Saturday afternoon, a day before the Oscar® ceremony, German Films, the Villa Aurora and the Consul-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles hosted the traditional reception for the German Oscar® nominees in Los Angeles at Villa Aurora. This year, it was held in the presence of the State Minister for Culture and Media Bernd Neumann and Björn Böhning, Head of the Berlin Senate Chancellery.

Blessed with typically warm and sunny Californian weather, State Minister Bernd Neumann, Dr. Markus Klimmer, Villa Aurora board chairman, and Mariette Rissenbeek, managing director of German Films, welcomed around 500 invited guests in the garden of the Villa Aurora. Martin Moszkowicz, chairman of the advisory board for German Films, Annette Rupp, executive director of Villa Aurora, and Margit Kleinman, director of Villa Aurora Los Angeles, were happy about the numerous guests.

Along with the teams of the nominated German co-productions Amour by Michael Haneke with the German producer Stefan Arndt (X Filme Creative Pool), The Gatekeepers by Dror Moreh with the responsible commissioning editors Patricia Schlesinger and Barbara Biemann (NDR) and Open Heart by Kief Davidson (US/DE) with the German producer Christian Beetz (Gebrüder Beetz Filmproduktion), representatives of the German and international film industry made use of the opportunity to network in the villa's historic setting.
Among those attending were actors like Thomas Kretschmann, Veronika Ferres and Udo Kier, director Uli Edel, presenter Karen Webb, the Austrian Culture Minister Dr. Claudia Schmied, the managing director of Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg Kirsten Niehuus, the BR Director of Television Bettina Reitz, Andreas Trautz (MFG Baden-Württemberg), the head of the BR feature film department Hubert von Spreti and FFA president Eberhard Junkersdorf as well as Uschi Obermeier, Thure Riefenstein, Elge Sharpe, Chief of Protocol for the Mayor of Los Angeles, and others.

Many German and international journalists seized the opportunity to obtain interviews and short statements from the nominees and those guests present. The German actress and board member of the German Film Academy Christiane Paul was also there in her capacity as an ambassador of the event's sponsor Annemarie Börlind Natural Beauty and introduced the nominees together with German Films' US representative Oliver Mahrdt.

The reception in honour of the Oscar®nominees was supported by German Films, the Villa Aurora, the Commissioner for Culture and Media of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Consul-General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Los Angeles, the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Berlin Partner.

The official sponsors are Annemarie Börlind Natural Beauty, AUDI, airberlin, BOSCH, AMI, Apollinaris, BWR, Carpe Diem and Volvic.

Please find here the trailer of the Oscar®-Reception 2013!