By Oliver Bradley
BERLIN — Cinema producer Sandra Schulberg, founder of the IFP (Independent Filmmaker Project) and best known for her Oscar nominated film Quills (2000), was a recipient of this year’s prestigious Berlinale Camera Award, alongside legendary French filmmaker Agnes Varda, film curator and director Wieland Speck and German director and screenwriter Herrmann Zschoche.
The Berlin Film Festival recognized Schulberg for her 40 years of service on behalf of filmmakers working outside the Hollywood studios. She was recognised for her 40 years of service to the field.
Schulberg founded the Independent Filmmaker Project (IFP) in 1979 and one year later co-founded the independent distribution company First Run Features. In 2008 she launched IndieCollect, a national campaign to save indie films from extinction. She also serves on the advisory committee of the Women’s Film Preservation Fund, established by New York Women in Film & Television.
Alongside her advocacy and film restoration, Schulberg has been a working producer, with three of her movies premiering at the Berlinale: Beth B’s Exposed (Panorama 2013), Philip Kaufman’s Oscar-nominated Quills (Competition 2000) and John Hanson’s Wildrose (Panorama 1984). In 2004, the Berlinale also premiered her special series Selling Democracy: Films of the Marshall Plan, curated with Dr. Rainer Rother. I
n 2010, the Berlinale unveiled her restoration of Nuremberg: Its Lesson For Today (1948/2009), which documents the first Nuremberg Trial and was directed by her father, Stuart Schulberg. It was screened in the Berlinale Special programme.
Schulberg is also the niece of legendary Hollywood screenwriter and television producer Budd Schulberg.
Since 1986 the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks. Past recipients of the Berlinale Camera include Katriel Schory, Lia van Lier, Artur Brauner, Sydney Pollack, Daniel Day Lewis, Gina Lollobrigida, Lauren Bacall, Clint Eastwood.
Scarred Generation:
The Berlinale is also paying tribute to 30 years Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School
To mark the 30th anniversary of the founding of the Jerusalem Sam Spiegel Film School (JSFS), a short film programme showcasing some of the outstanding work produced at this renowned Israeli film academy over the past three decades will be screened at Berlinale’s Generation section. Jointly curated by JSFS founding director Renen Schorr and head of Generation Maryanne Redpath, the programme comprises six short films dating from 1997 to 2015, focusing on the lives of young Israelis in a setting marked by conflict and siege: A Scarred Generation.
The Berlinale’s Generation section features films that explore the lives and worlds of children and teenagers.