Nine Oscar Contenders And More At The Filmfest Hamburg

Among a growing group of European film festivals showcasing movies that premiered earlier during the year, the Hamburg Filmfest is surely one of the most unbent and well-programmed events. This year, it will take place from September 25 to October 4.

There are no less than nine Oscar contenders for the foreign film category. Among them appear such heavyweights as the Turkish Golden Palm winner Winter Sleep by Nuri Bilge Ceylan and Xavier Dolan's latest hipster-bliss Mommy, which is Canada's entry in the foreign film competition.

Moreover, Hungary's Cannes darling and winner of the Un Certain Regard section, White God by Kornél Mundruczó, the Croatian comedy Cowboys by Tomislav Mršić, Pawel Pawlikowski's first Polish feature film Ida which has built up quite a reputation, guarantee a strong wave of Eastern European films.

There appear also two Scandinavian Oscar contenders in the line-up: Sweden's Force Majeure by Ruben Östlund, which also premiered at Cannes, and Iceland's Life in a Fishbowl by Baldvin Zophoníasson.

The unofficial Oscar showcase gets completed with Gett: The Trial of Viviane Amsalem, a drama from Israel which premiered at the Director's Fortnight in Cannes, and the Mauritanian Timbuktu, which will also be the closing film of the festival.

But as you might guess there is more to Hamburg than nine Oscar contenders; especially the strong Asian section at the festival has some great films to offer. The most spectacular might just be From What Is Before by Lav Diaz, which recently won the Golden Leopard in Locarno. Its sheer length of 338 minutes makes it an unusual pick for a festival like Hamburg. It definitely will jam other screenings but then, judging from all one has heard about the film, and from all I have seen by Diaz this might just be the most precious time of the festival.

Other strong entries include Asia Argento's Misunderstood, Party Girl by Marie Amachoukeli, Claire Burge,r and Samuel Theis, Jauja by Lisandro Alonso and August Winds by Gabriel Mascaro.

Hamburg is also a great place to discover some new German films and it is an important role for the festival to give young German filmmakers an opportunity to present their films next to the international peak of contemporary festival cinema. The retrospective of the Hamburg Filmfest takes an interesting look at the cinema of the German Democratic Republic, curated by filmmaker Andreas Dresen.

Another exciting aspect about the festival is its Children and Youth Film festival "Michel" paralleling the main competitions. It is very important not only to give the younger ones a chance to catch some early festival air but also to focus on the art of films made for children.

Last and in this case least are some screenings of movies made for television, and television series like Boardwalk Empire. With all respect to the quality of the work, I think there are some reasonable arguments for not showing television programs at a film festival. There is a completely different perception of time between television and cinema to start with, especially considering series. Nevertheless in Germany television and cinema are (not always to the best) closely connected. Thus one can possibly discover the cinema of tomorrow in television.

The festival will be opened by British comedy Pride by Matthew Warchus. The slogan of the Hamburg Filmfest reads: "Film does matter!" So be it!