Munich works harder

Germany's second largest film fest serves as the more leisurely counterpart to Berlin's work-intensive fest and market.

The easy-going atmosphere of the Bavarian summer has helped guarantee a regular array of international guests which this time included Terry Gilliam, Jonathan Demme ("Neil Young: Heart of Gold") and Andrew Bujalski ("Mutual Appreciation"), as well as Mike Figgis, Barry Levinson and Iranian filmmaker Mohsen Makhmalbaf.

To avoid a clash with the World Cup, fest was moved from June to mid-July, which affected the choice of sidebars in favor of Eastern European cinema.

Munich has a long-standing relationship with Karlovy Vary, normally feeding the Czech fest from its regular sidebar of American independents. This year, pics from Karlovy Vary were picked up by Munich, a bonus for topper Andreas Stroehl, who in a former job spent six years in Prague.

With the success of this year's Eastern European sidebar, fest is sure to keep its doors wide open for future regional showcases. Other regions featured at Munich this year were Quebec and, another regular section, Nouveau Cinema Francais.

The growing importance of Munich for the industry was evident two years ago when three of four Italian entries were sold at Munich. The following year, Italians queued up, Stroehl recalls.

Fest organizers have thus boosted efforts to arrange biz-to-biz connections between international and Teutonic buyers, leading to the recent establishment of a "match-making" liaison to pitch potential pick-ups to local distribs.

"Most German distributors are headquartered in Munich anyway, and most buyers for TV come here, so it wasn't much effort to discreetly nurture this function," says Stroehl, stressing that Munich does not claim the status of a market.

The step towards more service for the industry had to be taken to keep up the fest's standard, Stroehl maintains. "Licensors from overseas should know it's worthwhile to have their films screened here," he says, noting that this way Munich can keep refusing to pay license fees.

The Makhmalbaf retrospective, highlighted by the world premiere of "The Scream of the Ants," underlined the fest's political aspect, which reflects that of the annual lineup.