FNE spoke to German actress Lea van Acken about her films that have often been sold to CEE countries in the past years, including Stations of the Cross / Kreuzweg directed by Dietrich Brüggemann, the German Netflix series Dark, created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese, and the challenges and future of German and European cinema.
Lea van Acken is a rising star in the German entertainment industry. She began acting at an early age and has since made a name for herself in the industry. Lea gained widespread recognition in 2014 when she played a Catholic girl in a religiously fanatic family in Stations of the Cross / Kreuzweg. The film was awarded a Silver Bear at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival and Lea earned Best Actress at the Mumbai IFF.
One year later, she played a minor role in the fifth season of the series Homeland, which was set in Germany. She played Holocaust victim Anne Frank in the 2016 German production Das 
Tagebuch der Anne Frank. Van Acken also appears in the German Netflix series Dark as Silja Tiedemann.
FNE will be following this podcast with more in our series that will focus on Geraman films in CEE countries plus Cyprus and Malta, and our partner countries’ films screening in Germany, as well as news about coproductions and other special events.
In 2024, German Films celebrates its 70 years anniversary. The Export Union der Deutschen Filmindustrie was founded in Wiesbaden in 1954, then was renamed German Films Service + Marketing GmbH in 2004 and has successfully been promoting German feature films and filmmakers around the world.
To put a special focus on 70 years of German cinema abroad, a film programme entitled “70 Years of German Cinema – A Success Story“ has been compiled as a retrospective, curated by Alfred Holighaus, development executive and producer at REAL FILM in Berlin and NORDFILM in Kiel, who selected a mixture of 14 feature films and documentaries. The aim of this film programme is to give German cinema abroad the special attention it so rightly deserves.
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