The program is complete. Closing film “Marcello Mio”, a special Friday Gala and other line-up highlights
The festival celebrates its Closing Night Gala with the German premiere of Christophe Honoré's “Marcello Mio”, whose director was honored with a retrospective in 2016. On Friday evening, a unique gala event with a live concert and a world premiere of an international film project initiated by Filmfest Oldenburg will be presented at the Staatstheater.
Marcello Mio, Christophe Honoré, FRA 2024, German Premiere
Christophe Honoré has made a nostalgic and deeply personal movie that pays a wonderful homage to cinema and has nothing to say about the state of the world. This is precisely what makes this film so enchanting. The fantastic actors and filmmakers from Chiara Mastroianni's life, including her mother Catherine Deneuve, play themselves with a wink. But above all, this is a very gentle, warm-hearted movie about love and friendship, and a gesture of love to the father. It is about death and farewell and about carrying on in memory.
One-Way Ticket to the Other Side, Jerome Vandewattyne et al., BEL/ GER 2024, World Premiere
Initiated by the Oldenburg Film Festival, “One-Way Ticket to the Other Side” is a cinematic, musical and surreal journey following two masked outlaws as they wander through a world between dream and reality. Their adventure through bizarre places and encounters with lost souls interweaves the segments of a unique anthology in which music engenders stories. The project, produced by Jerome Vandewattyne, Séverine Cayron, Torsten Neumann and Deborah Kara Unger, features short films inspired by the debut album of Pornographie Exclusive and was shot by an eclectic selection of international filmmakers. Celebrating its world premiere at the Oldenburgisches Staatstheater on Friday, September 13 at 9pm, the immersive show will take you on a journey in which live music - cold wave, rock/electro, industrial and atmospheric sounds - merges with indie cinema to create a groundbreaking and moving event. A music anthology beyond the system, punky and defiantly free, in which every note and every image resounds in unison.
Further film highlights
The Lonely Musketeer, Nicolai Schümann, UK 2024, World Premiere
When Rupert wakes up, his world is shrunken to a mere square meters. Imprisoned in a windowless room, his cell phone is his last connection to the to the world outside. While Rupert works frantically to save himself, he is confronted with unpleasant revelations from his past. And with every call, the slick businessman mercilessly approaches a discovery that will shake him to the core.
Edward Hogg shines with his acting in this one-man play.
Swing Bout, Maurice O'Carrol, IR 2024, International Premiere
Toni Gale is a boxer at the start of her career, and she is a “swing bout” - a substitute that has to fill the remaining airtime during hasty knockouts. And today she is supposed to compete against her rival Vicki. But there is a catch Toni is supposed to be knocked down by Vicki so that her coach and the two Casey brothers can rake in a pile of money from illegal bets.
Three Infallible Rules, Marco Gianfreda, ITA 2024, International Premiere
14-year-old Bruno is in love with Flavia. Clueless as to how to proceed, he turns to his absolute nemesis: Luca, his mother's boyfriend, whom he blackmails into teaching him the subtleties of being in love. An unusual friendship develops between the pupil and his teacher, as both struggle with the greatest mystery of all time: how do you win over the person you love?
Böse Geboren, Alexander Dierbach, GER 2024, World Premiere
It was meant to be a protest action, but in the end one of the animal rights activists is dead and the other flees severely injured from the invisible sniper's bullets. Eva Greuner lives not far from the crime scene with her son Milan, who is an outsider shunned by his neighbors. He is the product of a rape, and it seems that the sinister soul of his father has manifested itself in him too.
This makes Milan the prime suspect.
Mi Bestia, Camila Beltrán, COL/ FRA 2024, German Premiere
It's June 1996 - and the end of the world is imminent. At least that's how most of the inhabitants of Bogotá see it, expecting the return of the Antichrist with the approaching lunar eclipse. 13-year-old Mila has other concerns: she has a crush on an handsome boy from another school, suspects that her mother's boyfriend is trying to do more than just be friendly with her, whilst she feels like an outsider at school. When a girl from the neighborhood goes missing and the lunar eclipse approaches, the events escalate. Suppressed fears, insecurities and the approaching adolescence are a dangerous mix from which Mila can no longer rationalize the events around her. The film premiered in Cannes in the Acid section.
Tineret, Nicolò Ballante, ITA 2024, German Premiere
Andrei is a young man from Moldova who lives with his mother and 16-year-old sister on the outskirts of Rome and, at just 20, has been the breadwinner for
a long time. Nicolò Ballante's film straddles the line between documentary and fiction.
He spent four years following Andrei, attempting to get closer to his life and his dreams, initially with the concept of a “script” to give his narrative some structure. However, life then took its own course and brought Nicolo's film very close to Andrei and his family.