Although one may be tempted to classify The Teacher’s Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer) as a treatise on the social dynamics within the setting of a high school in Germany, there is far more at work here that is indicative of the Oscar nomination for Best International Feature Film bestowed upon the work this year. It is, in short, one of the best films of the year.
The film begins with math teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) calling her class of high school students to order using a series of brief calisthenic-like movements to start the day. Throughout the course of the day, Carla’s dedication to the profession becomes evident. But when a series of thefts is found to be plaguing the school, and one of her students is suspected of the crime, she attempts to investigate the pilfering herself. This leads her to heated confrontations with colleagues, parents, and...
The film begins with math teacher Carla Nowak (Leonie Benesch) calling her class of high school students to order using a series of brief calisthenic-like movements to start the day. Throughout the course of the day, Carla’s dedication to the profession becomes evident. But when a series of thefts is found to be plaguing the school, and one of her students is suspected of the crime, she attempts to investigate the pilfering herself. This leads her to heated confrontations with colleagues, parents, and...
- 2/10/2024
- by Mike Tyrkus
- CinemaNerdz
llker Çatak, the director of Germany’s Oscar shortlisted The Teachers’ Lounge with Anne-Katrin Titze on Wim Wenders, the director of Japan’s Oscar shortlisted Perfect Days: “Wim is such a nice guy! He’s not my competitor, he’s one of my teachers.”
Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre Les Murs), Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure Of A Man, starring the unforgettable Vincent Lindon, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant are four of the films that inspired llker Çatak’s outstanding The Teachers’ Lounge. Shot by Judith Kaufmann, edited by Gesa Jäger (Jakob Lass’s Love Steaks with Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski; Anna Winger's Transatlantic and Maria Schrader's Unorthodox series with Shira Haas), stars a terrific Leonie Benesch (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the classroom with her students...
Luc Dardenne and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Young Ahmed (Le Jeune Ahmed), Laurent Cantet’s The Class (Entre Les Murs), Stéphane Brizé’s The Measure Of A Man, starring the unforgettable Vincent Lindon, and Gus Van Sant’s Elephant are four of the films that inspired llker Çatak’s outstanding The Teachers’ Lounge. Shot by Judith Kaufmann, edited by Gesa Jäger (Jakob Lass’s Love Steaks with Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski; Anna Winger's Transatlantic and Maria Schrader's Unorthodox series with Shira Haas), stars a terrific Leonie Benesch (Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon).
Ms Nowak (Leonie Benesch) in the classroom with her students...
- 12/31/2023
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
Ken Loach’s ‘The Old Oak’ takes Spanish festival’s audience prize.
The 68th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as Seminci, wrapped on Saturday (October 28), giving its top award, the Golden Spike, to Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture.
It is the first time the best feature award at the long-running film festival has been won by a Spanish woman director.
Ferrés previously directed short film The Disinherited which won the Cannes Discovery Award for best short in 2017.
See below for full list of winners
The Permanent Picture is the story of an introverted middle-aged...
The 68th edition of the Valladolid International Film Week, also known as Seminci, wrapped on Saturday (October 28), giving its top award, the Golden Spike, to Laura Ferrés’ debut feature The Permanent Picture.
It is the first time the best feature award at the long-running film festival has been won by a Spanish woman director.
Ferrés previously directed short film The Disinherited which won the Cannes Discovery Award for best short in 2017.
See below for full list of winners
The Permanent Picture is the story of an introverted middle-aged...
- 10/30/2023
- by Elisabet Cabeza
- ScreenDaily
It also won the prizes for best director, screenwiting, lead actress and editing.
Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge was the surprise winner of the German Film Awards’ top prize of the Golden Lola for best film, ahead of the Silver Lola for Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front and the Bronze Lola for Ali Abbasi’s thriller Holy Spider.
The fourth feature from Çatak stars Benesch as a teacher struggling to keep a situation under control in a secondary school also won best director for Çatak, best screenplay for Çatak and Johannes Duncker, best lead actress...
Ilker Çatak’s The Teachers’ Lounge was the surprise winner of the German Film Awards’ top prize of the Golden Lola for best film, ahead of the Silver Lola for Edward Berger’s All Quiet On The Western Front and the Bronze Lola for Ali Abbasi’s thriller Holy Spider.
The fourth feature from Çatak stars Benesch as a teacher struggling to keep a situation under control in a secondary school also won best director for Çatak, best screenplay for Çatak and Johannes Duncker, best lead actress...
- 5/13/2023
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
The Teachers’ Lounge, İlker Çatak’s unsettling look at a teacher at the end of her rope, beat our multi-Oscar winner All Quiet on the Western Front to win the top prize for best film at the 2023 German Film Awards, known as the Lolas.
Çatak won the best director Lola and his drama also picked up prizes for best screenplay and best editing, as well as the best actress nod for star Leonie Benesch.
But All Quiet did not go home empty-handed. The first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel won nine Lolas, including the runner-up silver Lola for best film.
Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s Iranian serial killer movie, which premiered in Cannes last year and was largely financed out of Germany, won the third prize Lola in bronze.
This year’s Lolas were held amid an atmosphere of turbulence and soul-searching. Recent revelations about the behavior of Till Schweiger,...
Çatak won the best director Lola and his drama also picked up prizes for best screenplay and best editing, as well as the best actress nod for star Leonie Benesch.
But All Quiet did not go home empty-handed. The first German-language adaptation of the Erich Maria Remarque classic 1929 anti-war novel won nine Lolas, including the runner-up silver Lola for best film.
Holy Spider, Ali Abbasi’s Iranian serial killer movie, which premiered in Cannes last year and was largely financed out of Germany, won the third prize Lola in bronze.
This year’s Lolas were held amid an atmosphere of turbulence and soul-searching. Recent revelations about the behavior of Till Schweiger,...
- 5/12/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
It might have been a few decades since you left school. You might imagine the modern classroom — especially one in a decently funded, mid-sized German high school — to be as alien to your own educational background as to be unrecognizable. And yet one of the remarkable aspects of İlker Çatak’s highly effective, slow-cooker drama is a strangely specific familiarity. It delivers you directly into a sense memory of chalk dust and boredom, of fidgeting at your desk and gazing longingly through big windows that seem tauntingly designed for exactly that purpose. “The Teachers’ Lounge” is about a lot of things — conformity, rebellion, racism, optics, intergenerational mistrust — but it is also a stark reminder, from both the teacher and the student side, of what school actually was for so many of us: our first and most foundational experience of institutionalization.
The pupils in this particular seventh grade are already, as the film begins,...
The pupils in this particular seventh grade are already, as the film begins,...
- 3/11/2023
- by Jessica Kiang
- Variety Film + TV
In our last few articles, we went over the First Time Fest and the closing night awards, so here are a few interviews we had with the filmmakers of their prestigious films.
Gesa Jäger, editor of Love Steaks
How does this feel?
I’ve been dreaming of coming to New York my entire life and I’ve always wanted to have a movie show in the Us so this is a big dream for me.
Tell me about your film:
It’s a love story between two people who are very different and kind of crash into each other and try to be happy together and it doesn’t really work out. We shot it in a hotel. There are only two actors in it and everyone else is playing themselves. It’s like the hotel staff during their working time and we improvised most of the movie and I...
Gesa Jäger, editor of Love Steaks
How does this feel?
I’ve been dreaming of coming to New York my entire life and I’ve always wanted to have a movie show in the Us so this is a big dream for me.
Tell me about your film:
It’s a love story between two people who are very different and kind of crash into each other and try to be happy together and it doesn’t really work out. We shot it in a hotel. There are only two actors in it and everyone else is playing themselves. It’s like the hotel staff during their working time and we improvised most of the movie and I...
- 5/1/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
As was covered in our previous article about the event, the First Time Fest gives new filmmakers the opportunity to get their film established and distributed so that their efforts may be recognized for their future works. With the winner receiving full distribution of their film from Cinema Libre Studios as well as support on their future projects. All filmmakers received expert advice from filmmakers who had trouble getting their start and the special winners would also receive a trip to Scandinavia, because why not? The closing night ceremony was held at the 42West Nightclub in New York City and featured the filmmakers in the competition as well as Julie Taymor getting honored for her cinematic contributions.
Taymor received the John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema for her career ever since she started with Titus, a Shakespearean adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead role. She continued to...
Taymor received the John Huston Award for Outstanding Achievement in Cinema for her career ever since she started with Titus, a Shakespearean adaptation starring Anthony Hopkins in the lead role. She continued to...
- 4/23/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
The second installment of the First Time Fest, the Second Time Around, took place in New York City from April 3rd to April 7th where ten first time filmmakers were able to showcase their films and possibly be in competition to receive distribution of their films by Cinema Libre Studios. Since its debut in March of last year, the First Time Fest has grown to honor and embrace first time filmmakers for their efforts in trying to make their first work and trying to get recognized in an ever difficult field of art.
Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward thought up of the idea for this type of film festival seven years ago when they realized that no other event had honored the first time filmmaker. Taking this idea in mind, they agreed to bring these newcomers to the field and give them advice as well as bring them closer to...
Johanna Bennett and Mandy Ward thought up of the idea for this type of film festival seven years ago when they realized that no other event had honored the first time filmmaker. Taking this idea in mind, they agreed to bring these newcomers to the field and give them advice as well as bring them closer to...
- 4/21/2014
- by Catherina Gioino
- Nerdly
Lana Cooper and Franz Rogowski in Jakob Lass's First Time Fest Grand Prize Winner Love Steaks
Love Steaks, directed by Jakob Lass is the First Time Fest (Second Time Around) Grand Prize Winner and Gesa Jäger, first time editor won Outstanding Achievement in Editing. Marieke Niestadt won Outstanding Achievement in Directing for Bittersweet.
Marieke Niestadt, Outstanding Achievement in Directing for Bittersweet Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Mona Fastvold's The Sleepwalker (Søvngjengeren) received two awards, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography to Zachery Galler and Outstanding Achievement in Scoring to the composing team of Kato Ådland and Sondre Lerche.
Outstanding Achievement in Writing goes to Yael Reuveny for her film Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee Von Gestern) with Outstanding Achievement in Acting going to Hill Harper in Tommy Oliver's 1982. In addition, Oliver received the inaugural Scandinavian Locations Special Jury Prize at the celebration of first time filmmakers that took place in New York...
Love Steaks, directed by Jakob Lass is the First Time Fest (Second Time Around) Grand Prize Winner and Gesa Jäger, first time editor won Outstanding Achievement in Editing. Marieke Niestadt won Outstanding Achievement in Directing for Bittersweet.
Marieke Niestadt, Outstanding Achievement in Directing for Bittersweet Photo: Anne-Katrin Titze
Mona Fastvold's The Sleepwalker (Søvngjengeren) received two awards, Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography to Zachery Galler and Outstanding Achievement in Scoring to the composing team of Kato Ådland and Sondre Lerche.
Outstanding Achievement in Writing goes to Yael Reuveny for her film Farewell, Herr Schwarz (Schnee Von Gestern) with Outstanding Achievement in Acting going to Hill Harper in Tommy Oliver's 1982. In addition, Oliver received the inaugural Scandinavian Locations Special Jury Prize at the celebration of first time filmmakers that took place in New York...
- 4/8/2014
- by Anne-Katrin Titze
- eyeforfilm.co.uk
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