Japanese films at Berlin and Venice during the pre-war and wartime periods

[Michael McCaskey]

Dear Jasper,

I came up with some more desultory findings, and hope at least a little bit of them may be of some use.

>From 1947 on, up through now, The French Syndicate of Cinema Critics has given film awards, but apparently only for French films.

http://pro.imdb.com/event/ev0000263/

The Italian National Syndicate of Film Journalists began giving awards in 1946.

http://pro.imdb.com/event/ev0000369/

There are also The Locarno International Film Festival Awards, going back to 1946.

http://pro.imdb.com/event/ev0000400/

It also seems that there were pre-1945 German film prizes, including the Nationaler Filmpreis, Staatsfilmpreis (which might have been Austrian), and a Deutscher Filmpreis.

There's recently-compiled comprehensive data on German films going back to the late 1920s, with listings where awards were given, at:

http://www.deutscher-tonfilm.de/

Since most of these awards in the 1930s and 1940s were bestowed with official Reich approval, they are now held in disregard, sort of like the Mussolini Cup awards but more so, and are likely to be fairly hard to track down year by year for all categories.  

A couple of examples are:

Der Herrscher
Dir. Veit Harlan
Starring Emil Jannings

Nationaler Filmpreis 1937: -an Emil Jannings (Darsteller) Staatsfilmpreis 1937: -an Veit Harlan (Regisseur) IFF Venedig 1937: -Coppa Volpi an Emil Jannings (Darsteller)
 
But the IMDB only lists US & Venice Awards for Emil Jannings, ever:		   

Academy Awards, USA 
1929		   
? 	Won, Oscar	   
	Best Actor in a Leading Role for The Last Command (1928)
? Also for The Way of All Flesh.
? Emil Jannings received his award early due to the fact that he was going home to Europe before the ceremony.
	   
Venice Film Festival 
1937			   
? 	Won, Volpi Cup		   
	Best Actor for Herrscher, Der (1937)
 
Herrscher, Der (1937)
	   
Venice Film Festival 
1937			   
? 	Won, Volpi Cup		   
	Best Actor
Emil Jannings
	 	   
? 	Nominated, Mussolini Cup	 	   
	Veit Harlan

This 1938 film also won the Nationaler Filmpreis: 
	 	 
Heimat 1938
Dir. Carl Froehlich
Starring Zarah Leander
IFF Venedig 1938: -Pokal des Italienischen Unterrichtsministeriums an Carl Froelich
(bester Regisseur) Nationaler Filmpreis 1939: -an Carl Froelich (Regisseur)

So it may well be that some Japanese films won some of these German prizes before 1945, but listings of awards may be hard to track down. Dr. Janine Hansen is an authority on this kind of thing, and she will be able to help.

Janine Hansen <hansen at hanzie.de> 

There were apparently some French film awards in conjunction with a Paris World Exposition or World's Fair in the 1930s. It truly seems hard to believe that the French would not have chosen not to have any awards of their own in the 1930s, leaving it all completely to Venice.

As you know, the Kinema Junpo Awards go back to 1925, and the international awards there seem to reflect political trends from 1941-1950.

http://pro.imdb.com/event/ev0001001/awards-1925

In 1933, Rene Clair won the KJ Award for ? nous la libert?, and in 1936 for Le dernier milliardaire. Good French films went on winning until 1941, when Riefenstahl's Olympia belatedly won. There were no more KJ foreign film awards until 1948, when Hitchcock's 1941 film Suspicion won. But Roberto Rossellini's 1946 film Paisa(n) won in 1950, and after that European films often won.

These 1930s and 1940s international prizes seem to weave a tangled web in some cases.

Best Wishes,

Michael McCaskey 


----- Original Message -----
From: Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
Date: Saturday, June 7, 2008 9:23 am
Subject: RE: Japanese films at Berlin and Venice during the pre-war and wartime periods

> 
> 
> Thanks for your reply Michael. Couldnt find any actual Japanese 
> films on the list though, so looks like I'll need to head up and 
> forage around the BFI library very soon.
> 
> best
> 
> Jasper
> 
> Midnight Eyewww.midnighteye.com
> 
> ----------------------------------------
> > Date: Fri, 6 Jun 2008 09:12:19 -0400
> > From: mccaskem at georgetown.edu
> > To: KineJapan at lists.acs.ohio-state.edu
> > Subject: Re: Japanese films at Berlin and Venice during the pre-
> war and wartime periods
> > 
> > I found a full list in Japanese of all Venice Awards, that goes 
> all the way back to 1932:
> > 
> > http://www.allcinema.net/prog/award_top.php?num_a=3
> > 
> > Also a full list of all Venice Awards in English back to 1932:
> > 
> > http://pro.imdb.com/event/ev0000681/
> > 
> > Best Wishes,
> > 
> > Michael McCaskey
> > 
> > 
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: Jasper Sharp <jasper_sharp at hotmail.com>
> > Date: Friday, June 6, 2008 7:52 am
> > Subject: Japanese films at Berlin and Venice during the pre-war 
> and wartime periods
> > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Dear Kinejapanners,
> > > 
> > > I was wondering if anyone could tell me where I could find out 
> > > what films played, and won prizes at, Venice or Berlin Film 
> > > Festivals prior to Rashomon's win at Venice. I have a good 
> idea 
> > > about what was shown, films of Hiroshi Shimizu, Tomotaka 
> Tasaka 
> > > and Tomu Uchida etc, but need to know dates, and I am a 
> million 
> > > miles away from a decent library at the moment.
> > > 
> > > Thanks 
> > > 
> > > Jasper
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Midnight Eye
> > > www.midnighteye.com
> > > 
> > > _________________________________________________________________
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