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Film guru Sarah Ward takes a closer look at German entertainment screening in Australia. Here you'll find everything from reviews and interviews, to festival previews. #KinoInOz
© Palace Films Sixteen years have passed Germany last won the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film, and it won’t take home the Oscar in 2022. Shortlisted but not nominated, Maria Schrader’s I’m Your Man would’ve been a spectacular winner, however — and, while this smart, savvy and humorous sci-fi romance speaks for itself, Schrader also chats with us about its stellar concept and casting.
Still by Jewish International Film Festival 2022 Originally released to mark the centennial of the Berlin-born fashion photographer’s birth, and now screening at Australia’s Jewish International Film Festival, Helmut Newton: The Bad and the Beautiful provides an affectionate snapshot of an exacting snapper — while also stepping through the constant dialogue his work has always provoked.
© Still from 'Ecocide' supplied by Transitions FF After directing 2017 documentary Beuys, writer/director Andres Veiel now ponders the future anger that could be directed at today’s ecological decisions — and the politicians behind them — in this Transitions Film Festival selection.
© Shadowplay International drama Shadowplay steps inside a fractured Berlin, across an eight-episode run that’s currently streaming on SBS On Demand.
© Enfant Terrible Returning to cinemas around Australia throughout May and June, the German Film Festival once again surveys the latest and greatest in German-language filmmaking, including two features with ties to one of the country's best-known directors.
© Wild Bunch_Marion von der Mehden A pivotal part of Australia’s German Film Festival for a third time, the 2021 Kino for Kids sidebar showcases key German-language movies aimed at children and teenagers. This year's lineup includes three features that adopt and adapt familiar big-screen genres and narratives for younger viewers.
© Frédéric Batier/Sommerhaus/Warner One of Germany's few homegrown box office hits of last year, this portrait of a family’s life in exile during the 1930s brings Judith Kerr’s well-known children’s novel to the screen.
© Hidden Life of Trees / Credit: Constantin Film When Peter Wohlleben explored the signals that plants send to each other in his 2015 book The Hidden Life of Trees, it became a bestseller. The documentary of the same name brings the German forester’s observations to the screen in a vivid fashion.
© NOW Screening in Australia via the environmentally focused Transitions Film Festival, this impassioned documentary follows young activists from around the world as they attempt to combat climate change.
© And Tomorrow the Entire World After premiering in competition at the 2020 Venice Film Festival, a gripping Julia von Heinz-directed political thriller is Germany’s submission for the Best International Feature Film category at the upcoming Academy Awards.
© Live In the filmmaking debut of actor-turned-writer/director Lisa Charlotte Friedrich, contact between people has been outlawed for humanity’s safety. Sound familiar?
© Christian Schulz/Schramm Film The year 2020 has been unlike any other in recent cinema history. Our Kino in Oz reviewer Sarah Ward looks back at German cinema’s past 12 months and picks the year’s standout films.
© The Trouble with Being Born Following an android child, its two owners and the roles the robot is asked to fulfil, Sandra Wollner’s sophomore film is purposefully confrontational — and, after being programmed and then dropped by this year’s online Melbourne International Film Festival, the Austrian/German co-production now premieres in Australia.
© Pelican Blood Nina Hoss is reliably exceptional in this purposefully challenging sophomore feature from filmmaker Katrin Gebbe, which first premiered at the 2019 Venice Film Festival, and now makes its Australian debut at the Brisbane International Film Festival.
© Schlingensief: A Voice that Shook the Silence Ten years after Christoph Schlingensief’s death to cancer, this dense, powerful and purposely chaotic documentary explores the artist, filmmaker and theatre director’s career and impact — with ample help from extensive archival materials.
© No Hard Feelings This striking debut feature won the Teddy Award for best queer film at this year’s Berlinale — and it’s now available to view in Australia as part of the 2020 online Melbourne International Film Festival.
© Lara Director Jan-Ole Gerster's sophomore film Lara, showing at this year's online-only Melbourne International Film Festival, sees German actor Corinna Harfouch serve up an intricate character study.
© Exile Boasting exceptional performances by Mišel Matičević and Sandra Hüller, this tense and perceptive feature screens at this year’s online-only Melbourne International Film Festival.
Photo credit: Tony Zara/Dean Walliss Less than six months after this year’s Berlinale, the COVID-19 pandemic has transformed the 2020 film festival circuit. Our critic Sarah Ward explores the changes — and the new film festival landscape in Australia and around the world.
© Netflix Netflix’s first German-language original series Dark has proven a huge hit since 2017 thanks to its time travel-fuelled narrative. With the show now wrapping up its three-year run, Sarah Ward takes a look at its thrilling final season.
© Filmgalerie 451 Throughout the month of June, Goethe-Institut’s own streaming service Goethe on Demand is filled with new and classic German cinema. If you’re wondering what to watch, our film critic Sarah Ward selects her five must-see picks.
© My Little Sister Appearing at this year's virtual SFF, Stephanie Chuat and Veronique Reymond’s film tells a familiar sickness-fuelled story, but Nina Hoss and Lars Eidinger — playing twins — are standouts.
Photo (detail): © Reiner Bajo With international travel shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, touring around Germany is off the cards. But if you’d like to do the next best thing and pretend, these ten films and TV shows will show you the country from your couch.
© Kids Run Worlds away from the Timeless fantasy trilogy, German star Jannis Niewöhner steps into a gritty role as a young father trying to keep his children in this affecting drama, which screens at this year's virtual edition of the Sydney Film Festival.
© Netflix Returning for its third season more than two years after its previous batch of episodes, this slinky, sultry, intrigue-filled German crime thriller once again steps into the glamorous yet complicated world of Weimar-era Berlin.
© joseharo via Netflix From Netflix and Stan to Amazon and SBS On Demand, here’s where you can watch the best German-language movies and television series if you are stuck at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
© Taxi zum Klo Nearly four decades after it first wowed the world with its honest and freewheeling depiction of gay life in Berlin in the early 1980s, Frank Ripploh’s Taxi zum Klo remains just as impactful. This groundbreaking film is due to run at this year's Mardi Gras Film Festival.
Photo (detail): © Hans Fromm/Schramm Film The director of Transit Christian Petzold returns with a film about an art historian who has a passionate affair with a diver. Paula Beer's performance in the lead role saw her win the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlinale.
© Deutsches Filminstitut A century ago, on February 26, 1920 at the now-closed Marmorhaus theatre on Kurfürstendamm in Berlin, The Cabinet of Dr Caligari first revealed its wonders to the world. It’s been leaving its mark on moviegoers and moviemakers ever since.
