Just as German Films celebrates its 70 anniversary, Redmond Bacon surveys the international outlook of German cinema at the Industry@Tallinn and Baltic Event; he uncovers a prolific industry, innovative co-productions, large tax rebates, and... abundant red tape!
Germany promotes itself to the world as a nation of ruthless efficiency, a can-do attitude and a relentless output of products, whether it’s cars, machines, sausages, or… films! But the reality, at least when it comes to cinema, is far more complex: a difficult patchwork of federal states, cumbersome and complicated funding laws, and a world-famous bureaucracy. While Germany still produces some of the most notable European movies, whether as a majority or minority producer, progress is consistently hampered by a fiendishly complicated system.
As Protected Men (2024; which premiered this year in the Rebels With a Cause section of the 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival) director and producer Irene von Alberti states, reflecting on both Germany’s ability to eventually get things made and the torturous issues with finally getting there: “The biggest problem is the excessive bureaucracy, the complicated audit system, the uneconomical and un-ecological regulation of regional subsidies. There is still a lot to be done, but on the other hand, I am of course, also very happy, because, without state funding, many cultural and artistic projects would be impossible. ”
Thankfully, what keeps Germany’s complex film world together while acting as its spokesman is German Film. Founded in 1954, it is the national centre dedicated to promoting German cinema across the world, working as an ambassador for talent and as a form of soft power. To celebrate the agency’s 70th anniversary, Germany has been chosen as the Focus Country at this year’s Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, with a whopping 60 German productions and co-productions included in the line-up.
Many of these are domestic productions, produced in the country, filmed in the German language, and made with German state or federal funding. But there are many notable majority and minority co-productions across the lineup, such as Critic’s Pick Quiet Life (Alexandros Avranas, 2024; pictured above), Baltic Film Competition entries Lioness (Liina Triskina-Vanhatalo) and Never Alone (Klaus Haro), as well as the American Midnight Shivers entry Cuckoo (Tilman Singer, 2024), among many others. With international collaborations standing out critically and at the box office in comparison to fully German productions across 2024, it reinforces the need for Germany to increase its international outlook and reduce unnecessary bureaucratic hurdles in order to stay truly competitive at a European level.
Mirror on the wall, who’s the most diverse of them all?
Judging from the diversity on offer, the world of German film is becoming more and more international. And Sylva Hautle, Head of Festival Relations and Producers Liason at German Films, concurs: “That’s absolutely a trend, with directors from other countries but it’s financed in Germany”, citing Quiet Life (above) and Venice title Maria (Pablo Larrain, 2024) as recent examples. She goes on to say that it’s “a mirror of German society,” one which has grown more diverse over the decades, with nearly one-third of the entire population now comprised of people from a migrant background.
The culmination of this growing diversity can be seen in this year’s Cannes hit The Seed of the Sacred Fig (Mohammad Rasoulof). Despite being set in Iran and with Persian-speaking characters, it was submitted as Germany’s latest submission to the Oscars, where it has been shortlisted. It is breaking fresh ground as the first non-German language film from Germany to be submitted to the Academy Awards.
As Simone Baumann, Head of German Films states, "The Seed of the Sacred Fig is a majority German film, since more than 70% the budget is coming from Germany and most people of the creative team have a residency in Germany. We have a lot of filmmakers with different cultural backgrounds living in Germany. This is reflecting the contemporary German society.”
This internationalisation is borne out by the wider statistics. According to the European Audiovisual Observatory, Germany counts as the second-biggest co-producer (behind France) in Europe, participating in 141 majority co-productions and 147 minority co-productions between 2015-2022. Nonetheless, according to Baumann, Germany actually produces “up to 250 majority German films for theatrical release every year,” showing a marked contrast between domestic cinema and international films.
A comfy bedsit for Hollywood
It’s not just festival darlings that can technically count as a co-production. The Hollywood hit John Wick 4 (Chad Stahelski, 2023; pictured above) was made in Studio Babelsberg, just southeast of Berlin. The FFA (German Federal Film Board) count it as the most successful German film of the last year, making $440.1 million worldwide — over 100 times the arthouse darling The Seed of the Sacred Fig with 4 million. But German Films doesn’t count minority productions among its line-up. As Baumann says, “For us, the definition of a German film depends on the budget. It means a majority financed German film.”
Nonetheless, minority co-production John Wick 4 joins Babelsberg-shot films such as The Bourne Supremacy (Paul Greengrass, 2004), Inglorious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino, 2009), The Grand Budapest Hotel (Wes Anderson, 2014) and Captain America: Civil War (Russo Brothers, 2016) as an international success that can count some type of German involvement, either as a service production or with minority funding.
To support minor co-productions in the future, the FFA began a new minority co-production scheme this year, although the budget is too small at just €1 million a year. As Baumann says, “There might be just 4-5 productions supported. In general I think that the number didn’t increase a lot [in] the last years”. Significantly more money will be needed for Germany, for the Teutonic nation to dominate over France and the UK. Yet, with a new law on the horizon, international investment into Germany may get a much-bigger and much-needed influx of foreign investment…
From dusk till dawn
New changes to the German film funding structure and tax incentives, as well as investment obligations for streaming platforms and TV networks, are due to be implemented next year. This could shed new light on the German film industry, and represent a new dawn for international collaborations. Discussing this new amendment to German film law, Baumann says, “The new law should make Germany more attractive for international productions. It can be for co-productions and also for service productions. But it also should enable German producers to raise a better budget for their own projects to be able to compete in the international market.”
The tax incentive especially, with rebates of up to 30%, alongside the obligation for streamers to invest 20% of its revenues generated in Germany back into European productions, should, in theory, make Germany more competitive as a place for international co-productions. This is especially notable as one of Germany’s biggest international hits of recent years, the Netflix film All Quiet on the Western Front (Edward Berger, 2022; pictured just below), racking up 150 million hours watched since its release, was shot in the Czech Republic to save money on production costs.
All Quiet on the Western Front
Baumann states that “Formally the new law is ready,” but it has been complicated by the recent turmoil in the German government, with a snap election scheduled for the 23rd of February. As she clarifies, “This is a big question which nobody can answer properly. It is all connected to the federal budget that should be approved by the government. We all hope that they find a solution in the next weeks.” This also means that certain parts of the law are not being implemented on January 1st, as originally planned, such as the streaming obligation and the much-needed tax incentive. Häutle opines “this is a big problem for the whole industry because they need the money in the end for funding.”
This is particularly true when it comes to the streamers, which, according to Baumann “are very important for German film production” as they helped “German filmmaking [go] global — series like Dark and also All Quiet on the Western Front showed a new level of German TV and cinema.” Problems arose in 2023 when “most of the streamers reduced their investment in German originals, which led to a bigger crisis for the German production landscape.” With a new streaming obligation, similar to the one implemented in France in 2022, Germany can theoretically fund a much-needed boom in homegrown originals such as All Quiet to compete on an international level. Here’s hoping that the German government stays the course despite political unrest and the collapse of the current coalition.
Fighting fragmentation
Due to its geographical position, with the most borders in the EU as well as being the largest economy, it’s easy to see Germany as the centre of European film and a bridge between East and Western Europe. This is an especially seductive idea when you consider festivals with a focus on Central and Eastern European film such as GoEast in Wiesbaden and FilmFestival Cottbus, which takes place near the Polish border in Brandenburg.
But as Marcel Maïga, the Foreign Representative at German Films for Eastern Europe, points out, “the same bridges, or even on a better level, can be done by and are done by France or Italy or Spain. Germany, with this federal system, is a bit more complicated than, for example, France, where they have this huge powerful cultural policy, with the French Institute working together with their foreign affairs.”
As opposed to one indivisible republic of France, Germany is a federal country comprised of 16 states. They each have their own policies, complemented by eight different film funds; German Films is their umbrella organisation, operating a budget of €4.8 million a year, which they all contribute towards. On the one hand, this allows for a diversity of funds to apply for, but on the other, it makes it harder for a consistent country-wide policy to succeed.
As Häutle says, “With all the regional funds and different systems and so on, it’s a bit tough. And also the obligation. When you get money from Brandenburg, you have to spend it in Brandenburg to a certain amount. That’s difficult for production companies. Shootings don’t make any sense anymore.” This certainly can provide headaches for international co-producers, who want to tap into certain funds, but don’t want to film in Germany itself. Therefore far more flexibility is needed on a Germany-wide level for the country to stay competitive, both when it comes to producing homegrown talent and for bringing in international investment.
Slow-curing delicious films
Producing cinema isn’t as fast as manufacturing Frankfurters and Wieners. Reflecting on this lack of flexibility, von Alberti states that “to apply for film funding in Germany, you have to have a good plan, and also a plan B and C, and a lot of patience“. She says it also helps to have a clear idea of which type of film you are making: “Is it an artistic arthouse film, or more commercial?” Eventually she was “lucky to have the BKM’s cultural film funding for my film, but also a large production share from ZDF and arte, with editors who had the courage to push through a feminist satire.”
Television networks such as ZDF play an important part in promoting new voices as well, with their Das kleine Fernsehspiel (roughly translating to “the little TV play”) fund supporting debut features, such as Steve Bache’s challenging paedophile drama No Dogs Allowed (2024, above). “Usually film funding is always looking for a partnership with broadcasting stations. We had a lot of meetings regarding the tough topic of our film, but everyone saw the potential the film and our story had.”
Nonetheless, as Ice Aged (Alexandra Sell, 2024) producer Lisa Elstermann states, “it is becoming increasingly challenging to secure sufficient funding from television networks. That said, when you do have a broadcaster on board, you gain a strong partner for the project“. Thankfully for her, their documentary had an “excellent budget” comprised of support from Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the German Federal Film Board (FFA), the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media (BKM), the FilmFernsehFonds Bayern, the German Federal Film Fund (DFFF), and German Films, as well as TV partnerships with BR, ARTE and RBB. As she states, “We hope this model of collaboration continues to thrive, as it is essential for ensuring that German documentary films can maintain their place on the big screen.”
Of course making any film is difficult, but these examples show that getting a movie made in Germany requires a particularly difficult dance of cobbling together various funds and a careful balance of broadcast and state support. While German filmmakers and producers have a clearer idea of how these relationships play out, for more international hits, such as The Seed of the Sacred Fig or Quiet Life, to succeed, a much more consistent national strategy is sorely needed.
To learn more about Germany and its funding opportunities, it is recommended to attend the Germany in Focus: Exploring Federal and Regional Film Funding for Co-Productions event taking place at the Nordic Hotel Forum on the 21 November from 3 pm to 4:30 pm EET. Learn more about it here.
Pictured at the top of this article is German indie hit Landjäger (Lilli Thalgott, 2021).
This piece is a cross-publication in partnership with the DMovies.org.
Tags: 28th Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, German Films, Industry Analysis