Highlights from our Cinema Program

Our service for cinemas and non commercial venues in Germany, Austria and the German-speaking part of Switzerland; if you are from another country, please contact the Sales and Licensing/ International Distribution Department:

1. Disposition of the films of your choice in 35mm prints,
   in special cases in 16mm prints or DVD
2. Advice on choosing a film
3. Compilation of thematic film series
4. Establishing contact to filmmakers for film talks in combination with film distribution
5. Providing promotion material for the film you ordered via mail or email
6. Initiating shipment of the films

DEFA Films in Cinemas

Already the early DEFA films were big successes in the GDR and other countries regarded them as a sign of change. Many of them are nowadays German film classic.
The TOP 5 are: the first feature film by Kurt Maetzig that started in all four occupation zones Marriage In The Shadows with over 10 million viewers, One, Two Tree – Corona with over 6 million viewers as well as The Murderers Are Among Us and "They Met In The Street" with over 5 million viewers. Today’s popularity of the DEFA films matches these numbers.

New Productions from Europe

PROGRESS Film-Verleih’s stock includes arthouse films by contemporary European directors and producers such as "Unpredictable Nature Of The River" by the French director Bernard Giraudeau, the award winning German-Luxembourgish coproduction The Ninth Day and the new Serb-Hungarian-German film The Trap by Srdan Golubovic. The focus on Eastern European films is constantly expanded and updated with films especially from Poland and Hungary. The new film Strike by Volker Schlöndorff, a German-Polish coproduction, is thus in the line of European film making.

The Longest Documentary in International Film History

Documentaries for cinema are one of our strong points. Among the classics in the theatres are the “Golzow” films. Some Day, When I Go To School – The young graduate Winfried Junge worked as assistant director primarily with Karl Gass when he was asked to develop an long-term observation. 13 minutes of the first days of school in the Oderbruch region were assembled in 1961. Today, the then first-graders live in reunited Germany, some of them have children and grandchildren themselves. Some stayed in touch with their cinematic observer. Thus, the 278-minutes' documentary And If They Haven’t Passed Away… The Children From Golzow was shown in cinemas in 2006. All 19 documentaries about the children from Golzow are available from PROGRESS Film-Verleih.
More about The Children From Golzow (PDF 985 KB)