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Universum Film AG

Universum Film AG
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Foundation date 18 december 1917

UFA (formerly Universum Film AG, today UFA GmbH) is a German motion-picture production company headquartered in Babelsberg, a district in the Brandenburg state capital of Potsdam.

Universum Film was established on December 18, 1917 as a direct response to foreign competition in the realm of film and propaganda. UFA was founded by a consortium headed by Emil Georg von Stauß, who was a board member at Deutsche Bank.

In 1925, financial pressures compelled the company to enter into distribution agreements with the American studios Paramount and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer to form Parufamet. UFAs weekly newsreels continued to contain reference to the deal with Paramount all the way up to 1940, at which point "Die Deutsche Wochenschau ("The German Weekly Review") was consolidated and used as an instrument of Nazi propaganda.
In March 1927, Alfred Hugenberg, an influential German media entrepreneur and later Minister of the Economy, Agriculture and Nutrition in Hitler's cabinet, purchased Ufa and transferred it to the Nazi Party in 1933.

In 1942, as a result of the Nazi policy of "forcible coordination" known as the Gleichschaltung, Ufa and all of its competitors, including Tobis, Terra, Bavaria Film and Wien-Film, were bundled together with foreign film production companies seized by the Nazis to form one corporation, Ufa-Film (Ufi), with headquarters in Berlin.
After the Red Army occupied the Ufa complex in 1945, and after the privatization of Bavaria and Ufa in 1956, the company was restructured to form Universum Film AG and taken over by a consortium of banks.
In 1964, Bertelsmann's Chief Representative, Manfred Köhnlechner, acquired the entire Universum Film AG from Deutsche Bank, which had previously been the main Ufa shareholder and which had determined the company's business policy as head of the shareholders' consortium. Köhnlechner bought Ufa, which was strongly in debt, on behalf of Reinhard Mohn for roughly five million Deutschmarks. (Köhnlechner: "The question came up as to why not take the entire thing, it still had many gems"). Only a few months later, Köhnlechner also acquired the Ufa-Filmtheaterkette, a movie theater chain, for almost eleven million Deutschmarks.

Today, UFA GmbH (UFA) is the parent company uniting all production activities of Bertelsmann/FremantleMedia in Germany. Up until August 2013, eight subsidiaries operated under the UFA umbrella: UFA Fernsehproduktion, UFA Entertainment, Grundy UFA, Grundy Light Entertainment, UFA Cinema, Teamworx, Phoenix Film and UFA Brand Communication.
In August 2013, UFA underwent an organizational restructuring that simplified the company down to three production divisions. Today, UFA Fiction, UFA Serial Drama and UFA Show & Factual are the three units responsible for production.

Best films

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets
(2017) The Grey
The Grey
(2012) The Counterfeiters
The Counterfeiters
(2007) The Big Picture
The Big Picture
(2010) The Race
The Race
(2002) Maya the Bee Movie
Maya the Bee Movie
(2014)
See more : Wikipedia

Filmography of Universum Film AG (348 films)

Display filmography as list

Production

To New Shores
To New Shores (1937)
, 1h46
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Genres Drama, Melodrama
Themes Seafaring films, Prison films, Transport films
Actors Zarah Leander, Willy Birgel, Viktor Staal, Carola Höhn, Jakob Tiedtke, Robert Dorsay

Gloria Vane, a singer in Victorian London, takes the blame for her aristocratic lover Sir Albert Finsbury's forging of cheques. She is sentenced to be transported to Australia. Sir Albert then refuses to marry her, which would have allowed her to be released from prison, because he has made a more important strategic match with Mary Jones, the daughter of the Governor of Sydney. Eventually Gloria marries a local farmer Henry Hoyer and goes to settle in rural Australia with him. Filled with remorse, Sir Albert shoots himself.
Operation Michael
Operation Michael (1937)

Genres Drama
Themes Political films, Films based on plays
Actors Heinrich George, Paul Otto, Willy Birgel, Mathias Wieman, Hannes Stelzer, Heinz Welzel

The film is set in the First World War and is based on a 1932 play by Hans Fritz von Zwehl (Frühlingsschlacht, 'Spring Battle', originally also titled Unternehmen Michael) about the German offensive Operation Michael during the First World War, which was launched on 21 March 1918. The British are in possession of the village of Beaurevoir. The Germans plan to send in assault troops to take the village, but their commanding officer, Captain Hill, is injured the night before. A desk officer, Major zur Linden (Mathias Wieman), volunteers to lead the mission. The unit succeed but find themselves surrounded by the enemy. They discuss their options and Major zur Linden's advocacy of a heroic death for the sake of their country wins out over the defeatist and the traditional military pragmatist; the Germans declare a ceasefire and then the commanding general, in full knowledge, gives the order for their artillery to bombard the village as the British are storming it, thereby sacrificing their own men in order to kill the enemy. The sacrifice is not in vain; it enables the Germans to push forward to the British fortress, the 'Labyrinth'.
La Chanson du Souvenir
La Chanson du Souvenir (1937)

Directed by Douglas Sirk, Serge de Poligny
Origin German
Genres Drama, Comedy, Romantic comedy
Actors Marta Eggerth, Colette Darfeuil, Pierre Magnier, Germaine Laugier, Marcel Simon, Félix Oudart

Dans une petite principauté d’Europe centrale, au milieu du XIX siècle, la jolie chanteuse Christine Holm est invitée à chanter au concert de cour du Prince. Le charme de Christine séduit le lieutenant Walter d'Arnegg, fils du ministre d'État de son Altesse. Mais leur liaison fait scandale et Christine doit partir. Elle en est d'autant plus désolée qu'elle pensait découvrir l'identité de son père dont elle ne sait rien, dans ce petit État où sa mère, chanteuse elle aussi, était venue chanter bien des années auparavant. Apprenant l'annulation de son concert, le Prince la fait rappeler et demande à la connaître. Charmé à son tour, le Prince promet de l'aider dans ses recherches sur son père. Le seul indice dont dispose Christine est une chanson que chantait sa mère à l'homme qu'elle aimait. Le Prince reconnaît la chanson et se souvient de son aventure amoureuse avec une belle chanteuse, 25 ans auparavant : Christine est sa fille, elle chantera le soir au concert de cour, et épousera le lieutenant Walter.
Wells in Flames
Wells in Flames (1937)
, 1h25
Directed by Victor Tourjanski
Actors Josseline Gaël, George Rigaud, Suzy Vernon, Raymond Aimos, Jacques Dumesnil, Jeanne Lion

Jacques effectue sans succès des forages pour une compagnie pétrolière. Le dernier jour de sa mission, il trouve enfin une nappe de pétrole. Mais il a un ennemi qui fait exploser le puits.
La Peau d'un autre
La Peau d'un autre (1937)
, 1h30
Directed by René Pujol
Origin France
Genres Comedy
Actors André Lefaur, Blanchette Brunoy, Armand Bernard, Ginette Gaubert, Ginette Leclerc, Pierre Palau

Le très chic couturier parisien Jean Granet a des ennuis avec la police, et va se retrouver incarcéré pendant deux semaines, en province, pour excès de vitesse. Il parvient à se faire remplacer par son ami Lambelin qui, moyennant finance, va purger la peine à sa place. C'est le début d'une suite de quiproquo.
Un mauvais garçon
Un mauvais garçon (1936)
, 1h30
Directed by Jean Boyer, Raoul Ploquin
Origin France
Genres Musical theatre, Musical
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Danielle Darrieux, André Alerme, Marguerite Templey, Madeleine Suffel, Léon Arvel, Lucien Callamand

A young female lawyer refuses to get married as she thinks only of her work. But soon her father sends a crook so that she dedicates herself. Gradually, she begins to love the charming swindler.
Final Accord
Final Accord (1936)
, 1h42
Directed by Douglas Sirk
Genres Drama, Musical
Actors Lil Dagover, Willy Birgel, Maria Koppenhöfer, Maria von Tasnady, Theodor Loos, Kurt Meisel

At a New Year's Eve party in New York, Hanna Müller (Maria von Tasnady) is informed that her husband has been found dead in Central Park, presumably a suicide. The couple had left Germany because he had embezzled money. Meanwhile, the young son they left behind in an orphanage, Peter, is adopted by Erich Garvenberg (Willy Birgel), a famous conductor, and his wife Charlotte (Lil Dagover), who is having an affair with an astrologer, Gregor Carl-Otto. Hanna Müller goes to the orphanage to enquire after her son and Erich Garvenberg hires her as a nanny. They grow close through their love for the boy. Charlotte Garvenberg learns of Müller's husband's criminality and fires her. Müller returns to abduct her son, but Charlotte, who is being blackmailed by Carl-Otto, overdoses on morphine and dies. Müller administered the drug and is suspected of murder, but at the trial a maid reveals that Charlotte had said she was committing suicide. Hanna and Erich Garvenberg can now marry.
Ave Maria
Ave Maria (1936)
, 1h28
Origin German
Genres Drama
Themes Films about music and musicians, Musical films
Actors Käthe von Nagy, Paul Henckels, Carl Auen, Elisabeth Neumann-Viertel, Herbert Hübner, Emmerich Hanus

Tino Dossi (Beniamino Gigli), a wealthy, famous, and older opera singer, is grieving over the terrible loss of his wife, a devoted French woman. Each year, he travels to Paris to visit her grave, but one year he is forced to go a concert his manager has arranged. While enjoying the concert, his manager visits a seedy night club and, while drunk, tells a cabaret entertainer, and her lover, that the singer is very unhappy and also wealthy.