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4 Oscars for German film “Im Westen nichts Neues”

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Germans were celebrating on the night of the Oscars.  “All Quiet on the Western Front” directed by Edward Berger won four Oscars for Best International Film at the 95th Academy Awards ceremony! A historic win as explained in this report by the ‘Tagesschau’.

In addition to being recognized as Best International Feature, the film was acknowledged for Best Cinematography, Best Original Score, and Best Production Design.  

Proud of their Villa Aurora Alumnus is also Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House who congratulate Edward Berger on this amazing success. “We are immensely proud to have had the privilege of hosting Edward as a Villa Aurora Fellow and celebrate the impact of residency programs for the creative process.”

Villa Aurora was honored to celebrate the nine nominations for “All Quiet On the Western Front” past Saturday in the presence of German Minister for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth MdB. Director Edward Berger, together with Nele Müller-Stöfen, was filmmaker-in-residence at Villa Aurora in 2015, a time which he describes as formative in his development and career as a filmmaker.  

Villa Aurora, now a highly renowned interdisciplinary artist residence, was the exile home of writer Lion Feuchtwanger and his wife and collaborator Marta, as well as a center for German and European exiles in Los Angeles. Among the friends and guests of the Feuchtwangers was Erich Maria Remarque, author of the novel “All Quiet On The Western Front.” 

Based on the 1929 novel, the anti-war film “is set during World War I and follows the life of a young German soldier who enlists in the army with his friends. But the realities of war shatter his hopes of becoming a hero and he focuses on his own survival.” (read an interview on abc13)

Congratulations Edward Berger & team!

Get Prepared for Oscar Night – Exploring the Movies in L.A. Exhibitions

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Its Oscar Time! – The 87th Academy Awards Ceremony is February 22, 2015

The 87th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, will honor the best films of 2014 and will take place February 22, 2015, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

If you’d like to catch up on some movie history in particularly German-American related, then go see some of these great exhibitions out here in Los Angeles that for sure will get you in the right mood for the grand night. And the winner is… !

Light & Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933–1950

The Skirball Cultural Center co-presents with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences the exhibition Light & Noir: Exiles and Émigrés in Hollywood, 1933–1950, which pays homage to the lives and work of émigré actors, directors, writers, and composers who fled Nazi Europe and made a lasting impact on American cinema and culture. Explore how the experiences of German-speaking exiles and émigrés such as of directors Billy Wilder and Fritz Lang, actress Marlene Dietrich and many more, influenced the classic films of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

“The exhibition demonstrates how the experiences of exodus and exile affected the lives and work of émigrés in many different ways. It is a story of immigration, acculturation, and innovation that intersects with the flourishing of Hollywood as an American cultural phenomenon.” (Skirball Center)

The exhibition will close March 1st with the screening of the PBS documentary, Cinema’s Exiles: From Hitler to Hollywood at 11am.

Parallel to the above mentioned exhibition a site specific installation by Austrian artist Isa Rosenberger can be visited. Café Vienne honors the recently rediscovered work of Austrian American Jewish writer Gina Kaus (1894–1985) and the cultural role of the Viennese coffee house.

LACMA presents Haunted Screens: German Cinema in the 1920s

This exhibition explores masterworks of German Expressionist cinema and features over 150 drawings, as well as manuscripts, posters, and set models, the majority gathered by Lotte Eisner, German emigrée film historian and author of the pioneering 1952 text The Haunted Screen.

Haunted Screens closes on April 26 and is included in the general admissions ticket.

Further reads: Expressionist Films ad the German Trauma 

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Source: Skirball Cultural Center, LACMA

Photo: Wikipedia

“The Gruffalo” – Germany’s Oscar-nominated animated short

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Animated short films are in the OSCAR spotlight. This year’s film nominees can be seen in theaters from Friday on in Los Angeles. “The Gruffalo,” is Germany’s Oscar-nominated animated short, produced by A Magic Light Pictures Production. The LA Times calls the film ‘a charming fable about outsmarting one’s fears.