German producer Jamila Wenske has left One Two Films to head Achtung Panda!, a Berlin-based film production company.
Wenske succeeds former managing director Helge Albers, who left Achtung Panda! to become the new CEO of regional funder Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein.
Wenske partnered with Sol Bondy and Christoph Lange to launch One Two Films in 2010. The Berlin company has co-produced domestic and international productions, including Jennifer Fox’s “The Tale,” Isabel Coixet’s “The Bookshop” and Vadim Perelman’s “Persian Lessons.”
Variety selected Wenske and Bondy for its 10 Producers to Watch list last year.
Producer Melanie Blocksdorf, who previously worked at Berlin-based Propellerfilm, is joining Wenske at Achtung Panda!
Established as a joint venture in 2015 between Danny Krausz’s Vienna-based Dor Film and Oliver Damian’s 27 Films in Berlin, Achtung Panda! had largely focused on documentaries under Albers’ management. But Wenske and Blocksdorf, along with project manager Carli Hameder, intend to expand the company’s slate to encompass more international feature film co-productions.
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Wenske has brought to Achtung Panda! a number of international projects she was previously producing at One Two Films, including “Fools,” by award-winning Polish filmmaker Tomasz Wasilewski (“The United States of Love”), in co-production with Poland’s Ewa Puszczynska (“Cold War”) and Romania’s Ada Solomon (“Aferim!”); and Finnish helmer Juho Kuosmanen’s “Compartment No. 6,” an adaptation of Rosa Liksom’s 1980-set novel about a young Finnish woman on a train trip from Moscow to Ulan Bator, co-produced with Finland’s Jussi Rantamäki and Estonia’s Riina Sildos.
Wenske has also brought German-language productions “Franky Five Star,” a comedy-drama by Birgit Möller, and Bettina Blümner’s German-Cuban co-production “Hello My Friend,” about three German students on a romantic and sexually charged visit to Cuba.
The latest productions from Achtung Panda! include Alla Kovgan’s 3D documentary “Cunningham,” which is premiering in Toronto and is set for release in the U.S. on Dec. 3 via Magnolia. Camino is releasing the film in Germany on Dec. 19. Also in the lineup is Josephine Links’ documentary “Closer,” about star photographer Martin Schoeller.
While at Propellerfilm, Blocksdorf co-produced Govinda van Maele’s debut feature “Gutland,” a Luxembourg-Germany-Belgium co-production, and Dénes Nagy’s “Natural Light,” a Hungarian-Estonian-French-German co-production based on Pál Závada’s novel of the same name.
Meanwhile, One Two Films, now run solely by Bondy, will also be in Toronto this year with Grimur Hakonarson’s Icelandic drama “The County,” which it co-produced with Reykjavik’s Netop Films, Copenhagen-based Profile Pictures and Haut et Court in Paris.