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 1978 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.