‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Wins Berlinale Europa Cinemas Prize; EFM Attendance Figures & Canadian First Nation Doc Scoops Montana’s Big Sky Award – Global Briefs
Ilker Çatak’s ‘The Teachers’ Lounge’ Wins Europa Cinemas Prize In BerlinIlker Çatak’s The Teachers‘ Lounge has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Berlinale’s Panorama section. The award was voted on by a jury of four exhibitors from the Europa Cinemas network consisting of Marius Bălănescu (Cinema Victoria, Cluj-Napoca, Romania), Will Fitzgerald (Pálás, Galway, Ireland), Tanja Helm (Cinematograph & Leokino, Innsbruck, Austria) and Ola Starmach (Kino Pod Baranami, Kraków, Poland). Members of the Europa Cinemas network will receive a financial incentive when they program the film, ensuring it a wider release. “The Teachers‘ Lounge is an intense and very well-made drama set in a German primary school. The film explores key subjects like the prevalence of bureaucracy in schools and issues of race and class, but above all, it is a compelling rollercoaster of a drama,” read the jury statement. The title is sold internationally by Brussels-based Be For Films and produced by Ingo Fliess for Munich-based if…Productions.