Creative Networks
day and night at the museum
The Filmfest has a history of cooperating with other institutions around town. For example, in 2003, the last year in which Eberhard Hauff was director of the festival, a crossover event was held with the Haus der Kunst, honoring both (film) artist Ulrike Ottinger and video artist Christian Jankowski.
Two further collaborations with the Haus der Kunst followed. To accompany the “La La Land” exhibition in 2005, the Filmfest presented artist Paul McCarthy’s “favorite films”, which included EVEN DWARFS STARTED SMALL (1970) by Werner Herzog. In 2016, ten cinematic sketches, collectively titled “Rheingold”, by director Jan Bonny and artist Alex Wissel, were screened at the museum; they featured Matthias Brandt, Bibiana Beglau, and Joachim Król “as characters who, in the spirit of Helmut Dietl, are just a little bit removed from reality” (2016 festival magazine).
A year later, the Filmfest put on two events as part of the Kunstareal Fest. The documentary DAVID LYNCH: THE ART LIFE was screened at HFF Kino 1, and excerpts from Hermann Pölking’s seven-and-a-half-hour documentary WHO WAS HITLER, along with a documentary exploring the making of the film, were shown at the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism. The entire work was then screened as a triple feature in the Carl-Orff-Saal at the Gasteig.
In 2015, the Filmfest collaborated with Museum Brandhorst for the first time. Curated by Glenn O’Brien and Katja Eichinger, the first major retrospective of Andy Warhol’s cinematic work was given the title “Warholmania in Munich”. Eichinger also curated films by other directors who had been influenced by Warhol’s aesthetic, such as SPRING BREAKERS (2012) by Harmony Korine. In 2019, the collaboration resumed. Arthur Jafa, whose works were being shown at the 10th anniversary exhibition at Museum Brandhorst, created a longlist of films. Film director Megan Fraser shortened the list and divided the films among seven modules given the collective title “A Peculiar Vantage: A Selection of Black Cinema”. In 2022, Museum Brandhorst presented an exhibition on body image in art since the 1950s. Curator Charlie Fox put together an accompanying selection of films on the theme of “Body Horror”; the Filmfest also screened three recent films that included aspects of “body horror”.
Body Horror
Warholmania
Arthur Jafa
MUsical collaborations
In collaboration with the Filmmuseum, “Munich Film Histories” — that is, films that had been shot and produced in Munich — were screened in 2003. These ranged from the first feature film shot in Munich, DIE WAHRHEIT (1910) by Peter Ostermayr, to Karl Grune’s monumental historical film WATERLOO (1929). Afternoon screenings of silent films from Munich were also held, with Aljoscha Zimmermann providing accompaniment on the grand piano.
Silent films with live accompaniment were screened every year. In this, FILMFEST MÜNCHEN has collaborated with Transit Film, the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung in Wiesbaden and the Goethe-Institut in Munich on several occasions: in 2007, for example, for a screening of Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s FAUST with musical accompaniment by the Aljoscha Zimmermann Ensemble, and in 2013 for a screening of THE GOLEM by Paul Wegener and Carl Boese, accompanied by violinist Sabrina Zimmermann, pianist Mark Pogolski, and percussionist Markus Steiner. In 2018, as part of the Faust Festival and in collaboration with München Musik and the Gasteig, Murnau’s FAUST was performed again, this time accompanied by the Munich Symphony Orchestra.
In 2019, the Filmfest also screened three films made on the lot of Bavaria Film to mark the studio’s 100th anniversary: WASSER FÜR CANITOGA (1939) starring Hans Albers, the director’s cut of Dominik Graf’s THE INVINCIBLES (1994), and Franz Osten’s THE GREAT CATTLE WAR from 1920 with a new soundtrack composed by Hans-Jürgen Buchner (Haindling).
exchange/Away games
In 2015, the Filmfest and the Jerusalem Film Festival had an exchange of films to mark 50 years of diplomatic relations between Germany and Israel, and in 2016, the Filmfest collaborated with the Munich Airport on “Away Game”. Outdoor seating set up at the airport for viewing live broadcasts of the European Soccer Championship in France was used for screenings of recent films about soccer on three days when no matches were scheduled.
The year 2017 saw a cooperation with TV station Zee.One. Four Indian films from the channel’s programming schedule were placed on the big screen, and a yoga session in the foyer of the HFF was led by Patrick Broome, the yoga instructor of the German national soccer team.
From 2018 to 2019, TV station Tele5 was the main sponsor of the Filmfest. During the festival, Tele5 broadcast films that had previously been screened at the Filmfest. In exchange, the Filmfest featured movie nights dedicated to certain programs produced by the channel. The Filmfoniker presented a special concert of film music, hosted by Thomas Gottschalk. In 2019, Tele 5 even proclaimed the “Festival of Love”.
FILMFEST 365
Since 2022, the Filmfest has been organizing events with numerous partnering institutions throughout the year at various locations around town and on occasion even outside of it. For example, a conference on the topic of “Representation in Film” was held in cooperation with the Evangelische Akademie Tutzing from March 25 to 27, 2022. In the halls of the academy near Lake Starnberg, numerous speakers discussed the many facets of diversity in film.
Shortly after the 2022 festival, the Filmfest hosted an evening on “50 Years after the Munich Olympics” in collaboration with Bayerischer Rundfunk. On September 17, 2022, the festival premiered Axel Ranisch’s latest film, ORPHEA IN LOVE, at the State Opera House in cooperation with the Bavarian State Opera. On four Thursdays in November, the Filmfest screened recent German motion pictures and TV movies in the Gans am Wasser yurt at the Westpark. In cooperation with the Munich Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism, a screening of the documentary A BREATH OF LIFE was held on December 7, and on December 17 two early works by Jakob Lass were screened at the Alte Westend Apotheke with the director attending. Lass’s film LOVE STEAKS earned the German Cinema New Talent Award in all four categories at Filmfest 2013 and is celebrating its 10th anniversary this year.
the yurt at Gans am Wasser
