Three MDM-Funded Films Headed for Cannes Selection
At the 74th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival, three films realized with funding from Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung will have their world premiere in the official Selection. In the Competition, Mia Hansen-Løve’s film "Bergman Island" competes for the Golden Palm. In the Un Certain Regard section, "Great Freedom" by Sebastian Meise is having its premiere, while "Evolution" by Kornél Mundruczó has been invited to the newly established section Cannes Premiere.
Claas Danielsen, CEO of Mitteldeutsche Medienförderung (MDM), comments: "The fact that no less than three of the films funded by us are featured at the official program of Cannes is a wonderful acknowledgment of the efforts of all contributors, including MDM. All these works offer top-notch arthouse cinema with exquisite artistic vision; a quality we will soon be able to enjoy on the big screen again. I am thrilled to congratulate all directors and producers as well as all cast and crew members on their tremendous success."
In "Bergman Island", French director Mia Hansen-Løve tells the story of an American couple of filmmakers that goes on a retreat to Ingmar Bergman’s house on the Swedish island of Fårö in order to be inspired by the great director’s legacy and work on new screenplays. Over the course of their stay, the borders between fiction and reality become increasingly blurred. The drama starring Tim Roth, Vicky Krieps and Mia Wasikowska is co-production by CG Cinéma, Neue Bioskop Film, Scope Pictures, Plattform Produktion, Piano, and ARTE France Cinéma, and a collaboration of RT Features, Dauphin Film, Talipot Pictures, and Scope Invest, with funding from MDM, Eurimages, Wallimage, Gotlands Filmfond, Film Capital Stockholm, Swedish Film Institute, Sveriges Television AB, Les Films du Losange, and Kinology. The film was shot entirely in Sweden, with large portions of the audio and video post-production handled in Saxony-Anhalt and Saxony. Weltkino is set to bring “Bergman Island” to German movie theaters.
In the spellbinding prison drama “Great Freedom”, Austrian director Sebastian Meise tells a story set in the time where homosexuality was a punishable crime in Germany. Hans Hoffmann (played by Franz Rogoswski) is 20 years old the first time he is arrested for loving men. Paragraph 175 destroys all his hopes for a life in freedom. In prison, he makes the acquaintance of convicted murderer Viktor (played by Georg Friedrich). Over the years, their initial mutual contempt slowly evolves into a special bond. This gripping life and love story was mostly filmed in the Magdeburg prison. “Great Freedom” was co-produced by Leipzig-based Rohfilm Productions and Freibeuter Film (Austria). Funding for the German-Austrian co-production came from MDM, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the German Federal Commissioner for Cultural and Media Affairs (BKM), DFFF (German Federal Film Fund), ZDF (German public TV network) as well as Filmfonds Wien (Vienna), the Austrian Film Institute, FISA-Filmstandort Austria, and ORF (Austrian public TV network). It will be brought to German movie theaters by Piffl Medien.
Cannes regular Kornél Mundruczó, whose last Competition entry "Jupiter’s Moon" was equally funded by MDM, is following up his Venice Festival success “Pieces of a Woman” with "Evolution", an episodic drama revolving around three generations of a Jewish family. The film is set in Budapest and Berlin in the time period from 1945 until today. The protagonists live through the pain of seeing past trauma resurface in the present, nonetheless looking to the future with hope. The film’s cast and the crew of Match Factory Productions and Proton Cinema (Hungary), ZDF/Arte (public TV networks) and Proton Theatre (Hungary) shot several scenes in Leipzig in May 2021. Parts of post-production will be handled in Saxony-Anhalt. “Evolution” was co-funded by MDM, the North-Rhine-Westphalian Film and Media Fund, DFFF (German Federal Film Fund), the National Film Institute of Hungary, and Hungarian Film Incentive. “Evolution” will be brought to German cinemas by Port au Prince Pictures.
The 74th edition of the Cannes International Film Festival is taking place from July 6 to 17. Additional works featured in this year’s festival program will be announced over the next few days.