When Torsten Neumann launched the Oldenburg Film Festival back in 1994, setting up the event as Germany’s answer to Sundance, it was near the peak of the ’90s indie film boom, when the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Steven Soderbergh, Kevin Smith and Robert Rodriguez were starting to hit the mainstream.
31 years later and indie cinema is living through what feels like a permanent crisis, with the gap between the mainstream and underground growing larger by the day. “Back in the ’90s indie cinema still had some contact with mainstream cinema, the budgets were bigger, and the indie films were screened in cinemas,” says Neumann. “I don’t think that exists anymore. Where are the distribution channels for small films like this?”
But Oldenburg is still giving them a platform. Its 2024 lineup features an ecclectic mix of U.S. and international indies, many of the feature debuts and “no-budget” passion projects. Behind them all, says Neumann, speaking to The Hollywood Reporter ahead of this year’s festival, is a passion to”open up new areas [find] new ways of telling stories, not being explored in the mainstream.”
31 years! Why are you still doing this after so long?
I don’t have a choice! I can’t do anything else! Oldenburg is the biggest part of my life. When it happens, when everything comes together and we have that special Oldenburg atmosphere, then it’s something truly incredible. Like this music project, with [Belgian electronic pop duo] Pornographie Exclusive. The band is Jérôme Vandewattyne and Séverine Cayron. Jérôme is also a filmmaker and last year, his feature The Belgium Wave won Oldenburg’s Audacity award. He was so inspired by the vibe of the festival that we decided to collaborate on a film together, where 10 Oldenburg alumni directed 10 short films, each one inspired by one of the tracks of the new Pornographie Exclusive album. Each song is the soundtrack for the film and at the world premiere in Oldenburg, Pornographie Exclusive will perform the whole thing live during the screening. It’s an example of the kind of energy that can ignite in Oldenburg. We never have enough money, we’re always struggling with our budget and the resources we have but when the festival starts, the energy returns and I remember why I keep doing this to myself, year after year.
In all this time, you’ve kept true to your principles and have championed a certain kind of indie film, genre cinema with an arthouse touch. The new Tim Blake Nelson film, Bang Bang, where he plays an aging boxer, seems to exemplify this kind of ‘Oldenburg movie.’
Definitely. Tim Blake Nelson isn’t just an actor who does a job for money. He has the same passion that we have for independent cinema. He was our jury president in 2004 and people like him, the way he makes films, gives us the energy to carry on. The same goes for the director of Bang Bang, Vincent Grashaw. There are a few others that we have as world premieres, that have this same kind of Oldenburg spirit. There’s James, a Canadian movie [from director Max Train] which I think is the discovery of the year. I don’t know why Toronto didn’t jump on it. It’s a black-and-white movie but a real crowd pleaser. It feels like an early Coen Brothers movie. There’s Flieg Steil, a German film from Martina Schöne-Radunski and Lana Cooper. Martina is an actress who won the Seymour Cassel acting award in Oldenburg in 2013 for Kaptn Oskar from Tom Lass. She was a real Berlin brat back then and I think is still so today. This is her directorial debut, with Lana, and its pure Berlin underground. It’s a story of a female musician in a neo-Nazi rock band who begins to get into feminism and wants to introduce that to the band. Then there’s a left-wing boy who just wants to beat up Nazis and they meat and it becomes a sort of Romeo and Juliet story. But what I liked is it doesn’t serve up everything to the audience in easy good/bad, black/white categories. It’ll have its world premiere here and Martina said she wanted it Oldenburg to have it first.
And we have a lot of small indies, so-called “no budget” movies that are excellent. Like $$$ from it’s a super gritty New York film from director Jake Remington that tells a story about people who are addicted to horse racing. It was shot with amateurs using verité footage and is the best example of how to make a virtue out of necessity, to find a narrative form that would never happen in a big budget movie. Or the Italian film Tineret [from director Nicoló Ballante] which started out as a documentary about this Modolvian family living outside Rome and the son, who has dreams of becoming a star rapper. At one point, the film took another direction and became more like a narrative feature. It’s another example of how independent cinema can open up new areas, new ways of telling stories, not being explored in the mainstream.
Do you see Oldenburg’s role as giving these movies a platform, especially now when indie films are finding it harder and harder to get into theaters?
What I’m noticing now is that the gap is getting bigger. Productions that fit into certain structures, largely streaming platforms, have their place, and anything else in indie cinema has become ultra-low-budget. We have some films this year that I think are amazing but, budget-wise, they are way below that of a normal indie film. Back in the ’90s, indie cinema still had some contact with mainstream cinema, the budgets were bigger, and the indie films were screened in cinemas, but I don’t think that exists anymore. Where are the distribution channels for small films like this? I don’t know. There are also people who say that independent cinema moves in waves and all it needs is some spark to jump back into the mainstream. Maybe James is one of these cases. It’s black and white and super low budget but a real crowd pleaser. The hope is that there are places like Oldenburg where these films can be seen and maybe help them find a way. I always swing between hopelessness and the renewed energy I get when I see an amazing indie movie.
Your opening night film, Traumnovelle, seems to embody this kind of indie spirit.
It does! It was made without state support, which is very rare in Germany, a real shining example or true independent cinema. Produced with Studio Babelsberg, [director] Florian Frerichs has made a movie that, from its look and style, its locations and acting, can stand alongside a big mainstream movie. It’s in English and has the great hook that it was adapted from the same book [Arthur Schnitzler’s Traumnovelle] that was the basis of Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut, so can be pitched as “the remake” to Kubrik. I can’t imagine it won’t find a place in the international market somewhere.
Your also honoring German director Dominik Graf with a retrospective. Another figure that seems to embody German indie cinema.
Dominik Graf is someone who movies between genre and arthouse cinema. He’s a John Carpenter of Germany. His films The Cat (1988) and The Invincibles (1994) are masterpieces. He loves marginalized cinema, he loves marginalized characters. He’s a big fan of Oldenburg. Over the years, he’s sent us messages, letters and postcards, complementing us on our program. We just thought it was about time that he was recognized. He’s probably Germany’s best director that is barely known outside Germany.
In some ways, Oldenburg itself is like an indie movie. Every year you seem to have the same struggles, but every year you manage to make it work.
We keep going. It is the same every year, the same budgetary problems, the same battles. But one thing we do have is our independence. Maybe because we are outside the big cities, people don’t pay as much attention to us, they don’t try to tell us what to do.
The freedom of poverty.
Exactly.