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Berlin International Film Festival
NAME OF FESTIVAL: Berlin International Film Festival
SINCE: 1951
WHERE: Berlin, Germany, Europe
ABOUT THE FESTIVAL
The Berlinale is a unique place of artistic exploration and entertainment. It is one of the largest public film festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe each year. For the film industry and the media, the eleven days in February are also one of the most important events in the annual calendar and an indispensable trading forum.
The Berlin International Film Festival enjoys an eventful history. The festival was created for the Berlin public in 1951, at the beginning of the Cold War, as a “showcase of the free world”. Shaped by the turbulent post-war period and the unique situation of a divided city, the Berlinale has developed into a place of intercultural exchange and a platform for the critical cinematic exploration of social issues. To this day it is considered the most political of all the major film festivals.
25 films from 21 countries will compete for the Golden Bear for Best Short Film and the Silver Bear Jury Prize at the upcoming Berlin International Film Festval. The films on the lineup range in subjects from groups of men clenching pump guns against their chests AS LONG AS SHOTGUNS REMAIN (Tant qu’il nous reste des fusils à pompe), and naked women running with broad smiles through Macao’s pristine nature TAPROBANA, to parents from the Cuban countryside trying to comprehend their twelve-year-old son’s suicide A PARADISE (Un Paraíso).
Daniel Ribeiro’s Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (The Way He Looks)
19 films have been invited to join the lineup for Panorama 2014 at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival taking place February 6 to 16, 2014. Jalil Lespert’s latest film YVES SAINT LAURENT has been selected to open the Panorama Special program. Other films confirmed to date are new works by Michel Gondry, Kutluğ Ataman, Robert Lepage, Sophie Fillières, Benjamin Heisenberg, Maximilian Erlenwein, John Michael McDonagh, and Tsai Ming-liang. Directorial debuts from the USA includes THINGS PEOPLE DO by Saar Klein and THE BETTER ANGELS by A. J. Edwards. Films from Latin America include two Brazilian productions – Daniel Ribeiro’s Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (THE WAY HE LOOKS), and Marcelo Gomes’ and Cao Guimarães’ O Homem das Multidões (THE MAN OF THE CROWD).
Volume I of the long uncut version of Lars von Trier’s NYMPHOMANIAC, will World Premiere in out of competition at the 64th Berlin International Film Festival, taking place February 6 to 16, 2014. The shorter version approved by Lars von Trier will open worldwide in cinemas starting December 25, 2013.
The first seven films have been selected for the Competition program of the 64th Berlin International Film Festival taking place February 6 to 16, 2014. Joining opening film GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL directed by Wes Anderson, and George Clooney’s MONUMENTS MEN screening in out-of-competition, are ‘71 by Yann Demange, LIFE OF RILEY by Alain Resnais, ALOFT by Claudia Llosa and starring Jennifer Connelly, DIE GELIEBTEN SCHWESTERN by Dominik Graf, and STRATOS by Yannis Economides. As part of the official program, an additional four films have been invited to screen in the Berlinale Special program
The 64th Berlin International Film Festival will open on February 6, 2014 with the world premiere of Wes Anderson’s THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL. THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL,shot on location in Germany, recounts the adventures of Gustave H, a legendary concierge at a famous European hotel between the wars, and Zero Moustafa, the lobby boy who becomes his most trusted friend.
Poziţia Copilului Child’s Pose by Călin Peter Netzer
The 63rd Berlin International Film Festival came to a close with the presentation of the awards. The Romanian film Poziţia Copilului, (Child’s Pose) by Călin Peter Netzer took the top prize, GOLDEN BEAR for the Best Film. The Bosnian film Epizoda u životu berača željeza, (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker) by Danis Tanović was awarded the JURY GRAND PRIX (Silver Bear).
In Poziţia Copilului, (Child’s Pose), Călin Peter Netzer portrays a mother consumed by self-love in her struggle to save her lost son and her own, long since riven family, after he son is arrested. One cold evening in March, Barbu is tearing down the streets 50 kilometres per hour over the speed limit when he knocks down a child. The boy dies shortly after the accident. A prison sentence of between three and fifteen years awaits. High time for his mother, Cornelia, to intervene. A trained architect and member of Romania’s upper class, who graces her bookshelves with unread Herta Müller novels and is fond of flashing her purse full of credit cards, she commences her campaign to save her lethargic, languishing son. Bribes, she hopes, will persuade the witnesses to give false statements. Even the parents of the dead child might be appeased by some cash. In quasi-documentary style, the film meticulously reconstructs the events of one night and the days that follow, providing insights into the moral malaise of Romania’s bourgeoisie and throwing into sharp relief the state of societal institutions such as the police and the judiciary.
Danis Tanović weaves dramatic events, including economic hardship and fear of death into a wintery tale in Epizoda u životu berača željeza, (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker). Featuring a non-professional cast re-enacting an episode from their own lives contributes greatly to the film’s sense of authenticity and social realism.
THE AWARDS OF THE 63rd BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL
Baby Blues by Kasia Rosłaniec, Poland 2012, was awarded the Crystal Bear for the Best Film by the the members of the Youth Jury in Generation 14plus at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival. The jury commented, “In this film we were completely unprepared for the extreme way the story unfolds. Its bold editing style, colorful cinematography and innovative direction gave the film great dynamism. The film showed us strong and complex characters who often behaved in contradictory ways. These teenagers seem to be unable to acknowledge their mistakes and take responsibility for them. They are caught between the desire for freedom and the duties of being a young parent.”
The members of the new International Jury Generation 14plus awarded The Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury for the best feature film, to Shopping by Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland, New Zealand 2013. The Jury described the film as ” An extremely compelling first film with a fantastic lead actor. We loved watching him on screen and felt a deep empathy with him. Sharp editing, strong visual choices and a complex, painful and loving portrayal of family. We appreciated the specificity of the world you brought us into. Your dedication to your vision is palpable.”
The Generation 14plus competition at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, will open with the world premiere of the Turkish entry Jîn by Reha Erdem (Kosmos, Berlinale 2010). The director and his leading actress, Deniz Hasgüler, who plays a young fighter caught between the fronts in Turkey’s Kurdish regions, will be in attendance. The Dutch-Belgian co-production Nono, Het Zigzag Kind (The Zigzag Kid) by Vincent Bal will kick off the competition of Generation Kplus. Isabella Rossellini and Burghart Klaussner (Das weisse Band) are […]
The Panorama section lineup for the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival is now officially complete with a total of 52 feature films. 16 films are showing in the main program, another 16 are in Panorama Special, 20 features are screening in Panorama Dokumente and two short films will be shown as supplements.
Ayer no termina nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) by Isabel Coixet, is the last addition to the Panorama Special section. “Spain is at the lowest point of the crisis, more than seven million people are unemployed. A couple meet at their son’s grave, which has to make way for a new casino town. Anger, hatred and bitterness erupt. A nightmarish film that goes far beyond personal grief to evoke the end of a society.”
The Panorama Dokumente will open with the world premiere of a Swedish documentary, Simon Klose’s TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away from Keyboard. “In the early years of the 21st century, the Pirate Bay, a Swedish file sharing platform that allows Internet users to share films and music, grew enormously. The trial against the founders appears to be an unequal fight between Hollywood and three open-minded computer hackers, who come across very differently in Klose’s film than Hollywood’s media lawyers depict them. The film will be released for free online at the same time as it premieres in Panorama.”
The following newly announced titles, completes the line-up of films:
The Perspektive Deutsches Kino program at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival will open with Stephan Lacant’s film Freier Fall. Max Riemelt (Kay), Katharina Schüttler (Bettina) and Hanno Koffler (Marc) are the protagonists in a love triangle, in which Marc and Bettina are expecting a child at the same time as Marc falls in love with his colleague Kay.
Three of the fictional films – Silvi (directed by Nico Sommer), DeAD (directed by Sven Halfar) andEndzeit (directed by Sebastian Fritzsch) – were self-produced by their respective filmmakers. Silvi is unmistakably set in Berlin. In it the 47-year-old title character (Lina Wendel) starts afresh after separating from her partner. DeAD is exquisite pulp fiction from Hamburg: following his mother’s suicide, cool Patrick (Tilman Strauß) shows up at his unknown father’s 60th birthday party and immediately makes it clear that things are about to escalate. And Endzeit depicts survival after a catastrophe, when a young woman (Anne von Keller) turns hunter to still her hunger.
Two fictional film-academy works explore the boundaries between fictional and documentary film. Anne Zohra Berrached’s Zwei Mütter portrays in an almost documentary style a couple’s wish for a child (Sabine Wolf and Karina Plachetka) and their discovery that most sperm banks do not provide services to same-sex couples. In his 60-minute film Die Wiedergänger, director Andreas Bolm avoids presenting the world in documentary form, but instead seeks the point where fiction begins. The outcome is an artistically austere film about loss and eternal return.
Another nine films have been selected for the Competition Programme of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival. Among the nine films is the International Premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum and the World Premiere of Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi’s Parde (Closed Curtain).
The 8th Forum Expanded film program of the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival will feature the work of Isabella Rossellini, Brazilian artist Hélio Oiticica, and Richard Foreman. Isabella Rossellini returns to the festival to showcase her new work, Mammas, described as the continuation of the Green Porno series of short films, which she presented at the Berlinale in 2008. Once again, the actress and director takes on a broad range of different animal roles – this time round in order […]
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La Casona (The Big House) by Juliette Touin
