PGFF Holiday Film: School of Magic Animals (Die Schule der magischen Tiere)

SPECIAL SCREENING of the Portland German Film Festival – Sunday, December 4, 2022, 3:00PM at the Clinton Street Theater

SCHOOL OF MAGICAL ANIMALS (Die Schule der magischen Tiere)

Germany 2021, 89 min. in German with English subtitles

Director Gregor Schnitzler

Cast: Emilia Maier, Leonard Conrads, Loris Sichrovsky, Nadja Uhl, Justus von Dohnányi, Heiko Pinkowski, Marleen Lohse, and Milan Peschel

The charming live-action adventure with CGI animated animals about an unusual school, where the children receive a magical animal as a companion, centers on the new girl Ida, who goes from being an outsider to the star student thanks to her magical animal, the talking fox Rabbat.

Ida has had to move to another town and is now the “new girl” at the Winterstein School. She has a hard time in the new class: the bitchy Helene makes sure that Ida has scant chance of making any friends, and there is only one place left for her on the first day of school – next to the outsider Benni. One day, her teacher introduces the children to Mortimer Morrison who travels the world looking for “magical animals”. Each of these animals is destined to become a child’s soul mate. Of all people, newcomer Ida and outsider Benni are the first in the class to have magical companions! From now on, Benni has the ancient, wise turtle Henrietta at his side and Ida the cunning fox Rabbat. When objects keep disappearing at school, the children and the magical animals have to stick together to solve the mystery of the school thief.

A strong, original and incomparable story: translated into over 20 languages and published in such territories as China, Japan, South Korea, all of Eastern Europe, the Nordic region, Israel, Turkey, Greece, The Netherlands, Spain and Portugal, SCHOOL OF MAGICAL ANIMALS is one of the most successful children’s and young people’s book series with over 4.8 million copies sold in German-speaking countries. The warm-hearted cinema adventure for the whole family is based on Margit Auer’s wonderful novels. Director Gregor Schnitzler (“The Cloud”) beautifully translated the essence of the books along with impressive visuals into an exceptional children’s film. Animation director Tomer Eshed (Lumatic Animation & VFX) created the likable, funny and very special characters Rabbat, Henrietta and Pinkie, the animal stars who play such decisive roles in this feature film.

The successful producer Kordes & Kordes Film Süd (“Four Minutes”) adapted the book series for the big screen for the first time – with a budget of almost 10 million Euros and as a co-production with Wega Film (Vienna) and Leonine

.

Breakout hit at the German box office: more than 1 mio tickets sold in the first three weeks of release, making for the best theatrical release of a German movie since the pandemic.

This movie is sponsored by the German International School Portland

German Film Awards 2022
Winner
Audience Award Highest Grossing Film of the Year
Gregor Schnitzler (director)
Alexandra Kordes (producer)
Meike Kordes (producer)
Winner
Film Award in Gold Best Visual Effects (Beste visuelle Effekte)
Dennis Rettkowski
Markus Frank
Tomer Eshed
Nominee
Film Award in Gold Outstanding Children or Youth Film (Bester Kinder- und Jugendfilm)
Alexandra Kordes
Meike Kordes