Australian Festival of German Films attracted 19,000

Significant increase in admissions at 2008 AUDI Festival of German Films in Australia and Audience Award for RABBIT WITHOUT EARS (KEINOHRHASEN)

Now in its seventh year, the film event jointly organised by GERMAN FILMS and the Goethe Institut in Sydney in four Australian cities (16.-27.04.08) attracted over 19,000 cinema-goers who were able to see a broad spectrum of 22 new feature films and TV movies and seven shorts within twelve days.

The romantic comedy RABBIT WITHOUT EARS (KEINOHRHASEN) by Til Schweiger, which already had the makings of a hit during its advance ticket sales, was awarded the “Golden Gnome” Audience Prize and sold during the festival to Palace Films.

Practically all of the screenings were sold out in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth – in particular, THE COUNTERFEITERS (DIE FAELSCHER) by Stefan Ruzowitzky, THE WAVE (DIE WELLE) by Dennis Gansel, THE EDGE OF HEAVEN (AUF DER ANDEREN SEITE) by Fatih Akin and CHERRY BLOSSOMS (KIRSCHBLUETEN - HANAMI) by Doris Doerrie found an enthusiastic audience and also met with a very good response from the media. Due to the great demand, there were several additional screenings.

Juergen Vogel was on hand to present a small retrospective and made sure that there were well attended screenings for DUEL IN THE NIGHT (DUELL IN DER NACHT) by Matti Geschonneck, NAKED (NACKT) by Doris Doerrie, SHATTERED GLASS (SCHERBENTANZ) by Chris Kraus and WHERE IS FRED? (WO IST FRED?) by Anno Saul.

Director Martin Gypkens introduced his film NOTHING BUT GHOSTS (NICHTS ALS GESPENSTER) in three cities in and was happy about the good turnout at several workshops on his film

Intensive discussions with a very committed audience were held on AND ALONG COME TOURISTS (AM ENDE KOMMEN TOURISTEN) by Robert Thalheim.

The schools screenings of MAX MINSKY AND ME (MAX MINSKY UND ICH) by Anna Justice and Detlev Buck's HANDS OFF MISSISSIPPI (HAENDE WEG VON MISSISSIPPI) were extremely popular; they were completely sold out.

The following films were also hits with the audience: THE OTHER BOY (DER ANDERE JUNGE) by Volker Einrauch, THE CALLING GAME (DIE ANRUFERIN) by Felix Randau, RUNAWAY HORSE (EIN FLIEHENDES PFERD) by Rainer Kaufmann, YOU ARE NOT ALONE (DU BIST NICHT ALLEIN) by Bernd Boehlich, RECLAIM YOUR BRAIN (FREE RAINER – DEIN FERNSEHER LUEGT) by Hans Weingartner, HEAD UNDER WATER (FREISCHWIMMER) by Andreas Kleinert, LATEBLOOMERS (HERBSTZEITLOSEN) by Bettina Oberli, as well as Maggie Peren's comedy SPECIAL ESCORT (STELLUNGSWECHSEL). BORDER OF DESPAIR (DIE FRAU VOM CHECKPOINT CHARLIE) by Miguel Alexandre was shown in a special screening.