SHANGHAI, China, June 29 /Xinhua-PRNewswire/ -- This year’s Shanghai International Film Festival (June 16 –- 24) was again a huge success for the German film world. ACCORDING TO PLAN, the second film by Franziska Meletzky, won the Golden Jin Jue Award for Best Feature Film as well as the Award for Best Actress for the four leading ladies Kirsten Bock, Christina Schorn, Corina Harfouch and Dagmar Manzel. This is the second year running that a German film has won the first prize in Shanghai. Last year, FOUR MINUTES by Chris Krauss also received the Jin Jue Award.
Another German winner at this year’s festival was SHADOW CHILD by Hans Hege. The film received the Award for Best Film at the International Student Short Film Exhibition and Competition.
But the rewards weren’t the only success for German films. The FOCUS GERMANY section of the festival proved extremely popular with audiences, film professionals and the media. At the opening ceremony on June 18, many journalists took the opportunity to interview FOCUS GERMANY director Anno Saul and actress Tanja Wenzel (WHERE IS FRED?) as well as Joseph Vilsmaier and Dana Vavrova (THE LAST TRAIN), Julia von Heinz (NOTHING ELSE MATTERS) and Florian Opitz (THE BIG SELLOUT).
The German Films reception held at the German Consulate the same day saw more than 250 guests from the Chinese and German film industries in attendance. The event, at a wonderful location, was one of the highlights of this year’s Shanghai International Film Festival. One day following the event, the producers of WHERE IS FRED? inked an agreement with distributor Beijing Time Entertainment International for the Chinese theatrical release.
More than 20 high-ranking German film industry professionals, including directors, producers, actors and world sales representatives, attended the Shanghai Film Festival to present their films and to meet with local producers, distributors and filmmakers. Among other appointments, they met with Chinese director Wang Quan’an, winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, and other Chinese producers and distributors at a lunch organised by German Films, the industry association in charge of promoting German films worldwide.
The Shanghai Film Market, held from June 17 to June 19, gave the four participating German sales companies, Action Concept, Bavaria Film International, The Match Factory and Telepool, the opportunity to meet with their clients and present their films.
After this huge success, German Films is eagerly looking forward to next year’s Shanghai International Film Festival!
