10/10/2023 - The 28th Paris German Film Festival is unspooling between 11 and 15 October, offering up a Panorama of eight feature films and a focus on editor Bettina Böhler

The Teachers’ Lounge [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: İlker Çatak
interview: Leonie Benesch
film profile] by Ilker Çatak (awarded the Europa Cinemas Label in the Berlinale’s 2023 Panorama section, the German candidate for the 2024 Best International Film Oscar and a nominee for the upcoming LUX Audience Award - read news, and set for distribution in France on 7 February via Tandem) is due to open the 28th Paris German Film Festival this evening in the presence of actress Leonie Benesch (the European Film Promotion’s 2023 Shooting Star – read our interview). Organised by German Films in co-operation with the Goethe-Institut, and unspooling until 15 October in Paris’ Arlequin cinema, the event will showcase a selection of the best recent films of German origin (fiction films, documentaries, short and feature-length films).

Stealing focus among the eight feature films on the agenda are three films which were unveiled at the beginning of the year in Berlin: Sun and Concrete [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by David Wnendt (which triumphed in German cinemas, racking up more than a million admissions, and is still on the lookout for a French distributor), Ayşe Polat’s political thriller-come-fantasy film In the Blind Spot [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Ayşe Polat
film profile], and Sonja Heiss’ When It Will Be Again Like It Never Was Before [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Sonja Heiss
film profile] (an adaptation of Joachim Meyerhoff’s bestseller).

Likewise gracing the agenda are One Last Evening [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Lukas Nathrath
film profile] by Lukas Nathrath (a debut feature film unveiled in Rotterdam’s Tiger competition), Elaha [+see also:
film review
film profile] by Milena Aboyan (released in France on 7 February 2024 via Wayna Pitch) and two documentaries: She Chef [+see also:
film review
film profile] by the directorial duo composed of Melanie Liebheit and Gereon Wetzel, and Anselm [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] by Wim Wenders (well-received in a Cannes Special Screening and which Les Films du Losange are releasing in France on 18 October), which is due to close the festival in 3D and in the presence of the filmmaker himself.

Editor Bettina Böhler is set to be placed centre stage this year by way of a focus session which includes the documentary Schlingensief – A Voice that Shook the Silence [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bettina Böhler
film profile] (which she directed herself), Transit [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Christian Petzold
interview: Franz Rogowski
film profile] by Christian Petzold and Western [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Jonas Dornbach
interview: Valeska Grisebach
interview: Valeska Grisebach
film profile] by Valeska Grisebach.

Nine short films will also feature in the showcase, with Special Screenings of the best films of 2023 to hail from German film schools (Next Generation) and the best short films lasting less than five minutes (Short Tiger Award).

In collaboration with

(Translated from French)