Vitória. Open-Air-Kino und Gespräch. Box Office Around The World 2025

In the organizer's words:

On two weekends in August, the Schlüterhof becomes a meeting place for film enthusiasts from all over the world - with summery drinks and snacks. The open-air festival presents six current cinema productions that are box office hits in their countries of origin but have not yet been shown on the big screen in Germany. Before the screenings, the Humboldt Forum invites you to get in the mood with thematic spotlights - with prominent guests!

The release of every major film production is accompanied by great anxiety and guesswork: will the audience buy into the story told, the star constellation and the film language and flock to the cinema en masse?

Box Office Around The World is a film festival that aims to unravel this mystery from the audience's perspective. Unlike Hollywood productions, which are designed for the global market, "box office hits" from other regions of the world often provide surprising insights into what moves people in Lagos, Buenos Aires or Bangkok. The Schlüterhof is located in the heart of Berlin - and surrounded by collections from many cultures around the world.

Over two weekends in August, the Box Office Around the World festival presents six current cinema productions that are audience successes and box office hits in their countries of origin, but have not yet been shown on the big screen in Germany.

Representatives of the Berlin communities from Thailand, Argentina, Nigeria, Vietnam, Brazil and India have selected the films together with curator Dorothee Wenner and developed an accompanying program: Before the open-air screenings, the team - with a star-studded line-up - will shine a thematic spotlight on each film.

Curator of the film program

Dorothee Wenner is a freelance filmmaker, curator and author based in Berlin.

Since 1990 she has worked in various positions for the Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, currently as the festival's delegate for the Sub-Saharan Africa region. She has been a member of the board and jury of the African Movie Academy Awards in Lagos since its inception in 2005. Her latest work as a filmmaker is the web series Kinshasa Collection. Since 2020 she has been working as a consultant for film/cinema at the Humboldt Forum in Berlin and initiated the Cinema Spaces Network.

Dorothee Wenner curated the Box Office Around The World 2025 festival with representatives from the communities for the third time.

Vitória. Andrucha Waddington, Breno Silveira / Brazil 2025 / 112 min. / Drama

This true story from 2005, on which this film is based, shook the whole of Brazil at the time: Nina, an elderly lady played by screen icon Fernanda Montenegro, lives alone in Rio de Janeiro. When she looks out of her window, she sees the worst crimes every day. There is dealing, shooting, shouting, murder - in full view of everyone. She has had enough of the madness and decides to do something about it. She buys a video camera in the firm belief that the scenes she documents from her window will finally persuade the police to take action. And she does indeed bring some sensational footage to the police station. Although she is initially dismissed as a quirky old woman, a reporter takes up the matter and discovers why the police are acting so strangely inefficiently in this place. Nina herself becomes a target, and then her little friend Marcinho from the neighborhood, for whom she is a "surrogate grandma", gets caught in the middle...

Andrucha Waddington took over the direction of this film from Breno Silveira after his death during filming, which began in May 2022. Dona Vitória, whose story the film tells, died in 2023 - her true identity could only be revealed after her death. Not least because the intertwining of reality and fiction is so special and unique, this film was eagerly awaited in Brazil.

Program

- 8 p.m.: Discussion with Leonardo Barros (producer), Sidney Martins and Dorothee Wenner (curators) in German and Portuguese

- 9 p.m.: Film screening

Participants

Leonardo M. Barros is a Brazilian film and television producer and has been a partner in the leading Brazilian production company Conspiração in Rio de Janeiro since 1996. As (co-)producer, executive producer and associate producer, he has been responsible for over twenty films, including arthouse productions that have been officially selected at international festivals such as Berlin (three times), Toronto (five times), Sundance (three times), Venice and Cannes. Two of his films were Brazil's official entries for the Oscar in the "Best International Film" category. He has also produced national blockbusters with an audience of millions. His works have been distributed by Sony Pictures, Sony Classics, Warner Bros, Disney, Paramount and 20th Century Fox, among others. In addition to ethnographic and music documentaries for television, he also produced the twice International Emmy-nominated HBO Latin America series Mandrake.

Barros studied Philosophy and Business Administration in Rio de Janeiro and holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from IBMEC Business School.

He is Vice President of the Brazilian Association of Producers SICAV and a founding member of the Brazilian Academy of Film and Visual Arts. Before working in the film industry, Barros held management positions in marketing at renowned music labels such as Deutsche Grammophon (Hamburg), PolyGram (now Universal Music) and BMG (both in Rio de Janeiro).

- 10 EUR, reduced 5 EUR

- FSK 12

- Schlüterhof: Entrance: Portal 5

- Languages: Portuguese with English subtitles

- Belongs to: Box Office Around The World 2025