With his latest film in tow, Thomas Grube visited the Palm Springs International Film Festival in California, where TRIP TO ASIA | THE QUEST FOR HARMONY captured the hearts of the audience in no time.

With actress Maria Dinulescu and programmer Alissa Simon (left)

TRIP TO ASIA made it as “Best of Fest” and was the third popular film by audience vote. The 20th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF), which ran from January 6-19, 2009, showcased 208 films from 73 countries and set new records in attendance, which rose to 129,677 attendees up 3% from last year.

Also great news is the nomination of the TRIP TO ASIA DVD for the German Hörfilmpreis. A prize awarded to the film with the best descriptive audio track. This purpose-made track with audio descriptive comments is featured on the TRIP TO ASIA DVD and enables visually impaired people to join the fascinating journey of the Berliner Philharmoniker. The award ceremony will take place on March 19 in Berlin.

Furthermore, we congratulate the TRIP TO ASIA cameramen Anthony Dod Mantle and Stefan Ciupek for the Oscar nomination for best camera in Danny Boyle’s SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE. Anthony was the DoP on this production. Stefan was responsible as camera operator. The film already won at the Golden Globes in all four previously nominated categories and is evaluated as promising candidate for the Oscar category Best Picture. In total, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE is Oscar nominated in ten categories!

And what else is going to come up this year?

TRIP TO ASIA will be released in cinemas in the U.K., the U.S., Poland and New Zealand. We are expecting the worldwide release of TRIP TO ASIA and RHYTHM IS IT! on BlueRay-DVD and our new cinema films PORGY & ME and PEACE PUNCH will be released in German cinemas. Parallel we are looking forward to new inspiring projects, like the cinema documentaries STONE | THE BONES OF THE EARTH by Wilhelm Moser and CLOSER TO GOD by the Swiss director Annette Berger, who will both take us to the world’s most mystical places.