Editor

Oldenburg is a lively forum for passionate and independent film
The 17th Oldenburg International Film Festival takes positive stock of this year’s edition and is able to match last year’s audience with 14.500 admittances –despite smaller venues and twelve screenings less.
The exciting festival days drew to a close, having witnessed a total of eight world premieres, 17 German premieres, seven international premieres and five European premieres among the 56 shown films, on Sunday September 19th with the world premiere of “Pound of Flesh” by director and festival guest Tamar Simon Hoffs and stars Timothy Bottoms and Whitney Able also in attendance. During the Closing Night, ceremony the “German Independence Award – Best German Film”, the “German Independence Award – Audience Award” and the “German Independence Award – Best Short Film” were announced. The international jury Deborah Kara Unger, Jesse Scolaro, F. X. Feeney, Travis Stevens and Dorka Gryllus awarded the “German Independence Award – Best German Film” to Philip Koch and his movie “Picco” at the Oldenburg CinemaxX, pointing out that the “savagery and moral deprivation displayed in Picco can be applied to juvenile delinquents in any country”. They went on to praise the film for its “clear and heartbreaking storytelling”. Mayor Prof. Dr. Gerd Schwandner and festival director Torsten Neumann presented the 4,000 Euro award, which is supported by the City of Oldenburg to Felix Neunzerling, CEO of ZOOM medienfabrik, who is in charge of marketing for “Picco”. “The German Independence Award” is also sponsored by Avid and Holland Subtitling.
Peter Göttelmann, head of marketing of main sponsor EWE, handed the “German Independence Award – Audience Award” to Paul Gordon for his deep and witty comedy “The Happy Poet”. The award is worth 2,000 Euro.
“Salvation Insurance” by Jeremy Bradley and Reuben Sack was voted best short film by the short-film jury of Thomas Darchinger, Norbert Kneißl and Dagmar Schmidt. The award is worth 500 Euro.
The opening of the five exciting festival days was celebrated with Christoph Hochhäusler’s “The City Below”, with star Nicolette Krebitz in attendance, presenting the film to a moved audience at the Fliegerhorst.
During the festival gala evening at the EWE Forum Alte Fleiwa, the guests of honor Timothy Bottoms and Radley Metzger were honored with the “German Independence Honorary Awards”. The 81 year old Metzger was guest of the retrospective and the festival’s tribute was dedicated to Timothy Bottoms.
Among the other festival highlights were the galactic directing debut “Drones” by Amber Benson and Adam Busch, Alexandre Rockwell’s pitch-black gangster comedy “Pete Smalls is Dead” and Gareth Edwards’ stunning low budget production “Monsters”, presented by star Whitney Able. Mark Lewis‘ impressive and humorous sequel “Cane Toads: The Conquest” with its 3D frog documentary pleased the audience as well.
This year’s festival guests included: Deborah Kara Unger, Howard Marks, Peter Dinklage, Paul Gordon, Tamar Simon Hoffs, Timothy Bottoms, Radley Metzger, Seymour Cassel, Arthur Brauss, Bela B. Felsenheimer, Jan Plewka, Jesse Scolaro, Raul Inglis, Matt Kelly, Alexander Riesel, Simon Rumley, Elena Serrano, Philip Koch, Constantin von Jascheroff, Thomas Stiller, Liv Lisa Fries, Oliver Mommsen, Nicolette Krebitz, Kate Connor, Adam Busch, Amber Benson, Yony Leyser, Dylan Verrechia, Christian Alvart and Whitney Able, who all spent some time in Oldenburg.
We would appreciate it if you considered the résumé of the Oldenburg Film Festival in your respective mediums. If you have any further questions we are glad to assist.
We want to take this opportunity to thank all of you for a very pleasant co-operation