Film publisher of the authors

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The film publisher of the authors was a German film distributor , which was also active in the trade in film rights (licenses) and as a film producer. One focus of the repertoire was New German Film . Founded in 1971 in Munich as a self-help organization for German auteur films , the film publisher belonged to Kinowelt Medien AG (now Studiocanal GmbH ) from 1999 .

Prehistory and foundation

The film publishing house of the authors originated in a phase of upheaval in the film industry in the Federal Republic of Germany. After the German film had become artistically almost insignificant after the Second World War, a new generation of filmmakers grew up who were both screenwriters and directors, as well as producers. There were only a few venues for their films, which were mostly made with little money, as the big city cinemas were firmly tied to a few large distribution companies. "Box office hits" only reached the smaller towns after weeks of evaluation . As a counter-movement arose cinemas (commercial) and municipal cinemas (not commercial). The auteur filmmakers found it difficult to find production funds and distributors for their ambitious projects.

Against this background, 13 filmmakers signed the partnership agreement on April 18, 1971 in Munich to found the authors' film publishing house. The signatories were Hark Bohm , Michael Fengler , Peter Lilienthal , Hans Noever , Pete Ariel , Uwe Brandner , Veith von Fürstenberg , Florian Furtwängler , Thomas Schamoni , Laurens Straub , Wim Wenders , Hans W. Geissendörfer and Volker Vogeler . Following the example of the authors' publishing house in Frankfurt , they wanted to organize production, rights management and distribution of their own films together. Michael Fengler became managing director.

The first film in production 1 in the authors' film publishing house was Feartlose Flieger by Veith von Fürstenberg and Martin Müller.

The first years

Right from the start, the authors' film publisher suffered from underfunding. The share capital was raised through a loan of DM 30,000. Each partner was supposed to pay in DM 20,000 as a liability contribution - an obligation that was not honored, however.

Half of the profits earned should be paid out to the film publisher and half to the respective filmmaker: A compromise between the cooperative idea and individual interests. In the years that followed, the well-known directors continued to publish their films out of solidarity with the film publisher, although they would have received more money from US distribution companies. Nevertheless, the company's economic situation remained uncertain.

In 1972 Laurens Straub became managing director together with Veith von Fürstenberg.

In 1974 the film publishing house of the authors was reorganized into a GmbH & Co. KG. Only seven shareholders remained in the business: Hark Bohm, Uwe Brandner, Rainer Werner Fassbinder (new), Michael Fengler, Hans W. Geissendörfer, Hans Noever and Wim Wenders. The new company focused exclusively on rental. There were three main areas:

  • Films by the directors of New German Films
  • First works
  • foreign films, mostly experimental

Augstein

In February 1977 Rudolf Augstein , the publisher of the news magazine Der Spiegel , participated as a private person with 55 percent of the company's capital of 600,000 DM in the film publishing house of the authors. He saved the company from insolvency . Rainer Werner Fassbinder left as a partner. What remained were Hark Bohm, Uwe Brandner, Hans W. Geissendörfer and Wim Wenders. Theo Hinz and Matthias Ginsberg were appointed as new managing directors . The repertoire should be supplemented with commercial but demanding films.

In 1977/78 the film publisher got involved again as a producer. The documentary Germany in Autumn , a joint effort by several New German Film directors, was released in 1978. In the same year the film publisher founded the subsidiary Pro-ject Filmproduktion . She produced the film The Candidate , which, following the example of Germany , dealt with the candidacy of Franz Josef Strauss as Federal Chancellor in autumn .

In addition to these “political” films, the company continued to pursue a more commercially oriented course during the Augstein era. The hoped-for economic success came from 1980 with films like Theo against the rest of the world (over 3 million viewers) and men . In the following years, the film publisher increasingly distanced itself from the ideas of its founders and also took productions such as Terminator and Das turbo-horny rubber boat under contract.

Theo Hinz left the Authors' Film Verlag in February 1983 and founded his own distributor, Futura-Film , in August . The first film in the program was The Power of Emotions by Alexander Kluge .

1986 Augstein sold his shares in the film publishing house to the Futura-Film.

In 1989, the film publisher founded the Felix-Film media company with the aim of spreading Soviet film more widely in the Federal Republic.

ARRI

In June 1996 Franz Kraus , managing director ARRI-TV, became managing director of the film publishing house of the authors.

Cinema world

In October 1999 Kinowelt Medien AG took over the film publishing house for the authors. Johannes Wachs became managing director in January 2000. The film stock of around 300 titles includes practically all of the classics of New German Cinema. The label Filmverlag of the authors initially went to Arthaus Filmverleih, a subsidiary of the Kinowelt.

After the restart of the Kinowelt as a GmbH on July 1, 2003 in Leipzig, the company traded as the film publishing house of the authors and Futura Film GmbH & Co. Verleih Vertriebsgesellschaft KG [AG Leipzig HRA 14568] with three subsidiaries:

  • Futura Film world sales in the film publishing house of the authors GmbH [AG Munich HRB 43522]
  • Pro-ject film production in the film publishing house of the authors GmbH [AG Munich HRB 55931]
  • FELIX Film Medienagentur GmbH [AG Munich HRB 86977]

These companies have now been deleted from the commercial register.

DVD documentation

The work of the film publisher was documented in 2009 in a “Filmverlag der Automobiles Edition” consisting of 50 DVDs, which was published by Arthaus . Almost half of the films were DVD world premieres.

proof

  1. ↑ List of included films ( Memento of February 18, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ↑ Michael Althen, We don't just want you to love us. One edition celebrates the film publishing house of the authors with fifty DVDs , FAZ, February 4, 2009, p. 34 - extensive criticism

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