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Five Lakes Film Festival: 4000 more than expected

2020-09-11T09:02:10.565Z


For two weeks everything revolved around films, films, films. The Five Lakes Film Festival ended on Wednesday. Now festival director Matthias Helwig and his team have to relax. But they take away a lot of positive things from this special festival.


For two weeks everything revolved around films, films, films.

The Five Lakes Film Festival ended on Wednesday.

Now festival director Matthias Helwig and his team have to relax.

But they take away a lot of positive things from this special festival.

District

- In the end, things went much better than expected: More than 14,000 visitors came to the 14th edition of the Five Lakes Film Festival (FSFF), which was one of the few film festivals in Germany to take place and this year as a "Special Edition" went.

The organizers around festival director Matthias Helwig originally expected 10,000 visitors due to the restrictions in view of the corona pandemic, as only a maximum of half of the seating capacity was allowed to be used.

A year ago, when there was still no talk of distance rules and hygiene concepts, 21,000 visitors came.

Around 70 directors, actors and filmmakers were in Starnberg, Gauting, Seefeld and Weßling at the FSFF this year.

They presented 164 feature films, documentaries and short films, some of them in the open air.

Special highlights: Lars Eidinger's visit, who presented his new film “Persian Lessons”, and the presentation of the Hannelore Elsner Prize to actress Nina Hoss.

Helwig was also able to win a woman for the last evening who has made a name for herself on stage and on screen: Juliane Köhler did the honors and presented herself to the audience in a conversation about her new film “Kiss Me Kosher”.

Give courage for autumn

After the two weeks, festival director Helwig says he is exhausted, but happy.

He also wanted to encourage others.

“You saw that you can hold events of this magnitude.

It is possible, ”he emphasizes.

The art is to "make your hygiene concept look charming and lovable".

People shouldn't get the feeling that they are under constant observation.

Of course, working under conditions was a burden in addition to the normal organization, "especially for my team," says Helwig.

Added to this is the financial burden that hovers over the festival like a sword of Damocles every year.

In addition to funding from the district and the municipalities, Helwig would therefore like to analyze in the coming weeks and months whether further financial support can be acquired from the private sector.

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Finally, actress Juliane Köhler was a guest in Matthias Helwig's Starnberg cinema.

© Jörg Reuther

But now it's time to recover from the stress of the past two weeks.

His employees deserved it.

Helwig received a lot of praise for this year's FSFF and its program.

Praise that he is happy to pass on to his team.

"They ultimately organized it on site."

Open-air events are to be retained

The open-air opening in the Starnberg seaside resort was the most beautiful of the past almost a decade and a half, and the program was the best that it had ever had, according to visitors.

The Hannelore Elsner Prize was also awarded outside.

“Of course it's much nicer to do it at the lake,” says Helwig.

If possible, he would like to keep it that way for the years to come.

In addition to all the stress, festival director Helwig also had the opportunity to enjoy something from his FSFF.

For him the concert with jazz legend Klaus Doldinger was the evening that he remembered most impressively.

When the 84-year-old composer played the theme music for “Das Boot” in the wide screen, Helwig only really realized: “The big world stage, in my Gautinger cinema.”

Also read:

This is how those responsible planned this year's FSFF.

Source: merkur

All news articles on 2020-09-11

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