The German film industry gathered at Filmfest Hamburg this week is holding its breath as it waits for the much-anticipated package of measures being proposed by the coalition government in Berlin to introduce a major overhaul and realignment of Germany’s federal subsidy system from the beginning of 2025.
On the eve of this year’s Berlinale, Claudia Roth, state minister for culture and media appeared at the German Producers Day to outline proposed key reforms to the film funding system in the light of profound changes in the film landscape since the advent of the streamers, declining cinema admissions and a desire to reduce the bureaucracy involved in funding applications.
The assembled producers’ initial euphoria was tempered in the following months by a growing frustration with the seeming lack of any progress on the drafting of the legislation for a new German Film Law (FFG).
“We have done our homework and developed and presented funding models and actually expected to see the draft bill before the summer break,” said producer Martin Hagemann of Zero Fiction in June.
However, September brought word a tax incentive model and an investment obligation were both on the cards as part of the reform package.
Emboldened by the example of Austria’s FISA+ and ÖFI+ production incentives which had generated more than €120m of Austrian spend in the first six months of 2023, Roth’s ministry is understood to be considering an automatic 30% non-repayable grant on German spend to replace the existing DFFF and GMPF schemes. She is also looking at requirement for streamers and other VoD services to reinvest 20% of their turnover generated in Germany in European audiovisual production with potentially up to 75% of this being spent on original German-language production.
While the German Producers Alliance welcomed the proposal for Germany to follow other key European countries by introducing an investment obligation, the German Association of Private Media VAUNET argued that this would “weaken market dynamics” and has thrown its weight behind the idea of a tax incentive model as “the essential building block for establishing Germany as a stable, reliable and attractive production hub for audiovisual content.”
While Roth’s civil servants are still toiling away at a draft bill to submit to the Bundestag by the end of this year, the minister is also embroiled in the debate about the Berlinale’s future after she decided to abandon the co-director model after the festival’s 2024 edition. The next festival will be the last one overseen by the present incumbents executive director Mariette Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian.
Chatrian was criticised by some for not having forged closer links with the local industry during his time at the Berlinale.
It was telling there has not been any petitions initiated within Germany in his support unlike the open letter, signed by more 400 international filmmakers at the beginning of September, including several local filmmakers whose films had been selected at the last four editions of the Berlinale.
Indeed, Rissenbeek and Chatrian had rather blotted their copybook with the German film community by deciding to discontinue the Perspektive Deutsches Kino sidebar as part of a cost-cutting measure and arguing that the German films would then have greater international visibility if they were programmed in other sections of the festival.
Banner year
The funding and Berlinale conversations are taking place against the backdrop of a banner year for German cinema, at home and abroad. Edward Berger’s Netflix-financed war drama All Quiet On The Western Front won four Oscars including best international feature and a record seven Baftas including best film while German actors stars in some of the year’s biggest festival hits: Franz Rogowski in Ira Sachs’ Passages and Giorgio Diritti’s Italian-Swiss drama Lubo, Clemens Schick in Luc Besson’s Dogman and Sandra Hüller in both Justine Triet’s Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of A Fall and Jonathan Glazer’s Cannes jury prize winner The Zone Of Interest.
“Sandra was the uncrowned queen of Cannes!” as Albert Wiederspiel, artistic director of Filmfest Hamburg puts it.
His last edition of the festival is showcasing a wide spread of contemporary Gemarn filmmaking: Wim Wenders’ Japanese -language Perfect Days and 3D documentary Anselm, debuts from Timm Kröger (The Theory Of Everything), Katharina Huber (A Good Place) and Katharina Lüdin (Of Living Without Illusion) and Hans Steinbichler’s literary adaptation A Whole Life fresh from its world premiere at the Zurich Film Festival.
German films are doing well at the local box office. As filmgoers return to the cinemas, the market share of German films was 26% in the first six months of 2023, the highest it has been for six years.
“The last time we had a similar market share was in 2017,” notes Peter Dinges, CEO of the German Federal Film Board.
Three German productions are among the 10 highest-grossing films of the year in the January-June period: Sony Pictures family film Die drei ??? - Erbe des Drachen ( €12.5m), Constantin Film’s comedy sequel Manta Manta - Zwoter Teil (€12.1m) and the company’s coming of age drama Sun And Concrete (€ 10.2m).
Further local titles making an impact with cinema-goers, albeit on a more modest scale include Ilker Catak’s The Teachers’ Lounge which was released by Alamode in May and has grossed € 1.7m. It is now Germany’s entry to the best international Oscar category. Christian Petzold’s Berlinale title Afire opened in April for Piffl Medien. It has taken $ 1.1m, making it Petzold’s most successful release in his home market, and Sonja Heiss’ When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before opened at the end of February after its premiere at the Berlinale for Warner Bros. Entertainment, grossing $ 4.2m.
All eyes are now turning to 2024.
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