Films starring Saoirse Ronan and Justice Smith are set for Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama section.
Panorama announced its first 11 titles on Thursday, seven of which are world premieres. The lineup includes Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun,” which stars Ronan as an antihero who must embark on a journey to find herself. “After years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland,” the film’s logline reads.
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow” — which stars Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Danielle Deadwyler, among others — is also part of the program. In a press release, the festival called the film “one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating works of the year, effortlessly crossing boundaries of genre, gender and trauma in this eye- and soul-opening trip.”
The annual Panorama Audience Award will be presented on Feb. 25. Berlin Film Festival is set to take place beginning Feb.
Panorama announced its first 11 titles on Thursday, seven of which are world premieres. The lineup includes Nora Fingscheidt’s “The Outrun,” which stars Ronan as an antihero who must embark on a journey to find herself. “After years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland,” the film’s logline reads.
Directed by Jane Schoenbrun, “I Saw the TV Glow” — which stars Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine and Danielle Deadwyler, among others — is also part of the program. In a press release, the festival called the film “one of the most idiosyncratic and fascinating works of the year, effortlessly crossing boundaries of genre, gender and trauma in this eye- and soul-opening trip.”
The annual Panorama Audience Award will be presented on Feb. 25. Berlin Film Festival is set to take place beginning Feb.
- 12/14/2023
- by Ellise Shafer
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival today unveiled the first titles set for the 2024 edition of its Panorama sidebar section. Scroll down for the full list of titles announced today.
The lineup includes eleven titles, seven of which are world premieres. A total of 16 countries have been involved in their production. The fest said the topics connecting the titles are rebellion and antiheroes.
Among the set is Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, centered around antihero Rona, played by Saoirse Ronan, who has to go on a long journey to find herself: after years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland. The film also stars Paapa Essiedu.
Danielle Deadwyler stars in I Saw the TV Glow from Jane Schoenbrun. The pic follows a teenager called Owen who is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night...
The lineup includes eleven titles, seven of which are world premieres. A total of 16 countries have been involved in their production. The fest said the topics connecting the titles are rebellion and antiheroes.
Among the set is Nora Fingscheidt’s The Outrun, centered around antihero Rona, played by Saoirse Ronan, who has to go on a long journey to find herself: after years of excess in London, she seeks silence and self-reflection in her Scottish homeland. The film also stars Paapa Essiedu.
Danielle Deadwyler stars in I Saw the TV Glow from Jane Schoenbrun. The pic follows a teenager called Owen who is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious late-night...
- 12/14/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
The 36th European Film Awards took place in Berlin on Saturday, honoring the best cinema to emerge from Europe in 2023. The nominations, which were selected by the European Film Academy, were heavy on arthouse hits that emerged from the Cannes Film Festival including Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall,” Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves,” and Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest.” The results played out similarly to those from Cannes, with Triet’s Palme d’Or-winner taking the top prize of Best European Film.
“Anatomy of a Fall” additionally won the European Director award for Triet, who also shared the European Screenwriter award with Arthur Harari. Sandra Hüller was nominated twice in the European Actress category for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” ultimately winning for the former.
The results mirrored those of the 2022 European Film Awards, when “Triangle of Sadness” followed...
“Anatomy of a Fall” additionally won the European Director award for Triet, who also shared the European Screenwriter award with Arthur Harari. Sandra Hüller was nominated twice in the European Actress category for her performances in “Anatomy of a Fall” and “The Zone of Interest,” ultimately winning for the former.
The results mirrored those of the 2022 European Film Awards, when “Triangle of Sadness” followed...
- 12/9/2023
- by Christian Zilko
- Indiewire
French director Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winning film Anatomy Of A Fall swept the awards at 36th European Film Awards in Berlin this evening, winning Best European Film, Director, Screenplay (with Arthur Harari) and actress for Sandra Hüller.
There was a strong selection this year with other films and directors leading the nominations including Aki Kaurismäki with Fallen Leaves, Agnieszka Holland with Green Border, Matteo Garrone with Me Captain, Jonathan Glazer with The Zone Of Interest.
The European Films Awards haul for Anatomy Of A Fall will likely ramp up growing Academy Awards buzz around the film and its star Sandra Hüller.
“I can’t say whether it will happen or not but yes… now we are in the race and we will continue the campaign in the U.S. and we’re totally involved, let’s see,” Triet said in an press conference after the ceremony.
There was a strong selection this year with other films and directors leading the nominations including Aki Kaurismäki with Fallen Leaves, Agnieszka Holland with Green Border, Matteo Garrone with Me Captain, Jonathan Glazer with The Zone Of Interest.
The European Films Awards haul for Anatomy Of A Fall will likely ramp up growing Academy Awards buzz around the film and its star Sandra Hüller.
“I can’t say whether it will happen or not but yes… now we are in the race and we will continue the campaign in the U.S. and we’re totally involved, let’s see,” Triet said in an press conference after the ceremony.
- 12/9/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Justine Triet’s courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall” triumphed at the 36th European Film Awards, taking statuettes for best film, director, screenwriter and actress at the ceremony, which took place Saturday in Berlin. It had been previously announced that it had won the best editing prize as well.
“Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and recently took the screenplay and international feature awards at the Gothams, but was not selected to represent France in the international feature film category of the Oscars. Despite that setback, Triet said the film would still compete for other categories at the Oscars. “Now we are in the race, of course. We continue down that road,” she said at a press conference following the ceremony in Berlin.
Triet, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Harari, said that they had written it for Sandra Hüller, winner of the best actress award.
“Anatomy of a Fall” won the Palme d’Or at Cannes, and recently took the screenplay and international feature awards at the Gothams, but was not selected to represent France in the international feature film category of the Oscars. Despite that setback, Triet said the film would still compete for other categories at the Oscars. “Now we are in the race, of course. We continue down that road,” she said at a press conference following the ceremony in Berlin.
Triet, who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur Harari, said that they had written it for Sandra Hüller, winner of the best actress award.
- 12/9/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
The ceremony kicks off live from Berlin today (December 9) at 19:30 Cet.
The European Film Awards is taking place in Berlin tonight (December 9), and Screen will be revealing the winners live from the ceremony, kicking off at 19:30 Cet.
German actor Britta Steffenhagen is hosting the awards, which will take place at the Arena Berlin.
Screen will be live-streaming the ceremony below, or you can refresh the page and scroll down to read the winners as they are announced.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...
The European Film Awards is taking place in Berlin tonight (December 9), and Screen will be revealing the winners live from the ceremony, kicking off at 19:30 Cet.
German actor Britta Steffenhagen is hosting the awards, which will take place at the Arena Berlin.
Screen will be live-streaming the ceremony below, or you can refresh the page and scroll down to read the winners as they are announced.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...
- 12/9/2023
- by Mona Tabbara
- ScreenDaily
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Writing recently about the introduction of video umpires in baseball, of all things, Zach Helfand was skeptical: “accuracy is not the same as enjoyment,” he wrote, “baseball is meant to kill time, not maximize it.” The best films of German director Christian Petzold do both, though you sense his heart might belong to the latter. Petzold’s latest, Afire, unfurls with all the page-turning seduction of a gripping novella. It stars Thomas Schubert as a struggling writer who travels with a friend to a secluded house near the Baltic Sea. Their car breaks down. They encounter a beautiful woman. Somewhere in the distance, a forest fire rages. Soon, inevitably, another burns inside. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Writing recently about the introduction of video umpires in baseball, of all things, Zach Helfand was skeptical: “accuracy is not the same as enjoyment,” he wrote, “baseball is meant to kill time, not maximize it.” The best films of German director Christian Petzold do both, though you sense his heart might belong to the latter. Petzold’s latest, Afire, unfurls with all the page-turning seduction of a gripping novella. It stars Thomas Schubert as a struggling writer who travels with a friend to a secluded house near the Baltic Sea. Their car breaks down. They encounter a beautiful woman. Somewhere in the distance, a forest fire rages. Soon, inevitably, another burns inside. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
- 11/24/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Five European films dominate the nominations.
The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on December 9.
The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of Europe this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...
The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on December 9.
The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of Europe this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall...
- 11/7/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Finnish filmmaker Aki Kaurismäki’s Fallen Leaves and UK director Jonathan Glazer The Zone Of Interest lead the nominations in the main categories of the 36th European Film Awards which will take place in Berlin on December 9.
The dramas are nominated in all five key categories of Best European Film, Director, Screenwriter as well as Best Actress and Actor. (Click on film titles for Deadline reviews and interviews)
Both films world premiered in Competition at Cannes this year, with The Zone Of Interest winning the Grand Prix and Fallen Leaves clinching the Jury Prize. They are representing the UK and Finland respectively in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race.
French director Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall follows with four nominations in all the categories except for best actor, while Poland’s Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, which won the Venice Special Jury Prize,...
The dramas are nominated in all five key categories of Best European Film, Director, Screenwriter as well as Best Actress and Actor. (Click on film titles for Deadline reviews and interviews)
Both films world premiered in Competition at Cannes this year, with The Zone Of Interest winning the Grand Prix and Fallen Leaves clinching the Jury Prize. They are representing the UK and Finland respectively in the Best International Feature Film Oscar race.
French director Justine Triet’s Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy Of A Fall follows with four nominations in all the categories except for best actor, while Poland’s Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border, which won the Venice Special Jury Prize,...
- 11/7/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Five European films dominate the nominations for this year’s Awards
The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on November 9.
The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of European this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d...
The European Film Academy has revealed the nominees for the main categories of the European Film Awards which take place in Berlin on November 9.
The Academy has shortlisted five of the highest profile films to come out of European this year for its best European film category, with the directors of the five films also all nominated in the best European director category. The five films also dominate the acting and screenwriting categories.
Three of the best European film nominees world premiered at Cannes. Justine Triet’s Palme d...
- 11/7/2023
- by Tim Dams
- ScreenDaily
Jonathan Glazer’s harrowing Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest leads the nominations for this year’s European Film Awards (EFAs), picking up five nominations, including for best film and best director, in nominations announced via video on Tuesday.
Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.
Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.
Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...
Zone of Interest, the U.K. official entry for the 2024 Oscars in the best international feature category, also scored Efa nominations for best screenwriter, for Glazer, and best actress and best actor noms for leads Sandra Hüller and Christian Friedel.
Hüller will be competing against herself in the best actress category, having picked up a second Efa nom for her starring role in Justine Triet’s courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall. The Palme d’Or winner recieved four Efa noms, including for best European Film, best director for Triet and best screenplay for Triet and co-writer Arthur Harari.
Other best European film nominees include Matteo Garrone’s refugee drama Io Capitano from Italy,...
- 11/7/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Jonathan Glazer’s “The Zone of Interest” and Aki Kaurismäki’s “Fallen Leaves” led the European Film Awards race after nominations for the major categories were revealed Tuesday.
The films were nominated in all five major categories – European film, director, screenwriter, actor and actress.
Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” was close behind with four nominations – film, director, screenwriter and actress.
All three films were prizewinners at Cannes: “The Zone of Interest” took the festival’s Grand Prize, “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize, and “Anatomy of a Fall” was the Palme d’Or winner.
Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” the Special Jury Prize winner at Venice, took three nominations – film, director and screenwriter.
“Me Captain,” Venice’s best director winner, and “The Teachers’ Lounge” each nabbed two nominations.
“Afire,” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” “How to Have Sex,” “La Chimera” and “The Promised Land” took one nomination each in major categories.
The films were nominated in all five major categories – European film, director, screenwriter, actor and actress.
Justine Triet’s “Anatomy of a Fall” was close behind with four nominations – film, director, screenwriter and actress.
All three films were prizewinners at Cannes: “The Zone of Interest” took the festival’s Grand Prize, “Fallen Leaves” won the Jury Prize, and “Anatomy of a Fall” was the Palme d’Or winner.
Agnieszka Holland’s “Green Border,” the Special Jury Prize winner at Venice, took three nominations – film, director and screenwriter.
“Me Captain,” Venice’s best director winner, and “The Teachers’ Lounge” each nabbed two nominations.
“Afire,” “Blackbird Blackbird Blackberry,” “How to Have Sex,” “La Chimera” and “The Promised Land” took one nomination each in major categories.
- 11/7/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
As 2023 winds down, like most cinephiles, we’re looking to get our eyes on titles that may have slipped under the radar or simply gone unseen, so—as we do each year—we’re sharing a rundown of the best titles available to watch at home.
Curated from the Best Films of 2023 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up with. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2023, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable, perhaps underseen, titles of late.
Note that we’re going by U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available,...
Curated from the Best Films of 2023 So Far list we published for the first half of the year, it also includes films we’ve enjoyed the past few months and some we’ve recently caught up with. While our year-end coverage is still to come, including our staff’s top 50 films of 2023, this streaming guide will hopefully be a helpful tool for readers to have a chance to find notable, perhaps underseen, titles of late.
Note that we’re going by U.S. releases and that streaming services are limited solely to the territory as well. If you want to stay up-to-date with new titles being made available,...
- 10/24/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
Each week we highlight the noteworthy titles that have recently hit streaming platforms in the United States. Check out this week’s selections below and past round-ups here.
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Writing recently about the introduction of video umpires in baseball, of all things, Zach Helfand was skeptical: “accuracy is not the same as enjoyment,” he wrote, “baseball is meant to kill time, not maximize it.” The best films of German director Christian Petzold do both, though you sense his heart might belong to the latter. Petzold’s latest, Afire, unfurls with all the page-turning seduction of a gripping novella. It stars Thomas Schubert as a struggling writer who travels with a friend to a secluded house near the Baltic Sea. Their car breaks down. They encounter a beautiful woman. Somewhere in the distance, a forest fire rages. Soon, inevitably, another burns inside. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Writing recently about the introduction of video umpires in baseball, of all things, Zach Helfand was skeptical: “accuracy is not the same as enjoyment,” he wrote, “baseball is meant to kill time, not maximize it.” The best films of German director Christian Petzold do both, though you sense his heart might belong to the latter. Petzold’s latest, Afire, unfurls with all the page-turning seduction of a gripping novella. It stars Thomas Schubert as a struggling writer who travels with a friend to a secluded house near the Baltic Sea. Their car breaks down. They encounter a beautiful woman. Somewhere in the distance, a forest fire rages. Soon, inevitably, another burns inside. – Rory O. (full review)
Where to Stream:...
- 10/20/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
If there’s one thing Christian Petzold does well it’s introspective examinations of characters at the heart of overwhelming circumstances. Which isn’t the most succinct thing to put on your CV but you have to admit he does it well. After all he has a whole trilogy of films he calls ‘Love in Times of Oppressive Systems’ so clearly it’s working for him.
His latest piece, Afire, focuses on a narcissistic author agonising over his latest novel while sharing a holiday home in the Baltic Sea, completely uninterested in the raging wildfires consuming the nearby woodland. It’s a fitting subject for an artist like Petzold, a creative so obsessed with their own endeavours that they become openly hostile to anything outside themselves.
That sums up our protagonist Leon (Thomas Schubert) in a nutshell. A schlubby, sullen writer chafing against his idyllic surroundings. He refuses to go...
His latest piece, Afire, focuses on a narcissistic author agonising over his latest novel while sharing a holiday home in the Baltic Sea, completely uninterested in the raging wildfires consuming the nearby woodland. It’s a fitting subject for an artist like Petzold, a creative so obsessed with their own endeavours that they become openly hostile to anything outside themselves.
That sums up our protagonist Leon (Thomas Schubert) in a nutshell. A schlubby, sullen writer chafing against his idyllic surroundings. He refuses to go...
- 8/25/2023
- by Liam Macleod
- HeyUGuys.co.uk
Thomas Schubert on playing Leon in Afire: 'I always felt like there was quite a bit of myself in my character. It is really interesting that we all sort of have that memory of being that way' Photo: Curzon Austrian Thomas Schubert stars Afire in the latest film from Christian Petzold, an offbeat comedy of sorts set on a summer that is smouldering with possibilities, both literal and figurative. Schubert, who was a non-professional when he took on his breakout role in 2011’s Breathing, at the age of 17, has since established himself an impressive and varied career, notching up more than 30 TV and film roles. His latest sees him play Leon, a writer who is heading on a summer retreat with his buddy Felix (Langston Uibel) in a bid to complete his second novel.
On arrival at Felix’s family’s summer house, the pair discover they are not alone,...
On arrival at Felix’s family’s summer house, the pair discover they are not alone,...
- 8/25/2023
- by Amber Wilkinson
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
(Welcome to Under the Radar, a column where we spotlight specific movies, shows, trends, performances, or scenes that caught our eye and deserved more attention ... but otherwise flew under the radar. In this edition: the pain of artistry takes centerstage in "Afire," "Passages" breaks down all boundaries, and "They Cloned Tyrone" puts a sci-fi twist on the American dream.)
You've heard of Barbenheimer, the phenomenon currently sweeping the globe (and getting Warner Bros.' social media team in trouble), but may I introduce you to Pass-afire? The one-two punch of director Ira Sach's "Passages" and Christian Petzold's "Afire" might not have the big-budget cachet of the two blockbuster behemoths currently duking it out in theaters, but this pair of shockingly complimentary character studies takes a much quieter, moodier, and thrillingly vibrant approach to dissecting much more relatable, everyday issues. Centered on two maddening artists who struggle mightily to articulate...
You've heard of Barbenheimer, the phenomenon currently sweeping the globe (and getting Warner Bros.' social media team in trouble), but may I introduce you to Pass-afire? The one-two punch of director Ira Sach's "Passages" and Christian Petzold's "Afire" might not have the big-budget cachet of the two blockbuster behemoths currently duking it out in theaters, but this pair of shockingly complimentary character studies takes a much quieter, moodier, and thrillingly vibrant approach to dissecting much more relatable, everyday issues. Centered on two maddening artists who struggle mightily to articulate...
- 8/1/2023
- by Jeremy Mathai
- Slash Film
Christian Petzold’s Afire on the IFC Center marquee Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
In the second instalment with director/screenwriter Christian Petzold on Afire starring Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert (winking at the audience like Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster Barbie), Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt we touch upon Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in reference to Paula Beer in the wheelchair; pronouncing Walter Benjamin and Uwe Johnson; Margarethe von Trotta’s film series Jahrestage; Devid Striesow in Yella; new Baltic Sea tourism in the old east, and the goulash in and out of the bag.
Christian Petzold on Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr: “Oh, this is a fantastic movie! It all comes back now!” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their...
In the second instalment with director/screenwriter Christian Petzold on Afire starring Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert (winking at the audience like Ryan Gosling’s Ken in Greta Gerwig’s summer blockbuster Barbie), Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt we touch upon Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr in reference to Paula Beer in the wheelchair; pronouncing Walter Benjamin and Uwe Johnson; Margarethe von Trotta’s film series Jahrestage; Devid Striesow in Yella; new Baltic Sea tourism in the old east, and the goulash in and out of the bag.
Christian Petzold on Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr: “Oh, this is a fantastic movie! It all comes back now!” Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their...
- 7/26/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Few directors boast the consistent excellence of German auteur Christian Petzold. The puckish filmmaker got on Zoom from New York to unwind some of the surprises in Berlin’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner “Afire,” his tenth feature and third to star Paula Beer.
It started out being called “The Lucky Ones.” “I love this title,” he told IndieWire during a recent interview. “But it was forbidden, because there was a wave of copyright problems.” When he came up with “The Red Sky,” referring to the film’s wildfire encroaching on his trio of Baltic Sea vacationers, “This was also forbidden for use. They said the word ‘afire’ and I said, ‘it sounds good.'”
Petzold was working on adapting a dystopian novel during the pandemic, but when he contracted Covid, he put it aside. “To erase-delete, to delete it out of my mind, this was the hard work on ‘Afire,...
It started out being called “The Lucky Ones.” “I love this title,” he told IndieWire during a recent interview. “But it was forbidden, because there was a wave of copyright problems.” When he came up with “The Red Sky,” referring to the film’s wildfire encroaching on his trio of Baltic Sea vacationers, “This was also forbidden for use. They said the word ‘afire’ and I said, ‘it sounds good.'”
Petzold was working on adapting a dystopian novel during the pandemic, but when he contracted Covid, he put it aside. “To erase-delete, to delete it out of my mind, this was the hard work on ‘Afire,...
- 7/16/2023
- by Anne Thompson
- Indiewire
“Do you see anything that’s happening around you?” urges Paula Beer’s Nadja to Thomas Schubert’s frustrated writer Leon in writer-director Christian Petzold’s Afire. As he strives and struggles to complete his second novel, which bears the ludicrous name Club Sandwich, Leon puts on his blinders to both the interpersonal dynamics of the youthful coterie assembled at a Baltic Sea cabin as well as to the forest fires raging inland. If there’s any temptation to conflate Leon’s writer’s block with Petzold’s own position outside the film, Nadja’s exhortation ought to clear up some of the confusion.
Petzold has long stood at the vanguard of the loose filmmaking collective known as the Berlin School. Along with his academically minded peers, he seeks to look at how Germany’s turbulent history ripples through contemporary German life. Rather than craft cinematic fantasies, flattening those tensions...
Petzold has long stood at the vanguard of the loose filmmaking collective known as the Berlin School. Along with his academically minded peers, he seeks to look at how Germany’s turbulent history ripples through contemporary German life. Rather than craft cinematic fantasies, flattening those tensions...
- 7/15/2023
- by Marshall Shaffer
- Slant Magazine
Afire.Paula Beer has said that she wants to avoid any clear overlaps with her personal life as she’s preparing a character. To her credit, there’s something about her acting that eschews biographical readings: she invites us into the present as her characters are experiencing it. Beer, who was born in Mainz, Germany, has been acting since she was a child; she was 14 when she stepped onto the set of her first movie, Chris Kraus’s The Poll Diaries (2010). Just a few years later, she won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for her turn as a young widow in François Ozon’s World War I drama Frantz (2016)—a performance that showed how, even in the framework of a fairly traditional romantic drama, Beer could hint subtly at her character’s interiority beyond what was on the page.From there, it was a quick jump to the cycle of films...
- 7/14/2023
- MUBI
Christian Petzold’s latest feature, “Afire,” takes a blacklight to the artistic ego and to the trope of the manic pixie dream girls who supposedly enshrine it.
The invigorated spin on what is typically that sort of character in a movie like “Afire” is realized in this deceptively light, Eric Rohmer-esque affair by Paula Beer. The German director Petzold discovered the 28-year-old German actress with her performance in French filmmaker Francois Ozon’s black-and-white World War I-era drama “Frantz,” for which Petzold supplied German translation services. They’ve since collaborated on postmodern World War II drama “Transit,” water nymph allegory “Undine,” and now this moving and bitterly hilarious film about an insecure, pretentious fiction writer named Leon (Thomas Schubert) and the alluring woman Nadja whom he’s sharing a summer vacation home with.
With Petzold and his former creative partner Nina Hoss on an indefinite and mysterious hiatus as...
The invigorated spin on what is typically that sort of character in a movie like “Afire” is realized in this deceptively light, Eric Rohmer-esque affair by Paula Beer. The German director Petzold discovered the 28-year-old German actress with her performance in French filmmaker Francois Ozon’s black-and-white World War I-era drama “Frantz,” for which Petzold supplied German translation services. They’ve since collaborated on postmodern World War II drama “Transit,” water nymph allegory “Undine,” and now this moving and bitterly hilarious film about an insecure, pretentious fiction writer named Leon (Thomas Schubert) and the alluring woman Nadja whom he’s sharing a summer vacation home with.
With Petzold and his former creative partner Nina Hoss on an indefinite and mysterious hiatus as...
- 7/13/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
It’s February morning in Berlin. “I’m a little out of consciousness,” Christian Petzold explains, a tad frazzled but keen to talk––and Petzold likes to talk. His latest film Afire had premiered the night before and the party had slipped into the wee hours. “There’s Thomas, he was at the party till 6 a.m.,” Petzold explains as his leading man shuffles by, fresh from a round of junkets and looking just a little shellshocked.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
That look is one that viewers will soon be familiar with when Afire is released this week. Taking place in a secluded house by the Baltic Sea, it shows Petzold at his most sultry and melodramatic. The drama stars Thomas Schubert as Leon, a writer struggling to follow up on the success of his first novel. He travels with a friend for a summer getaway but becomes infatuated with a woman who shares the house with them.
- 7/11/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
The Asian Film Festival of Dallas (Affd) announced the film lineup for this year's 22nd edition of the film festival.Taking place July 13-16, Affd's Opening Night selection is Tae-Jim Ahn's The Night Owl, the Closing Night selection is Park Dong-hee's Drive, Special screenings with filmmaker Q&a's include Linh Tran's Waiting for the Light to Change and Sing J Lee's The Accidental Getaway Driver.
This year's Special Guest Programmers contributing films alongside Lead Programmer Paul Theiss are Anderson Le and Mae Hoang. The film festival will add a display of traditional Chinese lions, cinematic toys, and a mural created for this edition of the film festival for moviegoers to see and take selfies with at the Angelika Film Center, an Opening Night Kaiduan Kickoff Party at Beyond the Bar (101 S. Sherman Street) on Wednesday, July 12, and once again, will present a Saturday evening Red Carpet event for filmmakers and press.
This year's Special Guest Programmers contributing films alongside Lead Programmer Paul Theiss are Anderson Le and Mae Hoang. The film festival will add a display of traditional Chinese lions, cinematic toys, and a mural created for this edition of the film festival for moviegoers to see and take selfies with at the Angelika Film Center, an Opening Night Kaiduan Kickoff Party at Beyond the Bar (101 S. Sherman Street) on Wednesday, July 12, and once again, will present a Saturday evening Red Carpet event for filmmakers and press.
- 7/10/2023
- by Rhythm Zaveri
- AsianMoviePulse
Christian Petzold’s slow-burning Afire, shot by Hans Fromm, stars Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their way to a summer house in the woods near the Baltic Sea when their car breaks down. Animal shrieks fill the air. The area had recently experienced a number of devastating wildfires. When they arrive on foot at the vacation home belonging to Felix’s family, which was supposed to be theirs alone to work on respective projects - a photography submission to...
Friends Felix (Langston Uibel) and Leon (Thomas Schubert) are on their way to a summer house in the woods near the Baltic Sea when their car breaks down. Animal shrieks fill the air. The area had recently experienced a number of devastating wildfires. When they arrive on foot at the vacation home belonging to Felix’s family, which was supposed to be theirs alone to work on respective projects - a photography submission to...
- 7/8/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Christian Petzold, the director of the well-timed summer movie Afire with Anne-Katrin Titze: “I’m really sure that we don’t have summer movies. The Americans have summer movies, the French have summer movies.”
Christian Petzold’s slow-burning Afire, shot by Hans Fromm, stars Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Nadja (Paula Beer) with Devid (Enno Trebs), Felix (Langston Uibel), and Leon (Thomas Schubert) in Afire
A scene in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember (with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr); Sophie Calle’s Voir La Mer and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs; Astrid Lindgren; a Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre touch; Uwe Johnson’s Mutmassungen über Jakob and Margarethe von Trotta’s Jahrestage series; Johan Wolfgang von Goethe; a Nanni Moretti quote; meeting Paul Dano’s Wildlife cinematographer Diego García (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendor) in Tel Aviv; Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak,...
Christian Petzold’s slow-burning Afire, shot by Hans Fromm, stars Paula Beer, Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt.
Nadja (Paula Beer) with Devid (Enno Trebs), Felix (Langston Uibel), and Leon (Thomas Schubert) in Afire
A scene in Leo McCarey’s An Affair To Remember (with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr); Sophie Calle’s Voir La Mer and Hiroshi Sugimoto’s photographs; Astrid Lindgren; a Benjamin von Stuckrad-Barre touch; Uwe Johnson’s Mutmassungen über Jakob and Margarethe von Trotta’s Jahrestage series; Johan Wolfgang von Goethe; a Nanni Moretti quote; meeting Paul Dano’s Wildlife cinematographer Diego García (Apichatpong Weerasethakul’s Cemetery Of Splendor) in Tel Aviv; Billy Wilder, Fred Zinnemann, Curt Siodmak, Robert Siodmak,...
- 7/2/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
"I find the sea a bit spooky at night. Come with me." Sideshow + Janus Films have revealed a new official US trailer for the indie German film titled Afire for the US release. The latest film from German filmmaker Christian Petzold. Originally known as Roter Himmel (which translates directly to Red Sky in German), this first premiered at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival earlier this year where it won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. A seaside vacation to the north of Germany takes an unexpected turn when Leon and Felix show up at Felix's family's holiday home to discover Nadja, a mysterious woman, already there. As an ever encroaching forest fire threatens their well-being, relationships are tested and romances are kindled. The film features Thomas Schubert as Leon, Paula Beer as Nadja, Langston Uibel as Felix, as well as Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt. This is a great film, with...
- 6/20/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
Christian Petzold finds himself somewhere between the lands of late Éric Rohmer and vintage Noah Baumbach with his new romantic drama, “Afire.”
The German director of serious war-historical films like “Transit” and “Phoenix,” which bent time both in terms of their cinematic references and their manipulations of stylistic anachronisms, gets less serious with this film about four people vacationing, swapping beds, and surrounded by forest fires. Sideshow and Janus Films release “Afire” this summer on July 14 — it’s a perfectly lovely, summer kind of thing despite its tragic underpinnings. Watch the trailer for “Afire” below.
Petzold conceived of “Afire” during the pandemic — though he shot afterward on-location in Germany — after feeling weary of bad news and so postponing another darker project for this deceptively lighter one instead. The film centers on a seaside vacation, when longtime best friends Leon (Thomas Schubert), a pretentious fiction writer struggling to crank out his new book,...
The German director of serious war-historical films like “Transit” and “Phoenix,” which bent time both in terms of their cinematic references and their manipulations of stylistic anachronisms, gets less serious with this film about four people vacationing, swapping beds, and surrounded by forest fires. Sideshow and Janus Films release “Afire” this summer on July 14 — it’s a perfectly lovely, summer kind of thing despite its tragic underpinnings. Watch the trailer for “Afire” below.
Petzold conceived of “Afire” during the pandemic — though he shot afterward on-location in Germany — after feeling weary of bad news and so postponing another darker project for this deceptively lighter one instead. The film centers on a seaside vacation, when longtime best friends Leon (Thomas Schubert), a pretentious fiction writer struggling to crank out his new book,...
- 6/20/2023
- by Ryan Lattanzio
- Indiewire
While this summer will bring Barbies, nuclear explosions, and the return of both Ethan Hunt and our favorite professor of archaeology, our most-anticipated cinematic experience is certainly the latest work from German auteur Christian Petzold. Forgoing his standard fall film-festival run, following a Berlinale premiere (this time where he picked up the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize), Afire will arrive in theaters sooner than expected, specifically this July from Sideshow and Janus Films. Ahead of its release, the first U.S. trailer has now arrived.
Here’s the synopsis: “While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer,...
Here’s the synopsis: “While vacationing by the Baltic Sea, writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) are surprised by the presence of Nadja (Paula Beer), a mysterious young woman staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home. Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer,...
- 6/20/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
Christian Petzold’s Silver Bear winner “Afire” has received a new trailer.
The drama follows writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) who are surprised by a mysterious young woman named Nadja (Paula Beer) staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and, with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer, an encroaching forest fire threatens the group. Meanwhile, tensions escalate when a handsome lifeguard and Leon’s tight-lipped book editor also arrive.
The movie stars Thomas Schubet, Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Langston Uibel and Matthias Brandt.
“Afire” won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where it also garnered solid reviews. The film is being released Stateside by Sideshow and Janus Films — which also released “Drive My Car...
The drama follows writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) and photographer Felix (Langston Uibel) who are surprised by a mysterious young woman named Nadja (Paula Beer) staying as a guest at Felix’s family’s holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
Nadja distracts Leon from finishing his latest novel and, with brutal honesty, forces him to confront his caustic temperament and self-absorption. As Nadja and Leon grow closer, an encroaching forest fire threatens the group. Meanwhile, tensions escalate when a handsome lifeguard and Leon’s tight-lipped book editor also arrive.
The movie stars Thomas Schubet, Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Langston Uibel and Matthias Brandt.
“Afire” won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival in February, where it also garnered solid reviews. The film is being released Stateside by Sideshow and Janus Films — which also released “Drive My Car...
- 6/20/2023
- by Manori Ravindran
- Variety Film + TV
With Cannes done and dusted and the heavy-hitting autumn quartet of Venice, Telluride, TIFF, and NYFF still a few months off, what’s a film festival fan to do during the dog days of summer? With New York City’s own Tribeca Festival now firmly ensconced in the summer months after moving off its traditional spring dates in 2021, movie lovers both in the city and beyond can enjoy the annual event’s prodigious programming, thanks to a combination of in-person and virtual programming.
The 2023 edition will kick off June 7 with the North American premiere of “Kiss the Future,” a documentary following the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital.
A special 30th-anniversary screening of “A Bronx Tale” will close the fest on June 17. After the movie, the film...
The 2023 edition will kick off June 7 with the North American premiere of “Kiss the Future,” a documentary following the story of a community of underground musicians and creatives throughout the nearly four-year-long siege of Sarajevo, as well as the 1997 U2 concert celebrating the liberation of the Bosnian capital.
A special 30th-anniversary screening of “A Bronx Tale” will close the fest on June 17. After the movie, the film...
- 6/1/2023
- by Kate Erbland
- Indiewire
Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer with Anne-Katrin Titze: “There’s a first film from Germany, which I think is brilliant.”
In the first instalment with Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer we discuss Christian Petzold’s Afire; Frédéric Tcheng’s Invisible Beauty (on Bethann Hardison); Ethan Berger’s The Line (on the recommendation of Robert Eggers’ The Witch producer Jay Van Hoy); Michael Shannon’s Eric Larue; David Duchovny’s Bucky F*cking Dent; John Slattery’s Maggie Moore(s); Steve Buscemi’s The Listener; Anna Roller’s Dead Girls Dancing; Maria Fredriksson’s The Gullspáng Miracle; Michael Selditch’s Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Fields, and Stephen Kijak’s Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.
Christian Petzold’s Afire, starring Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Langston Uibel, and Thomas Schubert
The 21st edition of...
In the first instalment with Tribeca Film Festival Artistic Director Frédéric Boyer we discuss Christian Petzold’s Afire; Frédéric Tcheng’s Invisible Beauty (on Bethann Hardison); Ethan Berger’s The Line (on the recommendation of Robert Eggers’ The Witch producer Jay Van Hoy); Michael Shannon’s Eric Larue; David Duchovny’s Bucky F*cking Dent; John Slattery’s Maggie Moore(s); Steve Buscemi’s The Listener; Anna Roller’s Dead Girls Dancing; Maria Fredriksson’s The Gullspáng Miracle; Michael Selditch’s Happy Clothes: A Film About Patricia Fields, and Stephen Kijak’s Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed.
Christian Petzold’s Afire, starring Paula Beer, Enno Trebs, Langston Uibel, and Thomas Schubert
The 21st edition of...
- 5/13/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Afire (2023).In February, Christian Petzold’s new film Afire premiered in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival, where it received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. Set on the Baltic coast of Germany, the story follows novelist Leon (Thomas Schubert), who has escaped the city with his friend Felix (Langston Uibel), intending to put the finishing touches on his second book. Instead, the two become romantically enmeshed with Nadja (Paula Beer), a literary scholar who spends the summer selling ice cream, and the local lifeguard Devid (Enno Trebs). Unlike the others, Leon cannot embrace the season’s lighthearted self-abandonment and wanders sleeplessly through blue nights without darkness. All the while, forest fires blaze in the distance. At first, they only reach the protagonists as rumors, sounds of helicopters, and glowing red skies (the German title of the film means “Red Sky”), until the threat finally encroaches upon the immediate forests.
- 3/13/2023
- MUBI
Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up the North American rights to “Afire,” which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize at Berlinale 2023. A theatrical release is planned for Summer 2023.
From writer-director Christian Petzold, the film follows four young people who convene at a holiday house by the Baltic Sea. Plagued by drought, the surrounding landscape soon begets fires, while inside the house emotions heat up: happiness, lust, love, along with jealousies, resentments and tensions.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt. Producers are Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, and Anton Kaiser.
Also Read:
Sundance Sci-Fi Film ‘Divinity’ Acquired by Utopia and Sumerian
“I am very happy that Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the film in North America,” said Petzold in a press statement. “After the screenings at the Berlinale, I am sure that ‘Afire’ will find its audience in the US and Canada.
From writer-director Christian Petzold, the film follows four young people who convene at a holiday house by the Baltic Sea. Plagued by drought, the surrounding landscape soon begets fires, while inside the house emotions heat up: happiness, lust, love, along with jealousies, resentments and tensions.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt. Producers are Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, and Anton Kaiser.
Also Read:
Sundance Sci-Fi Film ‘Divinity’ Acquired by Utopia and Sumerian
“I am very happy that Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired the film in North America,” said Petzold in a press statement. “After the screenings at the Berlinale, I am sure that ‘Afire’ will find its audience in the US and Canada.
- 3/1/2023
- by Harper Lambert
- The Wrap
Second Berlin in two days for distribution partners after Tótem.
Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up their second film from Berlin, taking North American rights to Christian Petzold’s Silver Bear grand jury prize-winner Afire.
‘Afire’: Berlin Review The partners plan a summer theatrical release on the story set against the backdrop of climate catastrophe as four young people convene at a small holiday house by the Baltic Sea, where emotions ignite.
Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt star, and producers are Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, and Anton Kaiser.
Sideshow and...
Sideshow and Janus Films have picked up their second film from Berlin, taking North American rights to Christian Petzold’s Silver Bear grand jury prize-winner Afire.
‘Afire’: Berlin Review The partners plan a summer theatrical release on the story set against the backdrop of climate catastrophe as four young people convene at a small holiday house by the Baltic Sea, where emotions ignite.
Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt star, and producers are Florian Koerner von Gustorf, Michael Weber, and Anton Kaiser.
Sideshow and...
- 3/1/2023
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
Sideshow and Janus Films have acquired North American rights for German director Christian Petzold’s new film Afire, following its award-winning world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival.
The work was feted with Berlin’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on Sunday evening (Feb 25) by an international jury led by Kristen Stewart.
The comedy-drama revolves around four very different young people who are thrown together unexpectedly in a remote holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
In the rainless, heat of the summer, sparks begin to fly among the group as the parched forests surrounding the house also start to ignite.
News of the acquisition comes hot on the heels of the announcement by Sideshow and Janus Films on Tuesday that they had taken North American rights for the Mexican competition title Tótem.
The New York-based distribution partners said of Afire: “Christian Petzold has consistently been one of the most thrilling and surprising filmmakers.
The work was feted with Berlin’s Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize on Sunday evening (Feb 25) by an international jury led by Kristen Stewart.
The comedy-drama revolves around four very different young people who are thrown together unexpectedly in a remote holiday home by the Baltic Sea.
In the rainless, heat of the summer, sparks begin to fly among the group as the parched forests surrounding the house also start to ignite.
News of the acquisition comes hot on the heels of the announcement by Sideshow and Janus Films on Tuesday that they had taken North American rights for the Mexican competition title Tótem.
The New York-based distribution partners said of Afire: “Christian Petzold has consistently been one of the most thrilling and surprising filmmakers.
- 3/1/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Exclusive: The Match Factory has unveiled a slew of deals for German director Christian Petzold’s Berlin Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner Afire.
The summertime comedy-drama, which world premiered in Berlin’s main competition, revolves around a disparate group of people thrown together in a holiday home on Germany’s Baltic coast against a backdrop of advancing forest fires.
European deals include France (Les Films du Losange), Italy (Wanted), Spain (Filmin), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Stadtkino), Scandinavia (Future Film), Poland (Aurora Films), Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia (Vertigo), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Romania (Independenta), Baltics (A-One).
Outside of Europe, the picture has been snapped up for South Korea (M&m International), Taiwan (Light Year Images), Turkey (Bir Film), Brazil (Imovision) and Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay (Ifa Cinema).
A North American distribution deal is also closed and due to be announced soon. Further territories are currently in negotiation.
The summertime comedy-drama, which world premiered in Berlin’s main competition, revolves around a disparate group of people thrown together in a holiday home on Germany’s Baltic coast against a backdrop of advancing forest fires.
European deals include France (Les Films du Losange), Italy (Wanted), Spain (Filmin), Benelux (September Film), Switzerland (Filmcoopi), Austria (Stadtkino), Scandinavia (Future Film), Poland (Aurora Films), Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia (Vertigo), Ex-Yugoslavia (Demiurg), Romania (Independenta), Baltics (A-One).
Outside of Europe, the picture has been snapped up for South Korea (M&m International), Taiwan (Light Year Images), Turkey (Bir Film), Brazil (Imovision) and Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay (Ifa Cinema).
A North American distribution deal is also closed and due to be announced soon. Further territories are currently in negotiation.
- 3/1/2023
- by Melanie Goodfellow
- Deadline Film + TV
Sometimes, the gap between new releases and current cinema can look quite wide. For this week’s column, I don’t have a hot take on “Cocaine Bear,” except to say that when movies like this drive so much hype, it sure makes everything else look like a tough sell. Beyond that B-movie opening, this week also marks one month since the Sundance Film Festival, and it shouldn’t come as a surprise that many of the buzziest titles still don’t have distribution.
This might sound like a broken record, but the problem goes well beyond reticent buyers, as the way these movies get made plays an even more critical role in what happens to them. In this case, the slew of Sundance stragglers should be a wakeup call for a smarter approach to making mid-sized American cinema.
Part of the current hesitation around Sundance premieres stems from the...
This might sound like a broken record, but the problem goes well beyond reticent buyers, as the way these movies get made plays an even more critical role in what happens to them. In this case, the slew of Sundance stragglers should be a wakeup call for a smarter approach to making mid-sized American cinema.
Part of the current hesitation around Sundance premieres stems from the...
- 2/25/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Writing recently about the introduction of video umpires in baseball, of all things, Zach Helfand was skeptical: “accuracy is not the same as enjoyment,” he wrote, “baseball is meant to kill time, not maximize it.” The best films of German director Christian Petzold do both, though you sense his heart might belong to the latter. Petzold’s latest, Afire, unfurls with all the page-turning seduction of a gripping novella. It stars Thomas Schubert as a struggling writer who travels with a friend to a secluded house near the Baltic Sea. Their car breaks down. They encounter a beautiful woman. Somewhere in the distance, a forest fire rages. Soon, inevitably, another burns inside.
Petzold might be the best director of melodramas working today. At their best, his films are about the closest thing to a guarantee of mystery and romance that contemporary cinema has to offer. And though their pleasures are perfectly enjoyable al fresco,...
Petzold might be the best director of melodramas working today. At their best, his films are about the closest thing to a guarantee of mystery and romance that contemporary cinema has to offer. And though their pleasures are perfectly enjoyable al fresco,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Rory O'Connor
- The Film Stage
A gloomy writer and his friend are trapped with strangers in a Baltic holiday home in Christian Petzold’s tonally wayward tale
Christian Petzold has for years been a titan of German cinema – and the Berlin film festival itself – and his new movie is an odd, quibbling tragicomedy with perhaps a little of Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night, avowedly intended as the second part of a trilogy about creativity and love (the first being Undine).
Afire is an approachable and digestible movie in some ways, and I liked the morose, hangdog look conjured by actor Thomas Schubert playing the miserable young writer Leon, who correctly suspects that his new novel, a zeitgeisty relationship comedy called Club Sandwich, is terrible. But in the end I felt that the film fully achieves neither the ostensible comedy of the opening, nor the supposed sadness of its denouement.
Christian Petzold has for years been a titan of German cinema – and the Berlin film festival itself – and his new movie is an odd, quibbling tragicomedy with perhaps a little of Bergman’s Smiles of a Summer Night, avowedly intended as the second part of a trilogy about creativity and love (the first being Undine).
Afire is an approachable and digestible movie in some ways, and I liked the morose, hangdog look conjured by actor Thomas Schubert playing the miserable young writer Leon, who correctly suspects that his new novel, a zeitgeisty relationship comedy called Club Sandwich, is terrible. But in the end I felt that the film fully achieves neither the ostensible comedy of the opening, nor the supposed sadness of its denouement.
- 2/22/2023
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
Editor’s note: This review was originally published at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival. Sideshow and Janus Films releases the film in select theaters on Friday, July 14, with further expansion to follow.
“Something is wrong,” says tortured author Leon (Thomas Schubert) in an uncommon bout of observation. Say what you will about this blinkered sourpuss, but his assessment, in the opening moments to Christian Petzold’s “Afire,” is right on target. Seconds later, a car battery will explode, stranding the young novelist and his travel mate Felix (Langston Uibel) in a coastal forest beset by fires, echoing in animal howls, and ever-so far from the family home where the pair intend to spend a quiet artistic retreat. So credit to Leon for this early feat of recognition — he’ll never be so perceptive again.
Gently dunking on a writer of near-apocalyptic pomposity over the course of a languid seaside vacation, Petzold...
“Something is wrong,” says tortured author Leon (Thomas Schubert) in an uncommon bout of observation. Say what you will about this blinkered sourpuss, but his assessment, in the opening moments to Christian Petzold’s “Afire,” is right on target. Seconds later, a car battery will explode, stranding the young novelist and his travel mate Felix (Langston Uibel) in a coastal forest beset by fires, echoing in animal howls, and ever-so far from the family home where the pair intend to spend a quiet artistic retreat. So credit to Leon for this early feat of recognition — he’ll never be so perceptive again.
Gently dunking on a writer of near-apocalyptic pomposity over the course of a languid seaside vacation, Petzold...
- 2/22/2023
- by Ben Croll
- Indiewire
If any writer has ever retreated to a remote, idyllic rural pad with the intention of getting some work done, and proceeded to have a productive and creatively fulfilling time, it has certainly never happened in the movies. Leon, the callow young novelist at the center of Christian Petzold’s canny, many-layered new film “Afire,” is the latest in a long line of onscreen scribes to learn that lesson. But over the course of a hot, rainless summer by the Baltic coastline, the elusiveness of his imagined masterwork turns out to be far from his greatest problem: Writer’s block spills over into bitter social paralysis, exposing every facet of life he doesn’t yet know how to live, let alone write about. All the while, the surrounding woodsy landscape wilts and scorches, the threat of natural disaster lending an urgent pull to this dry, elegant comedy of manners — so dry,...
- 2/22/2023
- by Guy Lodge
- Variety Film + TV
Leaving behind the fairy-tale enigma of his last film, Undine, Christian Petzold returns in Afire to the unembellished realism more characteristic of his work, even when he has flirted with genre, from noir to melodrama to Hitchcockian thriller. The German auteur also departs from the densely populated cities that have chiefly been his canvas, dropping his characters into the seemingly tranquil setting of a sleepy beach town on the Baltic Sea and a summer home in idyllic woodlands. But the skies are turning red as forest fires loom closer, ash is raining down and wildlife is fleeing.
The anxiety caused by natural disaster is echoed by the festering self-doubt of the central character, Leon (Thomas Schubert), who has escaped Berlin to work on the manuscript of his new novel, his spirits dampened by the tepid response of his publisher. He’s accompanied by Felix (Langston Uibel), whose family owns the...
The anxiety caused by natural disaster is echoed by the festering self-doubt of the central character, Leon (Thomas Schubert), who has escaped Berlin to work on the manuscript of his new novel, his spirits dampened by the tepid response of his publisher. He’s accompanied by Felix (Langston Uibel), whose family owns the...
- 2/22/2023
- by David Rooney
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
A cottage in the woods: isolated, idyllic and unavoidably reminiscent of some half-forgotten fairy tale. Unfortunately, Leon (Thomas Schubert) is not a country person. When his friend Felix’s car breaks down on the forest road on the way to the family holiday house where they both plan to work in peace and quiet, all Leon can hear are unnerving crackles in the undergrowth. Wild boar. Leon is definitely not a wild boar kind of guy.
The car will have to stay where it is. Felix (Langston Uibel) knows a shortcut through the woods. When they reach the house, however, they find it obviously already occupied by someone else. Someone who leaves dirty dishes and food on every available surface. Flies! Leon is a writer. He doesn’t do boar; he doesn’t do flies. The interloper evidently is a woman; Felix’s mother forgot to tell them about her.
The car will have to stay where it is. Felix (Langston Uibel) knows a shortcut through the woods. When they reach the house, however, they find it obviously already occupied by someone else. Someone who leaves dirty dishes and food on every available surface. Flies! Leon is a writer. He doesn’t do boar; he doesn’t do flies. The interloper evidently is a woman; Felix’s mother forgot to tell them about her.
- 2/22/2023
- by Stephanie Bunbury
- Deadline Film + TV
The movie year has already unleashed a lot of memorable work, from Sundance breakouts to “M3GAN.” But things are about to get a lot more global. Even as a new Marvel movie opens in theaters worldwide, the Berlin International Film Festival begins on Wednesday to offer a whole lot more. Nestled in between Sundance and SXSW, Berlin is like a firehose of international cinema.
More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.
From its...
More than 200 films from around the world will premiere at the festival this week, many of which are potential discoveries. Berlin premieres sometimes creep into awards consider (this year’s Oscar nominee “The Quiet Girl” premiered there last year) but can also deliver major new works from rising filmmaker talent. Some of the more promising titles from this year’s lineup speak to its versatility. It’s also a valuable European launchpad for Sundance highlights: The festival’s hit “Past Lives” plays in competition.
From its...
- 2/14/2023
- by Eric Kohn
- Indiewire
Christian Petzold returns to the Berlinale this year with Afire, the second installment of his elemental trilogy following 2020’s water-inspired Undine and preceding a forthcoming film about earth. Afire will reunite Petzold with his frequent collaborator Paula Beer, who will star alongside Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt. The first trailer arrives today from Matchbox Films ahead of Afire‘s Berlin premiere. Per the film’s official synopsis: “Leon and Felix’s plan was to spend the summer together in a holiday home on the Baltic coast. They wanted to be there as friends but also to work—one on his […]
The post Trailer Watch: Christian Petzold’s Afire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: Christian Petzold’s Afire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/13/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
Christian Petzold returns to the Berlinale this year with Afire, the second installment of his elemental trilogy following 2020’s water-inspired Undine and preceding a forthcoming film about earth. Afire will reunite Petzold with his frequent collaborator Paula Beer, who will star alongside Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt. The first trailer arrives today from Matchbox Films ahead of Afire‘s Berlin premiere. Per the film’s official synopsis: “Leon and Felix’s plan was to spend the summer together in a holiday home on the Baltic coast. They wanted to be there as friends but also to work—one on his […]
The post Trailer Watch: Christian Petzold’s Afire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
The post Trailer Watch: Christian Petzold’s Afire first appeared on Filmmaker Magazine.
- 2/13/2023
- by Filmmaker Staff
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
"Why is she worried?" "Because of the forest fires." The Match Factory has revealed the first promo trailer for the German romantic drama Afire, the latest movie made by acclaimed German filmmaker Christian Petzold. He is best known for his films Jerichow, Barbara, Phoenix, Transit, and Undine previously, and his latest is also premiering at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival starting this week (hence the new trailer). Afire, also known as Roter Himmel (or Red Sky) in Germany, is about a group of friends staying at a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire. It's obviously a love story about Paula Beer, as it seems every single guy in this trailer is madly in love with her. Natürlich. The main cast also includes Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt. Another earnest romantic film about the power of love from Petzold.
- 2/13/2023
- by Alex Billington
- firstshowing.net
In case you missed the Super Bowl spot for Christian Petzold’s Afire during last night’s big game, the first full trailer for the German auteur’s new film has now arrived. On a streak like few other directors and marking the second part of his elemental trilogy, which kicked off with water in 2020’s Undine, he now tackles––of course––fire before a subsequent feature about the earth. Reuniting him with Paula Beer, the cast also includes Thomas Schubert, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs, and Matthias Brandt, and now ahead of a Berlinale premiere, the first trailer has arrived.
“Leon and Felix’s plan was to spend the summer together in a holiday home on the Baltic coast,” reads the official synopsis. “They wanted to be there as friends but also to work – one on his second book, the other assembling his art portfolio. But Nadja and Devid are also there,...
“Leon and Felix’s plan was to spend the summer together in a holiday home on the Baltic coast,” reads the official synopsis. “They wanted to be there as friends but also to work – one on his second book, the other assembling his art portfolio. But Nadja and Devid are also there,...
- 2/13/2023
- by Jordan Raup
- The Film Stage
The German sales company’s slate also includes titles by Margarethe von Trotta, Emily Atef, Tatiana Huezo.
The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.
The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...
The Match Factory has finalised a seven-strong slate of titles playing at the 2023 Berlinale, on which it represents world sales rights.
The company’s lineup includes four titles in Berlin Competition, including German director Christian Petzold’s latest film Afire, about a group of friends in a holiday home by the Baltic Sea where emotions run high as the parched forest around them catches fire.
The film stars Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel, Enno Trebs and Matthias Brandt and is produced by...
- 1/23/2023
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
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