Soon the Lion City will once again become Lower Saxony's center for cineastes for a week. The 37th Braunschweig International Film Festival is about to start. The festival will open on the evening of November 6 with a film concert in the Volkswagen Halle Braunschweig, which will be realized together with the Braunschweig State Orchestra and sponsored by the Stiftung Braunschweigischer Kulturbesitz.
In the 21st year of their collaboration, the BIFF and the Braunschweig State Orchestra invite you to a world premiere: The animated film THE RED SHIELD by Michael Dudok de Wit will be shown. For the first time, Laurent Perez Del Mar's music, which was awarded "Best Original Score for an Animated Film" by the "International Film Music Critics Association", will be played live to the film. This was announced today at a press conference by the International Film Festival Braunschweig e.V., organizer of the BIFF, together with the festival management and the Staatstheater Braunschweig.
THE RED SHIELD: Oscar-nominated prelude
THE RED SHIELD is a French-Belgian-Japanese animated film by Dutch director Michael Dudok de Wit. The titular red turtle is huge. It keeps preventing a castaway from leaving a deserted island. Anger grows in the man. But when he overpowers the animal, it transforms into a magical creature....
THE RED SHIELD premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in 2016 and was nominated for an Oscar for Best Animated Feature in 2017. What is special about the film is that the plot does completely without spoken language. Communication takes place only through body language. "The music of this film is very particular because as the film is silent, it is the secret voice of nature and the characters. I tried to make it let viewers feel more strongly the thoughts and feelings of each of the protagonists," explains French composer Laurent Perez del Mar.
Like most of Studio Ghibli's films, this European-Japanese co-production contains moments when the characters are completely absorbed, marveling at the beauty of nature and time seems to stand still. In this way, the animated film manages to build a bridge between Japan and Europe.
Successful collaboration with the State Orchestra continues
While the film runs across the screen, the Braunschweig State Orchestra, conducted by Burkhard Götze, plays Perez del Mar's film music. Götze already conducted the 2021 BIFF opening concert for THE GOLEM, HOW HE CAME INTO THE WORLD (1920) and conducted NOSFERATU - A SYMPHONY OF GREED (1922) at the Scharoun Theater Wolfsburg in 2022 as part of the 36th BIFF.
"It is wonderful that this year we will continue our successful collaboration and also open the 37th BIFF with a film concert with the Braunschweig State Orchestra. By eschewing written and spoken language, THE RED SHIELD is largely defined by its soundtrack, the award-winning composition by Laurent Perez del Mar. We are very much looking forward to now bringing this music to life for the audience live to the film in the Volkswagen Halle Braunschweig," says Julia Schoch, Orchestra Manager of the Staatsorchester Braunschweig. Filmfest board member Clemens Williges adds: "I am extremely pleased that we were able to win Burkhard Götze for the conducting. Götze is the outstanding film music specialist of his generation."
For the opening concert, Perez del Mar will come to Braunschweig in person to listen to his composition. As will the French soprano Julia Wischniewski. Because even though the film also does without singing, there are still vocalise passages: Wischniewski sings only tones and vowels instead of words, however, and will thus provide goosebump moments in the audience.
Focus: Animated films for adults
Nothing has yet been revealed about the program of the 37th Braunschweig International Film Festival. However, one very special focus of this year's program has already been determined, as Karina Gauerhof, co-festival director and head of the festival program, revealed at the press conference.As the opening film already suggests, a special focus this year is on animated films. "When it comes to animated films, the first associations are often children's films, yet animated films are also accessible to adults in a different way," Gauerhof emphasized. "With our special film series, we are therefore focusing on animated films that are aimed at an adult audience. We want to show how big and diverse the animated film world is." On show at this year's film festival will be animated films from previous years that dealt with much tougher topics in terms of content, such as war, trauma, but also fantasy.