin.

Thriller with Political Undertones

Written and directed by Büyükatalay, Hysteria follows a story that explores paranoia and manipulation in contemporary society. The film is a production of Filmfaust, with Pluto Films handling international sales.

The cast features Devrim Lingnau, Mehdi Meskar, Serkan Kaya, Nicolette Krebitz, and Aziz Çapkurt. The film’s cinematography is by Christian Kochmann,...

German director Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s Hysteria has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival.

The film, which has received rave reviews, unfolds against the backdrop of a film shoot which is thrown into disarray when a burned Quran is found on film set.

A young intern is caught in the crossfire and drawn into a dangerous game of secrets, accusations and lies.

Hysteria will now benefit from promotional support from Europa Cinemas and better exhibition thanks to a financial incentive for network cinemas to include it in their programme schedule.

The jury comprised Klaudia Elsässer (Art+ Cinema, Budapest, Hungary), David Kelly (Light House Cinema, Dublin, Ireland), Constanze Oedl (Stadtkino im Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria) and Cenk Sezgin (Cinemarine Cinemas, Bodrum, Turkey).

Hysteria is a filmfaust production, with international sales handled by Pluto Films.

The cast includes Devrim Lingnau, Mehdi Meskar,...

Imagine Knives Out meets François Truffaut’s Day for Night, but set in a present-day Germany rife with tensions about immigration and Islam. That’s the pitch behind Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s behind-the-scenes thriller, Hysteria, which kicks off when a copy of the Koran is accidentally — or not — burnt on a film set. Footage of the scene then goes missing, making us wonder who could have stolen it.

The incident happens during the production of a drama about the 1993 arson attack in Soligen, in which five members of a Turkish family were killed when a gang of German skinheads set fire to their home. Büyükatalay uses the recreation of that event as the catalyst for a cleverly plotted whodunit that questions the nature of fictionalizing real-world violence, asking us who ultimately profits off such issue-driven movies.

As with any good mystery, we have to keep guessing which person the culprit...

Crowds of filmmakers, producers and actors braved the frigid temperatures on Saturday to attend the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg’s annual outdoor soiree at the riverside Holzmark venue to celebrate Germany’s most successful regional funder and bid farewell to outgoing CEO Kirsten Niehuus, who is stepping down later this year after two decades at the helm.

Among the throngs of warmly dressed guests were Volker Schlöndorff, Martin Moszkowicz, Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, Sam Riley, Matthias Schweighöfer, Aaron Altaras, Leo Altaras, Florence Kasumba, Sunnyi Melles, Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz, Helena Zengel, Kida Khodr Ramadan, Karoline Herfurth, Julia von Heinz, Heike Makatsch, Philippe Bober, Albrecht Schuch, Helena Zengel and Annabelle Mandeng.

Kirsten Niehuus, Volker Schlöndorff

“It’s been a fun ride,” Niehuus told Variety.

“I think we really had it all. When I started 20 years ago, the capital region of Berlin was not the place to be for film in Germany. That developed over the past 20 years,...

A director and his assistant stare through a monitor at the pitch dark charred facade of a house, erected inside a sound stage. The house is a replica of the one in Solingen, Germany where a notorious act of arson in 1993 committed by a group of young far-right extremists left five Turkish migrant women and girls of the Genç family dead.

One of the more eerie early images in Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s (“Oray”) provocative and suspenseful sophomore feature “Hysteria,” is only superficially a reveal of the overrated genre that is the film within the film. Part of what makes the image eerie — other than the haunting opacity of its black and charcoal palette, reminiscent of a falsely abandoned Moria — is the gut unease it evokes about the motivations behind the cinematic re-enactment. For starters, who is telling whose story, and why? The meta implications “Hysteria” will need to address...

Filmmaking, both on a large and small scale, is a stressful business for various reasons, conceptual and artistic as well as practical ones. Basically, the source of stress is decision-making and the fact that it almost necessarily involves a group of people who all have their own lives, beliefs and identities. Misunderstandings and conflicts occur almost every day of shooting and, in that case, romanticising the “authority” of the filmmaker in charge is not very helpful.

Premiering at Berlinale, in the Panorama section, Mehmet Akif Buyukatalay’s Hysteria is envisioned as a tense, paranoid thriller set within the film crew working on a project that deals with the racism in contemporary Germany, referring to the 1993 Solingen arson attack. It is a project of a somewhat established Turkish-German auteur Yigit (Serkan Kaya) and his producer Lilith (Nicolette Krebitz), but of the kind that favours authenticity over spectacle. This is one of the.

Veteran director Tom Tykwer sends a magical Syrian cleaner into a bohemian yet unhappy family, bringing with her a flashing-light treatment for depression

Here is a weirdly incoherent and very long aria of semi-comic dismay from white-liberal Europe, and from a Germany whose bold “Wir schaffen das” – or “We can handle this” – Angela Merkel-era attitude to refugees has turned to anxiety. Veteran German director Tom Tykwer has created a heavy-footed magical-realist romp lasting two hours and 40 minutes about a complicated extended family in Berlin whose painful lives are turned around by a magic refugee whose purpose is to salvage their happiness. The film twice uses Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody to provide a jukebox blast of energy – the second time at the very end, worryingly indicating that the classic track is being brought on to save the day because the film is out of ideas.

Lars Eidinger gives a muscular,...

A bloatedly operatic saga about a liberal Berlin family coming apart and together again with the arrival of a Syrian housekeeper (Tala Al-Deen), German director Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” almost rudely keeps its audience in their seats for a very long 160-plus minutes. A discordant symphony of ideas around white guilt wherein the filmmaking itself does much of its own virtue-signaling despite trying to critique that very gesture, this slog of a Berlin Film Festival opener feels destined to languish on the European film circuit, a quote-unquote epic that would’ve been better framed as a four-part miniseries than a single feature that lacks the compression and punch of Tykwer’s 1998 breakout “Run Lola Run.”

Here is a quasi-musical, pseudo-sci-fi set in the drabbest pockets of a rain-drenched Berlin, unless it’s flinging us to Nairobi where Melina (Nicolette Krebitz) does penance for her own white guilt through Ngo work,...

On a snowy Thursday night, the 75th annual Berlin Film Festival launched with some heat — thanks to some fiery speeches about politics — as film executives, European buyers and movie stars trekked through the slush to celebrate cinema.

The prestigious festival in Germany kicked off with Tom Tykwer’s drama “The Light,” starring Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz as a dysfunctional married couple whose lives change with the hiring of a housekeeper (played by Tala Al-Deen).

But the real fireworks arrived in the form of a tearful speech delivered by Tilda Swinton. The actress, in a glamorous sparkling black gown, talked about the perils of political dictatorships around the world as she accepted an honorary Golden Bear for career achievement.

Swinton, 64, who has been coming to the festival since she was 26, spoke about Berlin as “a borderless realm and with no policy of exclusion, persecution or deportation.” She added that the...

Beware novel psychological therapies from Austria: You never know where they may lead.

In the curious case of German director Tom Tykwer’s The Light, which opened the Berlin Film Festival, such a quacky therapy — mostly involving a flashing LED light and an egg-timer — is Syrian refugee Farrah’s comfort, an escape hatch from the horrors of her life and, ultimately, a tool to heal the multiple afflictions tearing apart the German family for whom she is keeping house. The parents are in failing couples therapy, the kids are disaffected, and Farrah appears from nowhere to sort them out. Sort of like Mary Poppins, but with extra lashings of fragrant Orientalism.

At first, a handful of characters are introduced, the connections between them drip-fed, Magnolia-style, over a long series of intercut scenes where we see them at work and play. Milena Engels (Nicolette Krebitz) is working in Kenya on an arts project funded from Germany,...

The 75th edition of the Berlin International Film Festival opens today and, following the rather unceremonious end of its previous two directors’ respective tenure, all eyes are on new Berlinale head Tricia Tuttle and whether she can help the wintry film fest level up vis-à-vis competitors in Cannes and Venice. While we have ten days to reach a verdict, the opening-night selection isn’t the surprise some might have hoped for. Screening out of competition, The Light is a wannabe urban fairytale that finds German filmmaker Tom Tykwer succumbing to his worst maximalist impulses. Bombastic and nearly charm-free, this misfire may have its heart in the right place but is so deeply inarticulate one can’t even be sure of such.

Its story revolves around a bourgeois family in Berlin: Tim (Lars Eidinger) is a successful advertising executive who no longer has the coolest ideas; Milena (Nicolette Krebitz) works on...

Independent international production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Ilya Stewart’s Hype Studios to participate in financing and co-producing a slate of at least five feature films, Variety can exclusively reveal.

The news comes ahead of the world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s contemporary German drama “The Light” (pictured), which was co-produced by Gold Rush Pictures and will open the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 13.

Two of the five titles on the companies’ slate will be collaborations with the Polish screenwriter-director and two-time Berlinale prizewinner Małgorzata Szumowska, including “The Gambler Wife,” a dark comedy about Russian literary figures Anna and Fyodor Dostoyevsky. The anticipated feature, which was announced in Variety, is due to begin principal photography this spring. A second feature from Szumowska is currently in development.

Rounding out the slate are three titles with long-time Hype Studios collaborator Kirill Serebrennikov, whose previous four...

German auteur Tom Tykwer and producer Uwe Schott decried the limited funding opportunities available to make German-language films, ahead of the world premiere of their film The Light opening this year’s Berlinale.

“It’s always too costly, too expensive if you try and come up with really juicy cinema,” said Tykwer, who holds the record for having directed the most films to open the Berlinale. The Light is his third, after Heaven in 2002 and The International in 2009.

“At least in my life, the public broadcasters are real heroes,” he continued. “There are always these discussions about their role in society…...

After a decade spent exploring the lives “of my grandparents’ generation” in the 1930-set period series Babylon Berlin, Tom Tykwer has returned his focus to modern-day Germany with the cinematic opus The Light, the opening night film of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival.

Tykwer, along with The Light stars Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz, and first-timer Tala Al Deen discussed the inspiration behind the feature at the Berlinale press conference ahead of the movie’s world premiere on Thursday.

Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz play Tim and Milena Engels, a late-40s couple juggling privilege and discontent: He’s a trend-chasing ad exec, holding onto his left-wing progressive views while assisting major corporations in their greenwashing; she’s wrestling with a doomed arts project in Kenya. Their teenage twins spiral in opposite directions — one lost in Berlin’s club scene, the other in a VR fantasy — while their eight-year-old drifts alongside unnoticed.

Lars Eidinger, the star of Tom Tykwer’s latest film “The Light,” said during a Berlin Film Festival press conference that the drama exposes “the reason the world is on the brink”: narcissism.

The German-language film, which is set to open the fest on Thursday night, stars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz as Milena and Tim, the 40-something parents of irate 17-year-old twins. Tala Al-Deen (“Tatort”) portrays Farrah, their housekeeper, who challenges the family in unexpected ways but turns out to have her own agenda.

When asked about the hot-button topics the film addresses, Tykwer said that the generational divide between the parents and the children “is an abyss … You’ve missed the train! That’s what the other generation tells us.”

Eidinger added that “The Light’s” main statement is that “we are the reason the world is on the brink,” he said, referring to the generation of the parents in the film.

Tom Tykwer has long been a filmmaking innovator, and he’ll be pushing boundaries again with his Berlinale opener “The Light,” making its world premiere February 13.

The English-language release for “The Light” will be dubbed into English using the ethical AI company Flawless’s TrueSync technology which seamless fits the translated words to fit actors’ mouth movements — solving a problem for dubbing that until now was all but impossible to fix.

In an article for the World Economic Forum earlier this year, SAG-AFTRA National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland praised Flawless for securing “actors’ explicit informed consent before creating or editing digital replicas of their performances, using its Artistic Rights Treasury (A.R.T.) system to manage rights and ensure compliance.”

Crabtree-Ireland added, “The system will also integrate with standard industry tools such as Avid and Final Cut Pro, making it easier for productions to align with ethical standards. This...

Flawless has partnered with XYZ Films to sell US rights at EFM on an English-language version of Tom Tykwer’s Berlinale opening night film The Light that used the AI company’s immersive dubbing technology.

The process involves Flawless’s visual translation tool TrusSync, which has been praised by SAG-AFTRA’s top negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and matches up manipulated lip movements of consenting original actors to a dubbed dialogue track in another language.

The Light is the latest in a growing pipeline of international films to undergo this process that Flawless and XYZ Films have acquired and, in some cases,...

Flawless has partnered with XYZ Films to sell US rights at EFM on an English-language version of Tom Tykwer’s Berlinale opening night film The Light that used the AI company’s immersive dubbing technology.

The process involves Flawless’s visual translation tool TrusSync, which has been praised by SAG-AFTRA’s top negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, and matches up manipulated lip movements of consenting original actors to a dubbed dialogue track in another language.

The Light is the latest in a growing pipeline of international films to undergo this process that Flawless and XYZ Films have acquired and, in some cases,...

Tom Tykwer opens the Berlin Film Festival for a third time on Thursday with his dazzling snapshot of life in contemporary Berlin, taking stock of German society as the first quarter of the 21st century draws to a close.

It is his first feature-length film since 2016’s Saudi Arabia-set drama A Hologram for the King starring Tom Hanks.

Tykwer, who has spent the past decade immersed in the final years of Germany’s 1918-1933 Weimer Republic with hit series Babylon Berlin, has returned to the present with gusto.

He plunges his protagonists into a reality marked by digitization, globalization, climate change, job insecurity, global migration, conflict-driven displacement and rising political extremism, and watches them navigate this age of disruption.

Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz play chaotic, comfortably-off, late 40s couple Tim and Milena Engels, who are parents to 17-year-twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and John (Julius Gause), and 8-year-old Dio (Elyas Eldridge...

Timothée Chalamet and Robert Pattinson were among the latest high-profile names confirmed this afternoon as attendees for this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The pair were included this afternoon in an updated guest list shared by the festival.

Chalamet will attend for the German premiere of his Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown while Pattinson will debut his Bong Joon-ho flick Micky 17. Both films play in the Berlinale Specials sidebar.

Other confirmed guests include Conclave filmmaker Edward Berger who will present Tilda Swinton her Honorary Golden Bear. Jessica Chastain will hit the German capital with Michel Franco’s Golden Bear Contender Dreams, and Jacob Elordi will make the trip to Berlin for the world premiere of his Justin Kurzel series The Narrow Road to the Deep South.

Other celebrity guests confirmed today by the festival include Naomi Ackie, Rose Byrne, Toni Collette, Denis Côté, Marion Cotillard, Lars Eidinger, Mala Emde,...

Ahead of the Berlinale 2025 taking place February 13-23, they’ve unveiled their lineups for Berlinale Special, Panorama, Generation and Forum sections. Highlights include confirmation of Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 alongside Ira Sachs’ Peter Hujar’s Day, Ancestral Visions of the Future from This Is Not a Burial, It’s a Resurrection director Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, a documentary on the making of Shoah, a new Jacob Elordi-led series from Justin Kurzel, and more.

See the lineup below via Deadline and check back for the competition lineup next week.

Berlinale Special

Ancestral Visions of the Future

by Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese | with Siphiwe Nzima, Sobo Bernard, Zaman Mathejane, Mochesane Edwin Kotsoane, Rehauhetsoe Ernest Kotsoane

France / Lesotho / Germany / Saudi Arabia 2025

Berlinale Special | World premiere | Documentary form

A poetic allegory of the filmmaker Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese’s childhood, an ode to cinema and an inner nod to his mother. Through fragmented narratives and mythic imagery,...

Aussie filmmaker Justin Kurzel’s series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North, starring Jacob Elordi, will screen at this year’s Berlin Film Festival.

The Narrow Road to the Deep North was among several titles added to Berlin’s lineup this morning.

The festival describes the series as a “riveting new Australian drama” about a WWII hero haunted by his past. The show will screen as a Berlinale Special Gala. Also in Specials strand is The Thing with Feathers starring Benedict Cumberbatch. The pic screens at Berlin following a debut bow at Sundance and is from filmmaker Dylan Southern. The pic is an adaption of Max Porter’s novel about a grieving father wrestling with the sudden death of his wife while also raising their young children. As previously reported, Bong Joon Ho’s Mickey 17 will also screen. Scroll down...

"We are the reason why the world is on the brink of disaster..." The truth right there. Whoa! X Verleih has revealed the full German trailer for the film titled The Light, also known as Das Licht in German. It's the latest feature film from acclaimed German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, his first feature since A Hologram for the King in 2016, because he's also been working on the "Babylon Berlin" series for the last 8 years. The film has a March 2025 release date in Germany and will premiere at the upcoming 2025 Berlin Film Festival in February as the big Opening Night film. A family faces collapse as they deal with modern issues, searching for new beginnings in a troubled world. Their life is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious Syrian woman, who "puts the Engels' emotional world to an unexpectedly wild test." Filming took place in Berlin and North Rhine-Westphalia and Kenya.

A “typically dysfunctional German family” gets a spiritual makeover in Das Licht (The Light), the new film from Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas), which will open the 2025 Berlin International Film Festival.

The first (German) trailer for the film dropped Thursday, via local distributor X Verleih and Warner Bros. Germany (see below). It shows Lars Eidinger and Nicolette Krebitz as Tim and Milena, the unhappy heads of the Engels family. In the words of their daughter Frieda, played by Elke Biesendorfer: “We’re typically dysfunctional German family, where everyone does their own thing and does give a sh** about one another.”

The Engels get help in the form of a mysterious woman, Farrah (Tala Al Deen), a housekeeper from Syria, who enters their lives, bringing to light feelings that have long been hidden. But Farrah is pursuing a plan all of her own that will fundamentally change the family’s life.

The world premiere of “Das Licht (The Light),” the latest feature film from Tom Tykwer, will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 13, 2025. The German-French production will be presented as a Berlinale Special Gala out of competition in the Berlinale Palast.

“We knew as soon as we saw ‘Das Licht (The Light)’ that we wanted to have it open the 75th Berlinale,” the festival’s director Tricia Tuttle said in making the announcement. “Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen. It is our great pleasure to welcome Tom back to the Berlinale with ‘Das Licht (The Light).'”

Tykwer has already opened the Berlinale — twice, as a matter of fact. In 2022 it was his first international production, “Heaven,” that had the honor. The director and screenwriter most recently opened the festival...

Tom Tykwer is returning to the Berlinale.

The acclaimed German director of Run Lola Run, Cloud Atlas and Drei will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival with his new feature, Das Licht (The Light).

Tykwer’s first feature since 2016’s A Hologram for a King is a family drama set in modern-day Germany featuring Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz and Tala al Deen. It tells the story of the Engels family, parents Tim (Eidinger) and Milena (Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena’s son Dio (Elyas Eldridge). The family has been growing apart for years before housekeeper Farrah (Al-Deen), a mysterious woman from Syria, enters their lives, bringing to light feelings that have long been hidden. Farrah is pursuing a plan all of her own that will fundamentally change the family’s life.

“We knew as soon as we saw Das Licht (The Light...

The Light Photo: Courtesy of Berlinale The world premiere of Tom Tykwer’s latest feature film The Light (Das Licht) will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 13 as an out-of-competition title.

Tim, Milena (Nicolette Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena's son Dio (Elyas Eldridge) are a family that lives more side by side than together and nothing holds them together until the housekeeper Farrah (Tala Al-Deen) enters their lives. The mysterious woman from Syria puts the Engels’ world to an unexpected test and brings to light feelings that have long been hidden.

Incoming festival director Tricia Tuttle said: "We knew as soon as we saw The Light that we wanted to have it open the 75th Berlinale. Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen.

German filmmaker Tom Tykwer will open the Berlin Film Festival with his latest feature The Light (Das Licht).

The screening will take place on February 13. It will be a world premiere and the film will screen out of competition in the Berlinale Palast.

Starring in the pic are German actors Lars Eidinger (Dying) and Nicolette Krebitz (A Cloud in Our House).

The film tells the story of the Engels family. Tim (Lars Eidinger), Milena (Nicolette Krebitz), their twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon (Julius Gause) and Milena’s son Dio (Elyas Eldridge) are a family that lives more side by side than together and nothing holds them together until the housekeeper Farrah (Tala Al-Deen) enters their lives. The mysterious woman from Syria puts the Engels’ world to an unexpected test and brings to light feelings that have long been hidden. In the process, she pursues a plan all of her...

Tom Tykwer’s latest feature film The Light (Das Licht) is to open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival on February 13.

The German-French production will play as a Berlinale Special Gala out of competition.

The film’s cast includes German star Lars Eidinger, actor and director Nicolette Krebitz and Tala Al-Deenand tells the story of a family whose lives are changed by their Syrian housekeeper.

The Light was produced by X Filme Creative Pool, in co-production with Zdf, Arp Séléction, Gold Rush Pictures, Gretchenfilm and B.A. Filmproduktion.

Tykwer has opened the Berlinale twice previously: in 2002 with his first international production...

Tom Tykwer’s “The Light” will open the 75th Berlin International Film Festival. The German-French production, Das Licht (“The Light”) will be presented as a Berlinale Special Gala out of competition in the Berlinale Palast.

The film marks Tykwer’s return to the big screen after seven years and four seasons as writer and director of the hit series “Babylon Berlin.”

“We knew as soon as we saw ‘Das Licht’ (‘The Light’) that we wanted to have it open the 75th Berlinale,” said festival director Tricia Tuttle. “Tom Tykwer finds beauty and joy in our often fractured and challenging world, and magically captures the essence of our modern life on screen. It is our great pleasure to welcome Tom back to the Berlinale with ‘Das Licht’ (‘The Light’),” she continued.

“The Light” stars Lars Eidinger, Nicolette Krebitz, Elke Biesendorfer, Julius Gause and Elyas Eldridge.

Set in present day in Berlin,...

Look who's back! X Verleih debuted a quick 30-second teaser for a new film called The Light, also known as Das Licht in German. It's the latest feature film from acclaimed German filmmaker Tom Tykwer, his first feature since A Hologram for the King in 2016, because he's also been working on the "Babylon Berlin" series for the last 8 years. The film has a March 2025 release date in Germany, but no festival premieres yet - it's expected to show up at Sundance and/or Berlinale early next year. A family faces collapse as they deal with modern issues, searching for new beginnings in a troubled world. Their life is disrupted by the arrival of a mysterious Syrian woman, who "puts the Engels' emotional world to an unexpectedly wild test." I'm guessing the modern issues it's dealing with are about how xenophobic many Germans still are and how they don't really know how to accept immigrants.

Beta Cinema has revealed further sales on its Berlinale and Europe Film Market lineup, including “500 Miles,” “Führer and Seducer,” “Hammarskjöld,” “The Light” and “From Hilde, With Love.”

After a first deal on the upcoming Bill Nighy-roadmovie “500 Miles” with True Brit Ent. for U.K. was announced during the market, Beta Cinema has confirmed further territories have picked up the dramedy: Australia and New Zealand (Kismet), Middle East (Front Row), Italy (Maestro Distribution), Benelux (September Film), Greece (Feelgood) and former Yugoslavia (Discovery). Aardwolf Films picked up worldwide airline rights. BAFTA-winner Morgan Matthews will direct from a script by Malcolm Campbell, based on the novel “Charlie and Me” by Mark Lowery later in 2024. Roman Griffin Davis will star next to Nighy.

The market premiere for “Führer and Seducer” led to new deals with Condor Entertainment for France, Beta Film for Bulgaria and Tfg for Greece. Deals with Spain (A...

Picturehouse Entertiainment has picked up From Hilde, With Love, the new drama from German director Andreas Dresen (Stopped on Track) for the U.K. and Ireland, adding to a swath of European deals for the title, which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival last month.

Liv Lisa Fries (Babylon Berlin) stars in the 1940s-set drama as Hilde Coppi, a member of a left-wing anti-Nazi resistance cell. Beta, which is handling international sales for the movie, previously announced deals for From Hilde, With Love with Haut et Court in France, Teodora in Italy, Angel Film across Scandinavia, September Film for Benelux and Outsider for Portugal, among other deals. Palace Film will release From Hilde, With Love in Australia and New Zealand. Pandora Film Verleih is handling the German release and will bow the movie in German-speaking territories this October.

Beta also announced a series of deals for its upcoming Bill Nighy road movie 500 Miles,...

International independent production company and financier Gold Rush Pictures has signed a deal with Germany’s X Filme Creative Pool to participate in financing and co-produce the next three projects written and directed and/or produced by Tom Tykwer, including features and TV series.

The partnership follows Gold Rush Pictures recent investment in Tykwer’s German contemporary drama “The Light,” the filmmaker’s return to the big screen after seven years and four seasons as writer and director of the hit series “Babylon Berlin.” It is the writer-director’s first feature film since his 2016 adaptation of “A Hologram for the King,” starring Tom Hanks.

Currently in production, “The Light” (“Das Licht”) centres on a troubled family who take on a mysterious woman as a housekeeper. When she successfully shakes up the lives of the family, she then confronts them with the dark fate of her own. The film stars Lars Eidinger,...

Following up her Best Picture-nominated Past Lives, Celine Song has officially unveiled her next feature. Starring Dakota Johnson, Chris Evans, and Pedro Pascal, The Materialists is a romantic comedy that follows “a professional matchmaker who gets involved with a wealthy man but still harbors feelings for the broke actor-waiter she left behind,” Deadline reports. Once again backed by A24, producers Christine Vachon and Pam Koffler of Killer Films, and 2Am’s David Hinojosa, the project is aiming to start shooting this spring, so expect a 2025 release.

Also on the 2025 release calendar is likely Kogonada’s third feature following Columbus and After Yang. Reteaming with Colin Farrell with Margot Robbie also starring, A Big Bold Beautiful Journey is said to be an “imaginative tale of two strangers and the unbelievable journey that connects them,” Deadline reports. With production beginning this spring in California, it’ll be Robbie’s second project after Barbie,...

Pluto Film has expanded its lineup ahead of this year’s EFM in Berlin with Generation 14plus screener “Huling Palabas.”

The Berlin-based sales company has also acquired the historical drama “Sima’s Song” by award-winning Afghan director Roya Sadat; Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay’s timely and suspenseful German social drama “Hysteria”; and Luxembourgish helmer Eric Lamhène’s “Breathing Underwater,” which explores violence against women.

Ryan Espinosa Machado’s Philippine coming-of-age drama “Huling Palabas,” described by Pluto Film CEO Daniela Cölle as “a charming LGBTQ debut,” follows a 16-year-old boy in 2001 who, while searching for his father in the most unlikely of places, becomes mystified by two movie-like characters who appear in his small town.

“Huling Palabas” is produced by the Philippines’ Tilt Studios, Terminal Six, Waf Studios and Studio Pulo.

“Sima’s Song”

“Sima’s Song” stars Mozhdah Jamalzadah and Niloufar Koukhani as Suraya and Sima, lifelong friends whose lives take...

Beta Cinema will start selling The Light, Tom Tykwer’s return to the big screen after seven years, at the upcoming European Film Market and has released a first look image of the film.

Beta Cinema is handling sales for all territories except German-speaking territories, France and North America.

Set in present day in Berlin, The Light is billed as a portrait of a modern family between collapse and new beginnings.

It stars Lars Eidinger, who will next been seen be in Matthias Glasner’s Berlinale competiton entry Dying, actress/director Nicolette Krebitz from Aieou and Wild, alongside Elke Biesendorfer,...

Tom Tykwer’s return to the big screen is getting closer. After seven years working in television, co-creating and co-directing, with Henk Handlogten and Achim von Borries, four seasons of acclaimed period drama Babylon Berlin, the German director of Run Lola Run, The International and Cloud Atlas will mark his movie comeback with the contemporary German-language drama The Light (Das Licht).

Tykwer’s production house X Filme Creative Pool, German distributor X Verleih and Beta Cinema, which have picked up international sales rights for the film, on Thursday unveiled the first look of The Light. The still, which almost resembles a Renaissance painting, features star Tala al Deen bathed in a radiant glow from a device on the table in front of her.

Al Deen plays Farrah, a mysterious Syrian woman who enters the lives of the Engels, a middle-class German family whose world is slowly unraveling. Nothing appears to...

Tom Tykwer is coming back to the movies.

The German director of Run Lola Run and Cloud Atlas has announced his return to filmmaking with the German drama Das Licht (The Light).

The feature, which has just wrapped principal photography, is described as a portrait of a family “between collapse and new beginnings” and deals with the major issues of our time “in a world that is reeling.”

Das Licht is Tykwer’s first feature film since 2016’s A Hologram for the King, starring Tom Hanks. He has spent the past seven years on TV, co-creating and co-directing, with Henk Handloegten and Achim von Borries, four seasons of the acclaimed and award-winning German historic series Babylon Berlin.

Das Licht stars Babylon Berlin alum Lars Eidinger and actor-director Nicolette Krebitz (Wild, My Zoe) as Tim and Milena Engels, a couple whose family, including nearly grown twins Frieda (Elke Biesendorfer) and Jon...

"Your dreams shall soon be true, but your nightmares will be, too." Amazon's Prime Video has revealed an official trailer for an adaptation of the "Dream a Little Dream" books called Silver. The full title is Silver and the Book of Dreams, and it is a German production in English for Prime Video - streaming on the service as of today, on December 8th. "Five friends, five dreams, five nightmares." Liv moves to London with her mother Ann and little sister Mia. She meets the mysterious Henry, who belongs to a secret circle that possesses the ability of "lucid dreaming", but their dream fulfillment will come with a high price. She and her band of dream-wanderers conduct a ritual to make their biggest dream come true, but it will demand the gravest sacrifice. Of course this perfect "dream" life will fall apart. This stars Jana McKinnon as Liv, with Rhys Mannion,...

’The Light’ is one of a slate of features to receive backing from German regional fund Film-und Medienstiftung Nrw.

The Light, Tom Tykwer’s first film for the cinema since his 2016 German-us comedy A Hologram For The King is one of 10 feature film projects allocated almost €6m in production support by the Düsseldorf-based regional fund Film-und Medienstiftung Nrw.

Tykwer’s original screenplay for The Light (Das Licht) centres on a troubled family who take on a Syrian immigrant as a housekeeper. When she successfully shakes up the lives of the family she then confronts them with the dark fate of her own.

Following The Film Stage’s collective top 50 films of 2022, as part of our year-end coverage, our contributors are sharing their personal top 10 lists.

Three years after the pandemic broke out, things––including moviegoing––are finally starting to feel normal again. It would have been an even more joyous occasion if only 2022 has yielded a stronger crop of films to offer those rushing back to theaters.

Of course many, many good films came out in the last twelve months; great ones too––entertaining, informative, artistic works that anyone would be doing themselves a favor by checking out. But films that make you go for the M(asterpiece) word, that you know right away would be top 10 material? Not that many by my count. Ruben Östlund’s Triangle of Sadness, for example, is super fun and features awards-worthy performances from Zlatko Buric and Dolly De Leon, although I’m not sure if...

Exclusive: Amazon and German production and distribution force Constantin Film are teaming up on YA fantasy feature Silver (working title), based on the popular novel series of the same name by Kerstin Gier.

Silver will chart the story of 17-year-old Liv who moves to London with her mother Ann and little sister Mia. When Liv meets the mysterious Henry, everything changes. He belongs to a secret circle that possesses the ability of ‘lucid dreaming’. But little do they know that the fulfillment of their dreams comes with a high price.

The cast, largely made up of emerging and breakout actors and actresses, includes Jana McKinnon (We Children of Bahnhof Zoo) as Liv, Riva Krymalowski (When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit) as Mia, Rhys Mannion (It Is In Us All) as Henry, Chaneil Kular (Sex Education) as Arthur, Efeosa Afolabi as Jasper, Théo Augier as Grayson, Josephine Blazier as Anabel, Samirah Breuer...

International competition titles include ‘Broker’ and ‘Decision To Leave’ from South Korea.

Jerusalem Film Festival (Jff) has revealed the line-up of international competition titles for its 39th edition, which includes several award-winners from this year’s Cannes.

Ten features will compete in the international competition of Jff, which is set to host its 39th edition from July 21-31.

These include Hirokazu Kore-eda’s Broker and Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave from South Korea, which respectively picked up best actor for Song Kang-ho and best director for Park. Also selected is Abi Abbasi’s Holy Spider, which saw Zar Amir-Ebrahimi pick up best actress,...

The biggest recipient is Valeska Grisebach’s fourth feature ‘The Dreamt Adventurer’ (working title).

Four projects, all by women filmmakers, have been supported by the German-French Funding Commission made up of representatives from Germany’s Ffa and France’s Cnc.

The largest single amount of production funding of € 360,000 went to Valeska Grisebach’s fourth feature film The Dreamt Adventurer (Der Geträumte Abenteuer). It will be the latest collaboration between Germany’s Komplizen Films and France’s Kazak Productions, co-producers of Filmfest München’s opening film Corsage, as well as Sebastian Schipper’s 2019 film Roads and actress-director Nicolette Krebitz’s Berlinale...

The funds boosted inward investment on film and high-end TV series by a record €740m ($841m) in ’German spend’ last year.

Two of Germany’s leading production incentive programmes boosted inward investment on film and high-end TV series by a record €740m ($841m) in ’German spend’ last year.

The 2021 figure is up on the €715m generated in 2019, despite pandemic-related restrictions on production.

The German Federal Film Fund (Dfff) and German Motion Picture Fund (Gmpf) paid out a combined total of €147.4m in 2021, up €62.8m on 2020 and €11.9m more in the pre-pandemic year of 2019, generating an almost five-fold increase in the initial outlay.

The Consonants of Love: Krebitz Gets Caught in an Odd Romance

“It all begins with A,” so begins the omniscient third-person narration of Anna, an actress in her sixties played by the captivating Sophie Rois. It suggests an obvious pattern of themes to come in the ungainly titled Aeiou – A Quick Alphabet of Love (Aeiou — Das schnelle alphabet der liebe), the fourth feature from director Nicolette Krebitz, who seems to revel in characters forced to reinvent themselves through unexpected romantic connections. To her credit, Krebitz ends up delivering something completely unpredictable, though it’s a film clogged with choices which range from magical to agonizingly unpleasant.…...