The 11th annual German Currents Film Festival is produced and presented by the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles and the American Cinematheque, with the support of German Films, Deutsche Welle (DW) and the Friends of Goethe, and in cooperation with Achtung Berlin – new Berlin Film award, the German Consulate General, the Austrian Consulate General and the Consulate General of Switzerland. With that much international support going for it, this has got to be one heck of a festival!
With German films screened in major film festivals from the Berlin, Cannes, Venice and Toronto all the way to the Golden Globes and Oscars, 2017 has been a very successful year for German cinema. The 11th annual German Currents festival features some of the best films of the past year from Germany and the German-speaking neighbors Switzerland and Austria. Most of the films in the festival will be making their Los Angeles premieres during these four days, and several programs will include discussions with the filmmakers in person.
The series begins at the Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood with a red-carpet gala presentation of Tiger Girl, which earlier this year had its successful debut in Berlin. Director Jakob Lass (Love Steaks) will be there in person for a discussion after the film, which in turn will be followed by an opening-night reception on the gorgeous patio entrance of the theater itself. The very same place many a reception was held for movies back in the early years of Hollywood.
The following night, Saturday October 14, Tiger Milk (no connection to Tiger Girl) will play on a double bill with Goodbye Berlin. Tiger Milk's director Ute Wieland, cinematographer Felix Cramer and producer Susanne Freyer will be in attendance for the U.S. premiere of the film. Both films are stories about coming-of-age, and have enjoyed many awards including a Bavarian Film Award for Goodbye Berlin's director Fatih Akin (Head-On).
Acclaimed artists are the main characters in two of this year’s German Currents films. Andres Veiel’s (If Not Us, Who?) documentary Beuys focuses on one of the most influential German artists of the 20th century, Joseph Beuys. From Austria, Dieter Berner’s Egon Schiele: Death & the Maiden looks at the famed Viennese painter’s life and two of the women in it. And from Switzerland, the festival presents the country’s official submission to the Academy Awards, The Divine Order, which was written and directed by Petra Volpe (Dreamland), who will be in attendance for this Los Angeles premiere of her film. The series concludes Monday the 16th with a FREE matinee screening of The Peppercorns & The Curse of the Black King for Los Angeles-area students.
All films are in German with English subtitles. So, there's no excuse not to get out and get yourself a taste of European cinema. It might just surprise you how relevant the cinema of the German culture is to our own. Tschus!