Australian Filmmaker Philippe Mora will be Guest of Honor at the 21st Annual Oldenburg Film Festival and Recipient of the 2014 German Independence Honorary Award.
The Oldenburg International Film Festival enters its third decade! And with the Honorary Retrospective of Philippe Mora, it pays homage to one of the most astonishing and eclectic filmmakers of our time – a solo Australian Nouvelle Vague Artist, impassioned by a zealous quest for historical truths, and with an inextinguishable creative energy that fearlessly breaks molds.
The godson of Marcel Marceau, the roommate of Eric Clapton, the London Art Scene discovery of the 60s – a relentless documentary filmmaker, icon of horror films, and the pioneer of Australian New Wave Cinema presence in the USA. Born in Paris in 1949 to a German-Jewish Resistance Fighter and a French-Jewish Artist, the family moved to Melbourne shortly thereafter, where his parents founded one of the most influential Australian Modern Art Galleries of the period. Like his siblings, Mora grew up to be a successful artist. He directed his first films at 15 – a parody of West Side Story, and an homage to Fellini’s 8 ½. At 17, he moved to England and dove into the heart of London’s wild 60s and quickly rose to become a successful ‘discovery’ with Exhibitions in London and later in Germany, where he took part in Joseph Beuys and Erwin Heerich’s liberation of the German Art market.
Moving back into film, Mora stirred controversy with his documentaries – in particular with “Swastika”, a film that juxtaposed footage from Eva Braun’s private archive with images of the Nazi propaganda machine, showing the Nazi regime in a previously unseen humanizing light that – for Mora- underscored the banality of evil. Screened in Cannes in 1973, fights broke out, the screening was stopped, and the film was subsequently banned in Israel and Germany.
Returning to Australia in the mid-70s, the next phase of his career came with his outlaw-biopic “Mad Dog Morgan”, starring Dennis Hopper. The film was a hit not only in his home country but also succeeded in making Mora one of the first Australian filmmakers to secure US-wide distribution. And he followed his success abroad with a US debut of his horror movie “The Beast Within”.
Back in his homeland, his taste of Hollywood inspired the boldly irreverent superhero spoof “The Return of Captain Invincible” in 1983, which has maintained a cult status. His eco-thriller ”A Breed Apart” and two sequels to Joe Dante’s “The Howling”, have secured him a growing following amongst genre fans.
After 2000, he devoted his interests to varied historic topics with documentaries ranging from a trip into the 60s,“The Times They Ain’t A Changin’,” to “German Sons”, a highly personal film wherein Mora and his friend Harald Grosskopf juxtapose their life stories: one the son of a German-Jewish Resistance Fighter, the other the son of a Nazi.
Mora’s recent works are further explorations of history but as fiction films. 2013’s “Absolutely Modern” audaciously challenges our notions of modernity, and 2014’s “The Sound of Spying”, stars a singing spy in a Cold War musical.
The 21st Edition of the Oldenburg International Film Festival devotes this year’s Retrospective to the exceptional visionary Philippe Mora with a presentation of his remarkable cinematic works.
Philippe Mora will be in attendance at the Oldenburg International Film Festival from September 10th to September 14th, and will be presented with the German Independence Honorary Award at the Mid-Festival Gala on September 12th.