Running from the 1st to the 21st May the German Film Festival has kicked off in Sydney and I spoke with Elysia Zeccola, the festival’s Director. In our conversation we discuss how the festival started, how they chose their films and why a festival like this is important.
Billy Newbery
Let’s start with you walking us through what the festival is and how it started?
Elysia Zeccola
The German Film Festival was started many years ago by the Goethe Institute, here in Australia, who promote German culture and language. They decided to discontinue it in 2017 for various reasons. Running festivals are not easy, it’s not cheap. “German Films” in Germany, who are like France’s UniFrance, or Italy’s Film Italia, contacted us and asked us if we would like to take it over. At Palace have a national network of cinemas, and we organise a lot of film festivals. We have the infrastructure and I’ve (personally) been doing this job (of Festival Director) for 25 years, so we said yes.
I’ve been the director of the festival since 2018 and I attend festivals like Cannes and Berlin Film Festival every year. I was already seeing all of these films and we thought it was a shame that the German Film Festival had ceased. We wanted to bring these great films back to Australia in the format of a festival. What’s great about a festival like this is you’ve got this tight curated lineup, focusing on one country or maybe a couple of languages. You really can just pick the very best from the last 12 months, focusing on celebrating that culture and/or language(s). A lot of our films are direct from Berlinale this year, from either the competition section or other sections. We have a really strong lineup of films that are so new they’re screening in this festival before they even had their theatrical releases in Europe. We find ourselves screening very fresh new films. It’s a great opportunity for Australian audiences to just see the best of the best while it’s still fresh.
How long do these festivals take to set up and how much work goes into prepping them?
It’s pretty much a year long process from one to the next. When one ends, you’re already looking at the films that are coming out throughout the international festivals, and keeping your eye on maybe your favourite director or actor from films you’ve seen. Keeping an eye on what they are doing next. Watching links throughout the year for films that don’t screen in festivals, not every film is selected for an international festival, but it doesn’t mean it’s not worth seeing. It could be a huge box office hit but just isn’t an art film. Our festivals celebrate films that range from auteur films to your box office comedy or drama hits with A list stars, which have been a big hit in Germany, but not necessarily something that’s in Cannes.
How do you get these films to be a part of the festivals? Does it ever take some convincing?
I’m picking up the films at festivals and then during the year, I’m following up the other films with the producers or sales agents. As for convincing? No, all Directors want their films to be seen and with a lot of these films nobody gets the chance to see them in Australia, that’s the reason we created these festivals. They weren’t seeing the light of day. When was the last time a German film had a theatrical release in Australia? There’s not many German films being released theatrically on the big screen here, maybe only one or two films throughout the year. When there is something like 20 amazing films that need to be seen, these festivals are the only chance for people to see these films. They’re the only chance for the producers and the directors to have the film have a life outside of their own country, which they’re quite happy with.
So this prolongs the lifespan of these films and more people get to see them. Does it also help with distribution, for example getting on SBS world movies and or other platforms?
Yes, because the festival we’ve created builds national awareness for the films (showing across 8 cities). That awareness creates an audience which makes it easier for the films to go further to streaming services and things like that.
So if you want to see German films, this is how you see them. How do you actually choose which films to show? Surely so many come out every year so what’s the process like? Do you go off genre? Is there a certain amount of titles you need to get? Or is it just getting what’s good at the time?
I don’t focus on the number of films, like how many we have or if we need more. It’s definitely quality over quantity. It’s about seeing films that connect with you and that have a good story, well told. There are certain films that you know people will want to see because they’re by a respected director, or feature a famous actor. We know that those films will have an audience, and other times it’s just the story. Maybe there’s no one famous in it but it’s such a compelling story and you know that word of mouth will support it. In terms of the genres, there’s no number that you’re weighing up. What happens with the selection of the films is, when I’m getting to around 15 films, I start looking at them to see what genres we have. I’ll look at them and I’ll think “oh this year is a more drama heavy year or this year’s more comedy heavy”. It’s not something I try to balance out because some years are inevitably going to have more dramas or more comedies, depending on what’s coming out.
I find that a lot of younger people, even film students, tend not to take any risks when it comes to festivals. Never coming to these smaller film festivals, only going to see the bigger films, or critical darlings. Why should they take a risk and spend their money to come see these films?
Well I feel like if I wasn’t organising all of these film festivals, that the only thing on the screen would be English language, American blockbuster marvel films and big studio films. Festivals are really important because they’re somewhere to see world cinema. It’s a place to see a different perspective on life. A different language. With the German Film Festival, Germany has a very, long standing tradition with filmmaking. These are high quality, excellently made films from incredible directors, telling really relevant stories. It’s also a different style of filmmaking too, if you’re just watching all of the studio films and American films and Netflix all the time. With all of those formulaic, predictable storylines, and endings. It’s probably just my bias but all it seems to be about is explosions and car chases and there are no storylines. But these films at the festival really grab you, because there’s actually a story. These are films where the actors, the characters, are so well drawn that you get completely drawn into their story. It opens your mind. You see things in these films and think “oh, that’s how that operates overseas”. You forget that we’re conditioned to how things operate in Australia, or what’s socially acceptable in Australia just becomes the way we think the world is. Unless we see something from outside of our own country we get (stuck) with just one perspective. It’s mind opening.
That’s a really good point, it’s really easy to give up cultural blinders sometimes. It’s so important that these festivals like the German Film Festival exist so we can start to learn the humour of a country or their ways of seeing.
The festival will be playing across 8 cities across the country. With a lineup of brilliant films going from comedies to thrillers to deep dives into historic figures. The centerpiece of the festival is Hysteria, a gripping thriller which is one of a handful of films straight from Berinale. Riefenstahl is a brilliant and difficult look at a complex figure in this year’s special presentation. This year there is also Rainer Werner Fassbinder’s Berlin Alexanderplatz playing in full for its 45th anniversary in most cities. There will undoubtedly be something for you, have a look and take a risk on an unknown film from a foreign country, you might get more from it then you thought. For full program visit HSBC German Film Festival.
Billy Newbery