28/06/2010

Since its creation in 1983, the Munich International Film Festival has become the second most important film event in Germany after the Berlinale, with around 70,000 viewers, 2,500 professionals and 600 journalists visiting every year to see 250 films. This year’s edition has been in full swing in the Bavarian capital since June 25 and will close on July 3.

The international programme combines big names in cinema – including Jaco van Dormael with Mr. Nobody [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
interview: Jaco Van Dormael
film profile], Francis Ford Coppola with Tetro [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], and Werner Herzog with My Son, My Son, What Have Ye Done? – with young, up-and-coming talents.

This year, the focus is on political films, with a selection including Cannes titles The Autobiography of Nicolae Ceausescu [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Andrei Ujica and Draquila: Italy Trembles [+see also:
trailer
Interview Sabina Guzzanti [IT]
film profile] by Sabina Guzzanti; Italian director Stefano Savona’s Cast Lead; Italian-Swedish filmmaker Erik Gandini’s Videocracy [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]; and Olivier Masset-Depasse’s Belgian film Illegal [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Olivier Masset-Depasse
film profile]. Also from Belgium is Gust Van den Berghe’s highly unusual Little Baby Jesus of Flanders [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Besides the aforementioned titles, Italian cinema is well represented in this section this year with Giorgio Diritti’s The Man Who Will Come [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Giorgio Diritti
film profile], Michelangelo Frammartino’s The Four Times [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Michelangelo Frammartino
interview: Savina Neirotti
film profile] and Francesca Comencini’s The White Space [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

The selection of almost 60 titles also includes Michael Noer and Tobias Lindholm’s Danish prison drama R [+see also:
trailer
film profile], Polish director Pawel Borowski’s Zero, Nicolas Winding Refn’s Valhalla Rising [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Nicolas Winding Refn
film profile], Damjan Kozole’s Slovenian Girl [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and ArTherapy by Greece’s Nikos Perakis.

Among the event’s different sections is a programme dedicated to "New German Cinema", which will show Christoph Hochhäusler’s Cannes-selected film The City Below [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christoph Hochhäusler
film profile] and is completed by a retrospective on the "New German Wave". In response to this selection is the impressive panorama of titles in the "New French Cinema" section – audiences will get the chance to discover Xavier Beauvois’s superb Of Gods and Men [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Xavier Beauvois
film profile], Olivier Assayas’s Carlos [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] and Bertrand Tavernier’s The Princess of Montpensier [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (all three of which shone at Cannes), as well as the latest films by Jacques Rivette, François Ozon, Claire Denis and father and son directors Claude and Nathan Miller.

Moreover, Munich is honouring controversial Austrian director Ulrich Seidl. The festival’s CineMerit prizes will this year reward the contributions made by Abbas Kiarostami and Danish actor Mads Mikkelsen. Among the different prizes up for grabs, the most important are the Arri-Zeiss Award for Best Foreign Film (€50,000) and the Young German Cinema Award (€60,000).

(Translated from French)