Panama is not only a country in Central America. It also represents a state of mind, an approach to cinema, according to Austrian producers Lixi Frank and David Bohun. After all, for many of us, Panama is a faraway place that we know of but have never been to. And that represents exactly the mindset the duo wanted to bring to the table when they founded Vienna-based Panama Film in 2018.
“Panama Film stands for films that give expression and space to challenging questions, lingering observations and lost longings,” its website highlights. And the founders tell THR that they focus on collaborating with filmmakers who approach cinema in unconventional ways and unique styles.
Panama has had a slew of festival hits in recent years. Movements of a Nearby Mountain by Sebastian Brameshuber won the Grand Prix at Cinéma du Réel 2019 in Paris. Sandra Wollner’s sophomore feature, The Trouble With Being Born, won the special jury award in the 2020 Berlin Film Festival Encounters competition before going on to win four Austrian Film Awards, including for the best feature film.
In 2023, documentary Stams by Bernhard Braunstein debuted in Berlin’s Panorama program, while Panama’s first three-way co-production, Timm Kröger’s The Universal Theory, premiered in the Venice Film Festival competition. The 2024 film Bluish, by directors Lilith Kraxner and Milena Czernovsky, won the Grand Prix at FID Marseille.
