Why Oldenburg is the most independent film festival

Countless film festivals celebrate independent films, but few live up to the indie spirit like the Oldenburg Festival. Every year, the North German event faces the same challenges – attracting stars, finding venues, attracting media attention – as most independent products. And like independent films, Oldenburg is chronically underfunded.

But every year, in the best indie tradition, Oldenburg manages to find his way.

In 2001, faced with a lack of German independent films, or even a tradition of genuine German independent films, Oldenburg decided to create his own. The festival was supported 99 euro moviesA small omnibus project of 12 five-minute films, each shot on a mini-DV camera with a budget of €99 ($105), to demonstrate, as Promo Bundovan put it, “that German films can be wild too , new, modern , funny, political and entertaining” and that young German film directors get together, inspire interesting young actors, have an idea and just shoot. Oldenburg repeated the experiment in 2003 99 euros movies 2.

The first group of German independent directors included Nicolet Krebitz, whose 2016 Wild The premiere took place at Sundance and which competed this year at the Berlin Film Festival. AEIOU: The Fast Alphabet of Love; Matthias Glasner, 2006 Tribeca Film Festival Jury Prize Winner Free will; And Rolf Peter Callie, whose last, When Susan Sontag was sitting in the auditoriumIn 1966, in New York, Norman Meyler, German Greer, Jill Johnston, Jacqueline Seballo and Diana Trilling, a dramatic recreation of the “Dialogue on the Liberation of Women” debate, has just arrived in German cinemas.

In 2005, when Oldenburg needed a venue for premieres, festival director Thorsten Neumann turned to the director of the city’s maximum security prison, JVA. The result was the “Knastkino” (prison cinema), now the Oldenburg tradition, where the festival annually organizes a gala for guests and prisoners seated side by side. Guests undergo a thorough prison security check to enter. Inmates are on the best behavior. The event ended without incident for over 15 years.

Even in 2020, when the COVID pandemic shut down public events around the world and the festival was forced to go online only, Oldenburg found a way. German regulations allowed small groups to gather in private homes, so Neiman asked festival fans to open up their homes, and the Living Room Galas was born. Guest filmmakers and stars walked the red carpet in private homes (Oldenburg took a stroll in front of the university with lights and local paparazzi to give a proper gala feel) where they watched the premiere together on the couch and answered questions. Then intimate question-answer. Oldenburg streamed the whole thing live.

In terms of stars, Oldenburg has his share, though he always leans towards the indie side of the spectrum: Nicolas Cage, Amanda Plummer, Keith Caradin, Matthew Modain, Peter Dinklage, Mira Sorvino. And like the local crowd, Oldenburg is fiercely loyal. Actor Seymour Cassell, a regular member of John Cassavete, who hosted a retrospective of the Oldenburg Festival in 2008, was impressed that he would return again. little new york (2009), pete smalls is dead (2010), Fort McCoy (2011) and lost angels (2012). Lastly, Oldenburg nominated the Seymour Cassell Award for acting, and following Cassel’s death in 2019, the festival held a retrospective in honor of the beloved indie icon.

On the subject of media popularization, Oldenburg knows how to draw crowds. For Michael Maxis’ Opening Night Movie 2020 puppy loveNeumann received permission from a newly constructed apartment building downtown for Spanish street artist Okuda San Miguel, who created the film’s poster, to create a spray mural inspired by one of the scenes from the film starring Neumann: Paz de la Huerta and Hopper. Penny. The result of Okuda’s technology, containing a combination of organic shapes and geometric shapes, has become a tourist attraction in Oldenburg.

Last year, Oldenburg even managed to put a new twist on the masterclass, putting it all right with this awful film festival tradition of interviews with guest directors and celebrities. On Find Your Wild, he saw Laotian director Mati Do (a long walk), Dakota Loach and Scott Monahan (writer and director-plus-star-owner of Oldenburg’s Best Film of 2021). Anchoringrespectively), as well as veteran Italian director and producer Ovidio G. assonitis (tentacles, Guest) Join the Jeep Wrangler for a tour of the simple streets of downtown Oldenburg as they talk about their lives and activities. Think Carpool Karaoke without a song.

Oldenburg has yet to announce the schedule for the 29th edition, which is scheduled for the 14th and 18th of September, especially the events, parties and unique experiences that will make this year’s festival unforgettable. But after three decades of holding on and finding a way, one thing is clear: the 2022 Oldenburg Festival will not just be an independent film festival, it will be an independent experience.

The movie Teacher greets the teacher

This is how Thai composer and filmmaker Somtu Sucharitkul had his fun when he brought his Siam Sinfonietta Youth Orchestra to Oldenburg last year, returning for the 2022 edition, this time honoring one of his musical heroes, Bernard Herman, in honor.

Few musicians have flown more than 8,000 miles for Bis. But Sucharitkul and his orchestra are still planning a trip from Bangkok to Oldenburg.

Somtow says he fell in love with the festival after being invited to the 2021 event. At first, he was just attending the world premiere. Teacher, a Thai horror film written by and starring Somtow (plays a murderous, power-hungry songwriter). But after talking to Thorsten Neumann, director of the Oldenburg Festival, Somtow became more ambitious. He invited his youth orchestra, Siam Sinfonietta, to play Teacher – Join him in northern Germany. Together they opened and closed the 2021 Festival, featuring songs from the film and original interpretations of other scores, including Ovid Assonitis, Oldenburg’s 2021 guest of honor, master of the Italian genre (tentacles, Behind the door).

“Thorsten’s bold idea, ‘Go ahead and do it, screw up the results’ was something that got me immediately excited. [He’s] A soul mate. “His idea allowed me to bring something really different,” Somtow said. “It also expanded the repertoire of our children. They’re very familiar with Mahler and Tchaikovsky and all that, but there’s no way they can say, say, Morricone in a classical concert that often.

For this year’s comeback piece, Somtow plans to honor Bernard Herman, the legendary composer whose work includes points. Citizen Kane s Psycho this Taxi driver.

“If it weren’t for the film industry, Herman would have become one of the great opera composers of the 20th century. He wrote an opera pure heights “This is a movie soundtrack on steroids,” Somtow said, adding that he has created about 20 operas on stage.

“But when I think, ‘Which composer influenced me more in this dramatic art form than any other?’ I want to respond to Mozart, or Wagner, or Strauss, and I often look Bernard Herman in the eye. My love of horror comes from my mother taking me to see Psycho Repeatedly when I was about 8 or 9 years old. He closed his eyes. … I am not. The report left an indelible impression.”