September 10th sees the return of the Oldenburg Film Festival.
Once again, the spirit of independent cinema will blow through the streets of the small German city as the festival celebrates and elevates those filmmakers utilising small budgets and do-it-yourself attitudes to create thrilling, emotive, scary, strange, and dramatic movies. The festival is renowned for its championing of the little guy and its welcoming embrace for those who’ve battled to get their films made without the backing of major studios or big money. Over the five days the festival will run this year – from Wednesday 10th to Sunday 14th September – it will showcase around fifty films, from beloved classics to bold new visions, from epic feature films to delicate shorts.
This year’s festival once again kicks off at the Cinemaxx where audiences will be treated to the world premiere of Hank Bedford’s new drama Eugene the Marine, which is said to be a blend of heartwarming drama and psychological thriller. Riffing on genre cinema of the 70s and 80s with nods to Gialli and American thrillers, it sounds like a perfect film to capture Oldenburg’s particular relationship with the energy of independent cinema. Starring Scott Glenn, it also inspires one of the tribute strands at this year’s festival which will celebrate the actor’s storied career. Alongside this recent work will be screenings of The Silence of the Lambs, Urban Cowboy, Carla’s Song and The Challenge to showcase the range of Glenn’s work across more than four decades.
The festival will also honour actor and writer Don Kieth Opper with screenings of Critters, Critters 2, Android and Slam Dance. Elsewhere, James William Guercio is also honoured with a screening of his neglected cult classic, Electra Glide in Blue, and Michael Wadleigh’s Wolfen screens alongside the new documentary Uncovering Wolfen by Stewart Buck. Both Buck’s film and its inspiration screen in the festival’s Midnite Xpress strand which also features Annapurna Sriram’s ode to the trashy artistry of 70s cinema, Fucktoys; Chris Tapia Marchiori’s kinetic foray into the violent docks of Buenos Aires, Gunman; and German Tejada’s punky coming-of-ager, The Innocents. Christian Genzel’s Finding Planet Porno rounds out the strand with his affectionate portrait of Howard Ziehm.
The rest of programme features a wealth of interesting projects from Germany and across the globe. Stella Marie Markert’s Thanks for Nothing, Johannes Naber’s Letzte Ernte, and Nancy Biniadaki’s Maysoon lead the line for the Germany contingent while the festival features a host of world premieres from further afield. Other bows include: Guillaume Campanacci’s tale of lust and murder, The Silent Sinner; Greg Vrotsos’s riff on modern relationships in Situations; Alejandro Castro Arias’s study of masculinity, Harakiri, I Miss You; and Erkan Acar’s spectral Ghost Bastard to name but a few.
There are also plenty of international and German premieres with titles arriving from Cannes, Karlovy Vary, Locarno and more. Edwin Mullane and Adam O’Keeffe return to Oldenburg with their debut feature Horseshoe, Louise Hemon’s foreboding and claustrophobic The Girl in the Snow screens, Gala del Sol offers up neon noir with Rains Over Babel, Jim Sheridan and David Merriman go back over a cold case in Re-Creation, and the festival will conclude with a screening of Kristen Stewart’s The Chronology of Water at the city’s grand Staatstheater. Over the coming days there will be much for audiences to sink their teeth into as Oldenburg Film Festival once again swings its doors open to let the creativity flow.
