Match Factory will begin selling Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea, starring Academy Award winner Juliette Binoche, and Eva Trobisch’s third feature film, Home Stories, ahead of their world premieres in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival next month.
The company is bringing four films to this year’s festival, all of which will be screened in competition. The lineup includes Karim Eynauz’s “Rosebush Pruning,” produced by The Match Factory, and Markus Schleinzer’s latest film “Rose,” starring Sandra Hüller.
Queen at Sea, which also stars two-time Academy Award nominee Tom Courtenay, marks the return of American filmmaker Lance Hammer to Berlin with his second feature film, following his acclaimed debut film Ballast, which won the Sundance Film Festival Best Director award and received six Independent Spirit Award nominations.
Hammer’s latest work explores how dementia erodes a woman’s ability to communicate her inner self. As her husband and daughter struggle to act in her best interests, they must navigate the fragile line between love, care, protection, and independence.
In addition to Binoche and Courtenay, Anna Calder-Marshall (Wuthering Heights) and Florence Hunt (Bridgerton) will also star. This feature is produced by The Bureau and produced by Tristan Goligher. This is the second collaboration between The Bureau and The Match Factory, which also includes Andrew Haig’s 45 Years. Match Factory is also handling worldwide sales for Haig’s new film A Long Winter.
Trobisch is attracting attention in the German film industry. After her striking debut films All Good (Locarno, Best Debut of 2018) and Ivo (Berlinale Encounters, 2024), the director will submit Home Stories, a film about family, belonging and the search for identity, in competition at the Berlinale. The film features an ensemble cast including Max Riemelt, Eva Loebau, and Frida Hornemann making her screen debut, and was produced by Trimafilm in collaboration with Komplizen Film, if…Productions, and ZDF/ARTE and The Post Republic.
After the critically acclaimed “Motel Destino” (Cannes Competition, 2024) and “Firebrand” (Cannes Competition, 2023), Ainuz returns to Berlin with the long-awaited “Rosebush Pruning”. Anouz MUBI, The Match Factory, Kabak Film, The Apartment, SUR The collaboration between FILM, Crybaby and Gold Rush Pictures stars Callum Turner (Masters of the Air, Boys in the Boat), Riley Keogh (Daisy Jones and the Six, Zola), Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers, Rocketman) and Lucas Gage. (The White Lotus, Euphoria), Elena Anaya (The Skin I Live In, Motherfatherson) and Tracy Letts (Lady Bird, Ford v Ferrari), Elle Fanning (Sentimental Value, Completely Unknown), and Pamela Anderson (The Last Showgirl, The Naked Gun).
“Rosebush Pruning” was written by Efthimis Filippou (“A Kind of Kindness,” “The Sacred Deer Killer,” “The Lobster”), and “Match Factory” producers are Viola Fugen and Michael Weber. Match Factory represents several titles in Ainouz, including “Motel Destino” (2024), “Mariner of the Mountains” (2021), “The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão” (2019), and “Praia do Futuro” (2014).
“Rose” is the third feature film by Austrian director and actor Markus Schleinzer, following “Michael” (Cannes Competition, 2011) and “Angelo” (TIFF, 2018). “Rose” is a historical drama starring one of Germany’s most famous actors and Academy Award nominee Sandra Hüller (“Zone of Interest,” “Anatomy of Fall”). This film tells the true and twisted story of a man who deceives the land and people by pretending to be a man despite being born a woman and committing many evil deeds. An Austrian-German co-production produced by Schubert, Lowe Pictures and Walker & Worm Films. Match Factory has previously collaborated with Lowe Pictures on Emily Atef’s Someday We’ll Tell Each Other Everything and with Walker & Worm on Frauk Finsterwalder’s Sisi & I.
