Berlin, where he finished shooting the last scenes. Consequently, the biographer Thomas Elsaesser called the production of the film "one of Fassbinder's least happy experiences" and Berlin "one of the decisive self-destructive episodes in Rainer's life". Distribution and reception Release In parallel to the preparations for the production of Berlin Alexanderplatz Fassbinder worked with film editor Juliane Lorenz on the editing and post-production of The Marriage of Maria Braun. The failure of Despair at the Cannes Film Festival in May 1978 spurred Fassbinder to prepare an answer print overnight and to present the film on 22 May to German film producers in a private screening. Attended by, among others Horst Wendlandt, Sam Waynberg, Karl Spiehs, Günter Rohrbach and the majority shareholder of the Filmverlag der Autoren, Rudolf Augstein the screening was a success. Eckelkamp invested a further 473,000 DM to pay off the debts of the film production and became the sole owner of the rights to the film. Owning all film rights, Eckelkamp negotiated a distribution deal with United Artists, thus outmaneuvering the Filmverlag der Autoren, which was usually distributing Fassbinder's films. Hoping that The Marriage of Maria Braun might be successful at the 1979 Berlin International Film Festival Eckelkamp started a marketing campaign and decided to release the film theatrically in March. Commissioned by Eckelkamp, the author Gerhard Zwerenz novelized the film. It was published in several weekly installments in the magazine Der Stern from March over a period of three months, thus increasing public interest in the film. The official premiere of the film was on 20 February during the 29th Berlin International Film Festival. The West German theatrical release was on 23 March. At the Berlin International Film Festival Hanna Schygulla won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, which did not satisfy Fassbinder who expected to win the Golden Bear. Contemporary reception German film critics responded very positively to the film and praised the film's combination of artistic values with mass appeal. In the weekly newspaper Die Zeit Hans-Christoph Blumenberg called the film "the most accessible (and thus most commercial) and mature work of the director". Karena Niehoff wrote in the daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung that The Marriage of Maria Braun "is a charming and even amusing film, at the same time extraordinarily artful, artificial and full of twists and turns". Hanna Schygulla was praised by many film critics. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung on 23 March