In this week’s episode of The Screen Podcast, Razor Film co-founder Roman Paul and Komplizen Film co-founder Janine Jackowski explain why the German film sector is undergoing a major transition.

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Host Wendy Mitchell talks to Jackowski and Paul about some of the challenges facing production in Germany at the moment.

“There was a time three years ago where all the streamers were coming to the German market and there was like full employment, but that’s not happening anymore,” Jackowski explained. “So there’s a lot of transition of people going back to film and we see that the film funds have to deal with a lot of projects. It’s double as much as [it was] three years ago.”

The trio also discussed the advantages of European co-production.

“We still are a good and important partner for co-production,” Paul said. ”We have the right people for that. We still have financing tools for that. Also, Germany is quite tolerant. You do not have to bring necessarily, if the project doesn’t allow it, German actors to the screen or force the language onto it. Germany is open-minded.”

Paul co-founded Razor Film in 2002 with Gerhard Meixner and their credits include Waltz With Bashir, The Perfect Candidate and Quo Vadis, Aida?.

Jackowski founded Komplizen Film in 1999 alongside Maren Ade, with Jonas Dornbach joining as managing director and producer in 2010. Their output has included all of Ade’s films, plus Pablo Larrain’s Spencer and Marie Kreutzer’s recent Cannes Competition title Gentle Monster.

Both companies are part of The Creatives, the alliance of nine international production companies, which is also discussed in the podcast.

The Screen Podcast is produced by Ellie Calnan, with Wendy Mitchell serving as editorial director. New episodes every Thursday.

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