New Faces at Nordic Film Days Lübeck

Three sections present new faces at this year's Nordic Film Days Lübeck: Film expert Doris Bandhold, from Hamburg, is responsible for the Filmforum section, the platform for North German productions. Franziska Kremser, scholar of Scandinavian studies, is accompanying the section "Films for Young Viewers" for the second time. Film historian Jörg Schöning is responsible for the Retrospective, also for the second time. "We have succeeded in finding three declared specialists for these sections that are traditionally among the strongest in the profile of Nordic Film Days Lübeck," says Artistic Director Lind Fröhlich, who bears the overall responsibility for the festival programme. "Doris Bandhold, Franziska Kremser and Jörg Schöning will place new emphases within their programmes to further strengthen the festival's international reputation as the leading showcase for Nordic cinema."

Doris Bandhold, film expert from Hamburg, has taken over the responsibility for the Filmforum section for films from Northern Germany from her long-standing predecessor Angela Buske, who now concentrates fully on the general management of the film festival. "I am very much looking forward to carrying on Angela Buske's successful work," says Doris Bandhold, who has worked for distribution companies and film editorial departments, co-founded the Alabama cinema at Kampnagel in Hamburg and has since specialized in film-related PR. "This year's Filmforum programme will be as thrilling as ever, featuring a cross section of the great diversity of North German filmmaking."

Franziska Kremser, who is running the section "Films for Young Viewers" for the second time, studied Scandinavian studies and political science in Bonn, where she also works for Internationale Stummfilmtage and Skandinavische Filmtage Bonn. "Scandinavia has the world's leading industry in children's and youth films, which is why this genre will continue to play a major role at Nordic Film Days Lübeck," says Kremser, who specialized in studying the depiction of social hotspots in Scandinavian children's and youth film cinema at university. "I particularly want to increase the possibilities of a multimedia exchange on the subject of films for young viewers and amongst other things I will expand the school cinema offer for schoolchildren at Nordic Film Days Lübeck."

Having introduced the cinematic history of Greenland last year, Jörg Schöning, film historian and publicist from Hamburg, will present the depiction of love and sex in Scandinavian films since the 1950s at the 52^nd Nordic Film Days Lübeck. "Scandinavian films have had a lasting, liberating effect on modern European cinema in that they paved the way for the sexual revolution of the late 1960s," says Schöning, who also works for "CineGraph", the centre for film studies in Hamburg. "In this way, Scandinavian cinema also contributed to a fundamental change in the private aspects of 20^th century life." The Retrospective at this year's Nordic Film Days Lübeck will examine this interdependency of societal and film historical development based on a selection of film classics and thematic foci.

Nordic Film Days Lübeck is the most significant festival of Nordic filmmaking outside Scandinavia. The 52^nd edition takes place from 3^rd to 7^th November 2010, presenting c. 140 films from the Scandinavian and Baltic states as well as from Northern Germany. The festival awards will be presented alongside the North German Film Prize on 6^th November in Lübeck.