Oldenburg Film Festival
The Oldenburg Film Festival’s Quest to Save Indie Cinema
When Torsten Neumann launched the Oldenburg Film Festival back in 1994, setting up the event as Germany’s answer to Sundance, it was near the peak of the ’90s indie film boom, when the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez were starting to hit the mainstream. 31 years later and indie […]
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Erotic Infidelity and Berlin S&M Feature in Trailer for Oldenburg Opener ‘Traumnovelle’ (Exclusive)
This is not your father’s Traumnovelle. Florian Frerichs’ new adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s famed erotic novella — the work that inspired Stanley Kubrick‘s Eyes Wide Shut — promises to be a much more explicit version of the story. The trailer for the film, which opens this year’s Oldenburg Film Festival on Sept. 11, is heavy on the hot and […]
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Oldenburg Film Festival to Honor German Director Dominik Graf
The Oldenburg International Film Festival, often dubbed Germany’s Sundance, will this year pay tribute to one of the country’s most revered filmmakers, Dominik Graf, with a special retrospective. The 31st edition of the festival, running from Sept. 11 to 15, will spotlight Graf’s prolific career, as one of Germany’s few masters in genre filmmaking. Graf, […]
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Oldenburg: Nic Cage, Matthew Modine, Amanda Plummer and AI in Star-Studded Festival Trailer
The resistance has begun. In Oldenburg. The official trailer for the 2024 Oldenburg Film Festival, dropped on Wednesday (see below). It imagines a future world in which Germany’s leading indie film festival is the center of a human uprising against a world ruled by superintelligent A.I. that has resulted in a “deconstruction of empathy and […]
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Oldenburg Festival Unveils Competition Lineup, Tribute to Exiled Filmmakers
The Oldenburg Film Festival, Germany’s leading indie movie event, will this year pay tribute to dissident filmmakers Na Gyi and Paing Phyo Thu. The Myanmar director and actress have been living in hiding for more than three years, after their public opposition to the February 1, 2021 military coup put them in the crosshairs of […]
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‘Traumnovelle’ to Open Oldenburg Film Festival
Traumnovelle, a new adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s famed erotic short story that inspired Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, will open this year’s Oldenburg Film Festival, premiering on Sept. 11. The drama, from German director Florian Frerichs (The Last Supper), stars Nikolai Kinski and Laurine Price as a respectable upper middle-class couple who get drawn into […]
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Oldenburg Winner ‘The Black Guelph’ Gets U.S. Release (Exclusive)
The Black Guelph, a dark Irish crime thriller centered on Ireland’s Travellers community, has secured a U.S. release. John Connors’ directorial debut premiered at the Oldenburg Film Festival in 2022, where it won both best film honor and the best actor for star Graham Earley. It is billed as the first film from an Irish […]
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Ayse Polat’s ‘In the Blind Spot’ Wins Oldenburg Film Festival German Independence Award
In the Blind Spot, Ayşe Polat’s documentary-style conspiracy thriller set in modern-day Turkey has won the German Independence Award for best film at the 30th Oldenburg International Film Festival. The drama, which premiered in the Encounters section of the Berlin Film Festival this year, follows a German film team shooting a documentary in a remote […]
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Oldenburg: Cassian Elwes on His Directorial Debut ‘Passenger C’
The plot line for Passenger C reads like an “only in Hollywood” inspirational tale. Big-time Hollywood agent and producer Cassian is on a red-eye flight back to Los Angeles when he agrees to take the seat next to Marco, an ex-Marine with PTSD. When Marco begins to flip out, physically assaulting Cassian and threatening the […]
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An Oldenburg Fairy Tale: How ‘Uppercut’ Director Torsten Ruether Adapted His Own German Film and Got Ving Rhames to Star
“It really is a fairy tale, an Oldenburg fairy tale,” says Torsten Ruether, speaking about his new movie Uppercut, “how this movie came together feels magical, somehow.” Two years ago, Ruether was in Oldenburg, Germany’s leading indie film festival, presenting his debut feature, Leberhaken, a low-budget boxing movie with a distinctly Million Dollar Baby vibe: […]
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Oldenburg Fest Honors Cinema Iconoclasts Isild Le Besco, Jen Gatien With 2023 Tribute Awards
The Oldenburg Film Festival has picked two iconoclast filmmakers to honor for its 30th anniversary edition: French actor/director Isild Le Besco and Canadian producer Jen Gatien. Both women have carved out unique paths in independent cinema, defying conventions and expectations. Le Besco has worked in front of the camera since she was eight, and by […]
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‘The Wait’ Review: A Genre-Jumping Exercise With More Style Than Substance
The third feature from Spanish writer-director F. Javier Gutiérrez premiered at the Oldenburg Film Festival in Germany.
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