25/08/2009

Even before the first meter of film was shot this summer, UFA Cinema, the new kid on the German production scene, had been regularly grabbing the headlines over the past 18 months. Eyebrows were raised in the production community at the end of 2007 when UFA – part of RTL Group’s content production arm FremantleMedia announced the creation of a new producer-distributor to deliver feature films for the German and international markets. Based in Potsdam and Munich, the new outfit landed something of a coup from the outset by enticing Thomas Peter Friedl after 18 years at Constantin Film to join UFA CEO Wolf Bauer, teamWorx CEO Nico Hofmann and teamWorx managing director Juergen Schuster in UFA Cinema's management from April 2008.

Good timing
The decision to set up UFA Cinema couldn't have been better timed, according to UFA Cinema's management. "Even though the feature film sector continues to be a very volatile and hit-driven business, the market share of German productions has been growing continuously over the years," observes Wolf Bauer. "In 2008, German films reached the highest level since 1991 with a total market share of 26.6%."

"The DFFF financing model of State Minister for Culture Bernd Neumann and the diverse opportunities also opened up to feature films by digitalization have considerably improved the economic parameters for the production and exploitation of feature films," he continues. "And, finally, the standing of German cinema abroad has grown massively," Bauer explains. "In the meantime, German films have become an export article in demand again. In short: feature film production on a larger scale again represents a workable business model."

Genre spread
Looking at the projects UFA Cinema has greenlit to go into production with budgets ranging from Euros 5 million to Euros 30 million, Nico Hofmann points out that "UFA Cinema's portfolio of productions is quite clearly about commercially-oriented filmmakers' cinema with a wide diversity of genres."

Thus, UFA Cinema's slate includes plans for adaptations of books by screenwriter and novelist David Safier (Lousy Karma and Jesus Loves Me), comic book supremo Ralf Koenig (Hempel's Sofa and Prototyp), The Reader's Bernhard Schlink (The Weekend), and Leonie Swann (Glennkill) as well as a German-language version of Robert Harris’ political thriller Vaterland and an adaptation of Noah Gordon's best-seller The Physician in English for the international market.

A second category is family entertainment which is being kicked off this summer with the principal photography for two projects: Granz Henman's The Devil's Kickers, adapted from the Frauke Nahrgang's books, and The O'Sullivan Twins, the first feature film to be based on the Enid Blyton series of children's books.

Comedy is the third genre coming under the spotlight at UFA Cinema because, as Friedl notes, "when you look at the 180 German films coming out each year, the proportion of comedies is small." Indeed, one of UFA Cinema's first productions to go before the camera this summer belongs to this category, with writer-director Otto Alexander Jahrreiss' screwball comedy Pigeons on the Roof.

Given that cinema audiences are growing older and becoming more demanding, the company has also given itself the task of identifying subject matter to appeal to this age group. "There is much more political cinema made in France, for example, and I see that we have some way to catch up," Friedl argues. Two projects fitting this category of sophisticated political cinema would be the adaptation of Robert Harris' controversial novel Vaterland and the political thriller It's God's Will based on the novel of the same name by Christian Schoenborn.

Finally, UFA Cinema's fifth project category will be seeing the company paying particular attention to the up-and-coming generation of filmmakers, which is a natural progression from Friedl and Nico Hofmann's involvement in the annual First Steps Award in Berlin as well as Hofmann's role as professor at the Film Academy in Ludwigsburg.

One of the first projects will be Oscar-winner Toke Constantin Hebbeln's feature debut, the East-West love story Niemandsland, with up-and-coming, Berlin-based Frisbeefilms.

Strategic partnerships
Meanwhile, this April, a strategic partnership was unveiled with Universal Pictures International (UPI) and Focus Features International (FFI), which sees UPI becoming the exclusive theatrical and home entertainment distributor for UFA Cinema productions in German-speaking territories. In addition, FFI may partner UFA on key co-productions aimed for the international market and have an option to handle international sales on selected UFA Cinema titles.

"Although our focus is on German-language projects, we now have quite a number of English ones in development and so we were keen to have a partner who has experience of production, sales and distribution in the global markets," Friedl says. "It is a strategic partnership which functions in both directions: i.e. we will work together in all those areas where it makes sense. Thus, we could also be involved in projects which Focus or Universal plan to do here in Germany, where we can bring in our know-how."

The next chapter…
Meanwhile, the appearance of UFA Cinema in Germany as a new player may only be the beginning of the story. "The idea of taking this UFA Cinema model to other territories is the third step in our strategy," Bauer explains. "It was agreed with our shareholder to begin with production and then a distribution structure. Once this is successful, we could think about exporting the model to key markets in Europe like France, Spain, Italy and the UK."