Two Darling Berlin movies have been nominated for the prestigious Prize of the VDFK, which is awarded by the German movie critics:
Best Feature Film Debut: Philipp Eichholtz (Liebe mich!/Love me!)
Best Actor: Peter Trabner (Familienfieber/Family Fever and Alki Alki)
Philipp Eichholtz was born and raised near Osnabrück. At the age of 15 he made his first short movie and 23 projects were to follow in the next 8 years. In 2005, he won the Newcomer Prize at the Hamm Film Festival with “The Last Night”, invitations to Film Workshop Wiesbaden and the 19th European Media Art Festival followed. Between 2006 and 2007, Philipp Eichholtz was invited to 17 more film festivals with different works. His second movie Liebe mich! (Love Me!) tells the story of Sarah, a loud, non-conformist, rude, honest and provocative girl. She seems invincible, but she is lonely and lost and is struggling with her daily life. “Liebe mich!” (“Love Me!”) is a film working with improvisation and without a big budget or promotion. Inspired by the “Great Movies Manifesto” of director Axel Ranisch, the film was shot in Berlin in ten days, using a six-page script.
Peter Trabner was born in Bückeburg / Germany in 1969. After moving to Berlin in 1992, he acted in his first play, a Commedia-dell’-Arte production which was staged at many fringe festivals in Canada. He received clown and pantomime training from Eberhard Kube and has worked in Portugal, Spain, France, UK, Australia as well as in Germany. In 2010, Trabner made his first full-length movie “Papa Gold” under the direction of Tom Lass and short after that, he gets to know the director Axel Ranisch, with whom he realizes his second movie “Dicke Mädchen. Next, he has theatre engagements and works with German actor/director Corinna Harfouch, before he becomes one of the most important faces of the young Berlin movie scene with the productions “Silvi” by Nico Sommer, “Kohlhaas oder die Verhältnismäßigkeit der Mittel” by Aron Lehmann, “Reuber” by Axel Ranisch and, finally, “Familienfieber (Family Fever) by Nico Sommer”.
Congratulations to the nominees, we wish the best of luck!
The award ceremony will be held at the Berlinale festival on Monday, 16th February.
Liebe mich! (Love me!) by Philipp Eichholtz with Peter Trabner as well:
Sarah’s MacBook Air flies out of the window when she is throwing an angry fit after an argument with her supposedly best friend. They just spent the night together but he’s not on the same page as her regarding of this new development in their relationship. Stupidly enough, her whole week’s work is on that broken laptop. But maybe the nice guy from the computer repair store can fix it? Or maybe he can fix her life altogether? He is trying to do both and Sarah lets him, because behind her loud and impulsive façade she has a big desire for love. But Sarah wouldn’t be Sarah if she did not test the limits of what this new blooming relationship could take, how many arguments she can have with her father or how much she can party away in Berlin’s night life.
Familienfieber (Family Fever) with Peter Trabner:
At some point, they have to meet finally: Alina and Nico are in love as of late and have decided to introduce their parents to each other – notoriously a venturous enterprise. And so, Maja and Uwe are reluctant to their daughter’s plan. Nevertheless, the family hits the road to the “big house” of her boyfriend, as Alina announces it, somewhere in the Berlin hinterlands. After the house turns out to be a genuine castle, Maja has to face the additional fact that she knows Nico’s father much better than she would prefer in this situation. One thing’s for sure: that sounds great!
