• From August 21 to 23, 2024, the festival will present outstanding silent films from the Weimar era with exclusive musical accompaniment
• Advance booking now

Berlin, July 2, 2024 – From August 21 to 23, 2024, Bertelsmann and UFA will present the 14th UFA Film Nights on three evenings in the open air, against the spectacular backdrop of Berlin’s Museum Island and accompanied by live music. Long a fixture in Berlin’s cultural calendar, the UFA Film Nights will once again show cinematic masterpieces of Weimar cinema at one of Berlin’s most exclusive venues.

The first evening will see the world premiere of the digitally restored version of Carl Lamač’s comedy SAXOPHON-SUSI (1928), reconstructed by the Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum (DFF) and starring Anny Ondra and Mary Parker. The evening will be musically accompanied by the film orchestra The Sprockets to a composition by their saxophonist Frido ter Beek.

The second evening will feature the documentary DIE STADT DER MILLIONEN. A LIFE PICTURE OF BERLIN from 1925, directed by Adolf Trotz. The film was produced by the Ufa Kulturfilm department and is considered to be the first feature-length film portrait of Berlin, showing the hectic urban, but also historical and contemplative sides of the city of four million people. DJ Raphaël Marionneau will be live on the turntables to soundtrack the digitally restored version from the Filmmuseum Potsdam.

The UFA Film Nights 2024 will close on Friday with a double feature of two of Ernst Lubitsch’s early films: KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (1919/20) starring Henny Porten, the first German silent film star, as well as Emil Jannings, Gustav von Wangenheim and Jakob Tiedke. KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER can be seen in the version digitally restored by the Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau Foundation with the support of Bertelsmann. Afterwards: ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN (1918) with Ossi Oswalda. KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER will be accompanied by the Metropolis Orchestra Berlin with a new composition by Florian C. Reithner commissioned by UFA Filmnächte. ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN marks the debut of the five-member Ensemble Narrativ under the direction of Maria Reich and Florian C. Reithner.

Prominent patrons provide historical and social backgrounds and classifications for the films in advance.

Tickets are available for 20 euros at www.ufa-filmnaechte.de and at all advance booking offices in Berlin and Brandenburg.

The program at a glance:

Wednesday, August 21, 2024, movie start: 9:00 p.m.
SAXOPHON-SUSI (1928)
Director: Carl Lamač
With Anny Ondra, Mary Parker, Gaston Jacquet, Olga Limburg, Hans Albers
Production: Hom-Film
Length: approx. 90 min.
Music: Frido ter Beek and the film orchestra The Sprockets

Thursday, August 22, 2024, movie start: 9:00 pm
THE CITY OF MILLIONS. EIN LEBENSBILD BERLINS (1925)
Director: Adolf Trotz
Production: Ufa-Kulturfilmabteilung
Length: 80 min.
Music: DJ Raphaël Marionneau

Friday, August 23, 2024, start of film: 9:00 p.m.
Ernst Lubitsch Double Feature
KOHLHIESELS TÖCHTER (1919/20)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
With Henny Porten, Emil Jannings, Gustav von Wangenheim, Jakob Tiedke
Production: Messter Film
Length: approx. 60 min.
Music: Florian C. Reithner (composition). The Metropolis Orchestra Berlin plays under the direction of Burkhard Götze

ICH MÖCHTE KEIN MANN SEIN (1918)
Director: Ernst Lubitsch
With Ossi Oswalda, Ferry Sikla, Curt Goetz, Margarete Kupfer, Victor Janson
Production: Projektions-AG “Union” for Universum Film-AG
Length: 45 min.
Music: Ensemble Narrativ under the direction of Maria Reich and Florian C. Reithner

Partners of the UFA Film Nights are the Friedrich-Wilhelm-Murnau-Stiftung, the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, the Deutsches Filminstitut Filmmuseum and Apleona. Maz&Movie, Ströer, radioeins and radio3 are media partners.

As a creative content company with a history stretching back almost 190 years, Bertelsmann is involved in cultural activities at various levels. The focus of “Culture@Bertelsmann” activities is on preserving important cultural assets and making them accessible to a broad public, for example through digitization, exhibitions and concerts. Bertelsmann has organized the successful silent film festival UFA Filmnächte in Berlin for many years and has repeatedly acted as the main sponsor for the digital restoration of important silent films. The Group also owns the Archivio Storico Ricordi in Milan, which houses a wealth of unique testimonies from 200 years of Italian opera history. Bertelsmann is processing the archive holdings according to the latest standards and making thousands of documents, set and costume designs, libretti and business correspondence freely accessible online. With the literary format “The Blue Sofa,” Bertelsmann has been providing authors with a prominent stage for their latest works for over 20 years.

About Bertelsmann

Bertelsmann is a media, services and education company with more than 80,000 employees and operations in around 50 countries around the world. The Group includes the entertainment company RTL Group, the book publishing group Penguin Random House, the music company BMG, the service provider Arvato Group, Bertelsmann Marketing Services, the Bertelsmann Education Group and the international fund network Bertelsmann Investments. The company generated revenues of €20.2 billion in the 2023 financial year. Bertelsmann stands for creativity and entrepreneurship. This combination enables first-class media offerings and innovative service solutions that inspire customers around the world. Bertelsmann is pursuing the goal of climate neutrality by 2030.
www.bertelsmann.de

About UFA

UFA is one of the leading production companies for series and films, shows and documentaries in the German-speaking world. New and long-running programs from UFA reach an average of over 30 million people every week and are currently available on almost all TV channels and streaming services. The creative house bundles the range of its genres in the units UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama, UFA Show & Factual and UFA Documentary under one roof. UFA is part of the international production company Fremantle, the global production arm of RTL Group. UFA was founded in 1917 and is now present at five locations in Germany. Its headquarters are in Potsdam-Babelsberg. The CEO of the company is Sascha Schwingel.
www.ufa.de | www.facebook.com/UFAProduction
www.instagram.com/ufa_production | https://twitter.com/ufa_production

For queries:

Bertelsmann SE & Co KGaA
Mandy Berghoff
Phone: +49 (0)5241 80780 36
mandy.berghoff@bertelsmann.de
www.bertelsmann.de

UFA GmbH
Janine Friedrich
Phone: +49 (0)331 7060 379
janine.friedrich@ufa.de
www.ufa.de

SteinbrennerMüller Communications
Kristian Müller
Tel.: +49 (0)30 4737 2192
km@steinbrennermueller.de
www.steinbrennermueller.de

The press release as PDF for download: