Petrolio
PETROLIO is a production cooperative founded in 2012 by Hannes Lang, Carmen Losmann and Mareike Wegener. PETROLIO stands for independent, critical and artistic cinema and for the development and realization of films that the filmmakers see as an instrument for discovering, observing, dissecting and rearranging that which can be made visible. The company is based in Cologne, where the business is run by Hannes Lang and Mareike Wegener.
Hannes Lang, Mareike Wegener and Carmen Losmann are graduates from the Academy of Media Arts Cologne, where they studied film, in particular documentary film. After graduating, they each made their debut with their own feature-length documentaries: Carmen Losmann with WORK HARD PLAY HARD (2011), Hannes Lang with PEAK (2011) and Mareike Wegener with MARK LOMBARDI - DEATH DEFYING ACTS OF ART AND CONSPIRACY (2012). In 2012, they joined forces to produce future film projects independently and collectively. The following year PETROLIO received a grant from the Mediengründerzentrum NRW, which supported the company's launch.
The production debut I WANT TO SEE THE MANAGER, a feature-length cinema-destined documentary by Hannes Lang, celebrated its world premiere at the Danish CPH:DOX in 2014. PETROLIO's second production was also directed by Hannes Lang: RIAFN, a 30-minute documentary musical, premiered at Visions du Réel in April 2019, screened at various festivals and received multiple awards. In 2020, Carmen Losmann's second feature-length documentary and PETROLIO's third completed film OECONOMIA celebrated its world premiere at the Berlinale in the "Forum" section. The film was subsequently awarded the Grimme Prize, among others. Mareike Wegener's short film X premiered in the German Competition of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen in 2021 and was nominated for the German Short Film Award. Wegener's film ECHO is PETROLIO's first feature film and was invited to the Berlinale in 2022.