Bandits

Background:

German film director now based in Los Angeles Katja Von Garnier was shot to prominence with the 55-minute film “Making Up” (1993), from which she won the Ernst-Lubitsch Award, the Bavarian Film Award and a Student Academy Award. The film received a huge commercial success in Germany and subsequently established Von Garnier as a shooting star in German film industry. Telling about the length of the movie, she stated, “My colleagues wanted to persuade me to add another half an hour so that the film would equal that of a full length feature film. I refused saying: the story lasts 55 minutes and that's it.”

It was “Bandits” (1997), another German big hit, however, that brought the director worldwide attention. The music film picked up awards at major festivals and basked a successful theatrical release in 15 countries, among them the U.S., in which she acquired countless critical kudos, including chosen as one of Variety magazine's “Ten Leading New Independent Directors To Watch” (1998).

After “Bandits,” Von Garnier made her American debut with the HBO telepic “Iron Jawed Angels” (2004), about the life of U.S. feminist Alice Paul and the U.S. women's-rights motion of the beginning at the 20th century. Under her direction, Hillary Swank and Anjelica Huston were able to win a Best Actress Golden Globe nomination and a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award, respectively. Her first American-made feature film, “Blood and Chocolate,” was released on January 26, 2007 and starred Agnes Bruckner and Hugh Dancy.

Von Garnier and her filmmaker husband, Markus Goller, have one son together, Merlin (born in 2002). Her husband served as 2nd Unit Director in “Iron Jawed Angels.” Von Garnier became a member of the jury at the 1999 Berlin International Film Festival and good friends with actresses Jasmin Tabatabai and Katja Riemann.

German Immigrant

Childhood and Family:

Katja Von Garnier was born on December 15, 1966, in Wiesbaden, Germany. Her father is Friedrich Ernst Von Garnier, a world-renowned color designer from whom Katja got a camera as her 15th birthday present. She studied history of art, German philology, Theory of Drama and Film at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt from 1985 to 1989. She next attended the Academy for Television and Film (HFF) in Munich, in which she stayed from 1989 to 1994. Katja described her upbringing in Taunusstein, a town near her birth-place with about 30,000 inhabitants, “a bit like Pippi Longstocking” with a number of horses and dogs.

Katja is married to director Markus Goller. They have one son, Merlin, who was born in February 2002. His godmother is Katja's good friend, actress Katja Riemann. The family currently reside in Los Angeles.

Making Up

Career:

In 1988, Katja Von Garnier had her first taste of directing with the open air production of William Shakespeare's “A Midsummer Night's Dream,” while she was still a student at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt. She made her first short film in the following year called “Day Trauma/ Tagtrauma” and shortly afterwards, the Wiesbaden native went to Munich to study directing. Along with her Swedish fellow student Ewa Karlström, she founded VELA-X-Film Production in 1990, and started making films.

Still in 1990, Von Garnier directed “Noiseless/Lautlos,” a 9-minute short produced at HFF that stirred Hollywood's interest in the nineties. The America Film production company Columbia Pictures got the US marketing rights for the film and later hired Von Garnier to film a documentary of the making of the German director Wolfgang Petersen's successful feature, “In The Line of Fire” (1993), starring Clint Eastwood and John Malkovich.

Von Garnier's massive breakthrough arrived later that same year when she directed the light comedy “Making Up/Abgeschminkt!,” about the relationship between men and women that was made as a student film. With budget only 80,000 DM (about 50,000 US dollars), the 55-minute long movie was a big hit in Germany and stayed at the top 10 of the German film charts for five months and a whole year in German cinemas. Subsequently, “Making Up” sold to a total of 27 countries and even became No. 1 at the Italian film hit list for four weeks. In addition to being shown at the Berlin 43rd International Film Festival, in which “Making Up” created a sensation, the film was also shown in many other film festivals such as Edinburgh, Sundance, London, Barcelona, Philadelphia, Göteborg, Seattle and Chicago, where it also became a darling. For her bright efforts, Von Garnier was handed a 1994 Ernst-Lubitsch for Best Individual Performance in a German Language Film Comedy, a Bavarian Film for Best Young Direction and a Student Academy for Honorary Foreign Film, and she quickly emerged as rising star and “saviour” of the German cinematic industry.

After the success of “Making Up,” Von Garnier was flooded a number of film offers from the U.S. In 1994, she signed a deal to helm the 20 million dollar American production “Moonlight and Valentino,” which starred Whoopi Goldberg and Gwyneth Paltrow. However, when Von Garnier wanted to modify the unfinished script, and demanded for changing in the casting, the film studio became agitated. As a result, she decided to quit the production, mentioning artistic differences, despite she had already worked in the film for six months. A short time later, Von Garnier developed plans for what would become her next big hit.

“The film 'Hair' by Milos Forman has been my absolute number one movie since I was twelve and is still my favourite. Music films are something that have always fascinated me. Well, and music anyway. It helps one in getting over bad moods and makes sadness sometimes turn into an event. My next film, namely, the one after 'Making up!' was somehow due. And I wanted it to be a music film. But it's not only about visually extravagant music; the music is important as an outlet for pent-up emotions, for the dramatic creative key note of the movie, in whose center the developing friendship of the four women stands. When I wrote the script I occupied myself a lot with mythology in order to find out what really makes a heroe's story. The characters in our movie had to be greater than life - exactly cinema characters.” Katja Von Garnier

The resultant, “Bandits,” a German music film about four female cons who establish a rock band and break out of prison together, was premiered on June 28, 1997 at the Munich Film Festival and released in German theaters on July 3. The movie received mixed reviews from critics, but it went on to become a box office smash in German cinemas, where it peaked at No. 3 in the film charts, and nabbed a number of awards, including a Bavarian for Best Music Film. Aside from Germany, “Bandits” also enjoyed booming theatrical release in 15 other countries, including America, in which it surfaced in the next year. Thanks to its intense storyline and dynamic style, Von Garnier gained positive response from critics. The New York Times critic praised the film in a review as a “Celebration,” while Kevin Thomas from the Los Angeles Times penned, “Fun exuberant and edgy! A vital and passionate movie, bandits rocks!” She even was named by The greatest U.S. film magazine “Variety” one of the “Ten Leading New Independent Directors To Watch.” Also a festival favorite, in 1999, “Bandits” won Von Garnier an Audience Award for Best Feature at the Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival and a Grand Jury Prize-Feature at the Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival.

The same year “Bandits” was launched in Germany, Von Garnier also made a documentary film called “Kix?” (1997), about the new generation in Germany.

Following a few of unrealized projects, in 2004, Von Garnier finally returned to the director's chair with her English-language debut, “Iron Jawed Angels.” Financed by the U.S. cable TV channel HBO and starring Oscar winner Hillary Swank as the American feminist Alice Paul, the film brought the star a Golden Globe nomination and the supporting actress Anjelica Huston a Golden Globe honor. “Iron Jawed Angels” also starred Frances O'Connor, Julia Ormond, Brooke Smith, Molly Parker and Patrick Dempsey, among others.

In early 2007, Von Garnier made her U.S big screen directing debut with the release of “Blood and Chocolate” on January 26. The drama/horror starred Agnes Bruckner as a young teenage werewolf who is torn between honoring her family's secret and her love for a man, Aiden (played by Hugh Dancy).

Awards:

• Yubari International Fantastic Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize-Feature, “Bandits,” 1999

• Rehoboth Beach Independent Film Festival: Audience Award, Best Feature, “Bandits,” 1999

• Bavarian Film: Best Music in a Film, “Bandits,” 1997

• Student Academy: Honorary Foreign Film, “Abgeschminkt!” 1994

• Bavarian Film: Best Young Direction (Regienachwuchspreis), “Abgeschminkt!,” 1994

• Ernst Lubitsch: Best Individual Performance in a German Language Film Comedy, “Abgeschminkt!” 1994