Progress film rental

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The Progress movie rental is one of the oldest and largest Filmauswerter. As a monopoly distributor, it brought all domestic and foreign films in the GDR into cinemas. In 1990 Progress was converted into a GmbH and subordinated to the Treuhandanstalt , later to the Federal Agency for Unification-related Special Tasks . After the reunification and the abolition of the structures of the state film system in the GDR, Progress also received the TV and video rights for the titles published so far for evaluation. The evaluation in the international area, which was taken over from the former DEFA foreign trade, was also new.

history

Progress program at the premiere of the film “Inseparable Friends” in the Capitol cinema in Leipzig on December 12, 1953

1950 - the same year that the founding committee of the Berlinale met for the first time in West Berlin on the initiative of the American film officer Oscar Martay - Progress Film-Vertrieb GmbH was founded as a German-Soviet company on August 1st in East Berlin .

Rudolf Bernstein was appointed German director and Georgri Nikolajewitsch Nikolajew, later director of the Soviet film production company Lenfilm , was appointed Soviet director. The predecessor was the Soviet distribution company Sovexportfilm, which from 1948 worked together with the newly founded DEFA film distribution company. In fact, the merger of these two distributors under the umbrella of Progress took place on July 13, 1950, but for pragmatic reasons the official foundation date is August 1, 1950.

A large filmstrip P in a circle acted as the logo. The monopoly distribution guaranteed the takeover of all DEFA films produced at a fixed price. The company headquarters was at Jägerstrasse 32 (Berlin-Mitte), in the building of the DEFA studio for newsreels and documentaries.

After Sovexport left as a partner on July 1, 1955, Progress Film Distribution was converted into a state- owned company . Progress Film-Vertrieb eventually became Progress Film-Verleih and will continue to do so even after the fall of the Berlin Wall . In 1997 the Federal Agency for Unification-Related Special Tasks (BvS) handed Progress Film-Verleih into the hands of Tellux Beteiligungsgesellschaft mbH, a majority holding of some southern German bishoprics, which became the sole shareholder of Progress Film-Verleih GmbH with effect from January 1, 2001. Icestorm Entertainment is responsible for the worldwide marketing of DVDs and Blu-rays of more than 500 titles from the Progress repertoire. The exclusive worldwide theatrical distribution of DEFA-Filmstock, which until then belonged to Progress, was transferred from the DEFA Foundation to the Deutsche Kinemathek Foundation (SDK) on October 1, 2013 . Since April 1, 2019, the entire film heritage of the GDR has been made internationally accessible on the PROGRESS.film platform .

The inventory of Progress includes the complete DEFA film heritage (e.g. The Murderers Are Among Us , The Legend of Paul and Paula , Trail of the Stones , Jacob the Liar , the DEFA Indian films with Gojko Mitić ), Eastern European film art classics (such as the armored cruiser Potemkin , Solaris , Stalker ), excellent children's films as well as documentaries (including Die Kinder von Golzow ), periodicals and newsreels on contemporary history ( Der Augenzeuge ) as well as current arthouse films (such as the Volker Schlöndorff films The Ninth Day and Strajk - The Heroine of Danzig ). In total, the repertoire includes more than 12,000 films from nine decades. These include:

  • 950 DEFA feature films and short films
  • 5700 DEFA documentaries and newsreels
  • 2500 GDR commissioned films (NVA, Ministry of the Interior of the GDR, etc.)
  • 820 DEFA animation films
  • 4000 DEFA synchronizations (e.g. Eastern European film classics)
  • 40 German and European art house films (feature films, children's films and documentaries)

In addition, Progress evaluates film material from ministries (e.g. NVA army film studio), political parties and authorities as well as other collections on behalf of the federal government.

Paula

In 2010 Progress donated the Paula Prize on the occasion of the company's 60th anniversary . It is awarded to filmmakers who started their careers at DEFA and who today have made outstanding contributions to German film. As a prize, the Paula stands for the importance of German film heritage as well as future-oriented for the strengthening of German filmmaking. The Paula is a female sculpture made entirely of bronze, designed by the artist and filmmaker Jürgen Böttcher . Previous winners are Katrin Sass (2010), Katharina Thalbach (2011), Henry Hübchen (2012), Michael Gwisdek (2013), Corinna Harfouch (2014), Rolf Hoppe (2015), Manfred Krug (2016) and Dagmar Manzel (2017) .

Awards

  • 1979: Banner of Labor Level I
  • 2010: “Selected location 2010” and the special award “Lived Unity” by the location initiative “Germany - Land of Ideas” under the patronage of the Federal President

Web links

Commons : Progress Film-Verleih  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ defa-stiftung.de: Filmhandel (foreign trade). Retrieved May 13, 2019 .
  2. ↑ z. Currently not available: icestorm.de: Progress Film Verleih GmbH. Retrieved May 13, 2019 . ; but also here: https://www.jungewelt.de/artikel/204245.neuer-defa-verleih.html
  3. ↑ progress.film: PROGRESS. Retrieved May 27, 2019 .
  4. ^ Filmportal.de: Progress Film Verleih. Retrieved May 13, 2019 .