This year’s Berlinale continued the tradition of combining earnestness with red-carpet glamour – featuring Kristen Stewart, Bono and Steven Spielberg, and this time some real crowd pleasers
Berlin may not be as glitzy as the other big European festivals, Cannes and Venice, but it knows how to make the most of what you might call “ethical starpower”. Hence Steven Spielberg, present this year to accept the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement, who made an eloquent and imposing speech about longevity, healing and – as befits the locale – the weight of history. And hence serious-minded Hollywood actor Kristen Stewart heading a jury including Iranian-French star Golshifteh Farahani and previous Berlinale-winning directors Carla Simón and Radu Jude – a lineup that seems highly likely to make some daring awards choices.
But there’s also that long-standing Berlinale tradition of combining red-carpet prestige with a certain earnestness that doesn’t always flourish on the screen.
Berlin may not be as glitzy as the other big European festivals, Cannes and Venice, but it knows how to make the most of what you might call “ethical starpower”. Hence Steven Spielberg, present this year to accept the Golden Bear for lifetime achievement, who made an eloquent and imposing speech about longevity, healing and – as befits the locale – the weight of history. And hence serious-minded Hollywood actor Kristen Stewart heading a jury including Iranian-French star Golshifteh Farahani and previous Berlinale-winning directors Carla Simón and Radu Jude – a lineup that seems highly likely to make some daring awards choices.
But there’s also that long-standing Berlinale tradition of combining red-carpet prestige with a certain earnestness that doesn’t always flourish on the screen.
- 2/25/2023
- by Jonathan Romney
- The Guardian - Film News
Project is directed by Suzanne Raes.
German documentary sales outfit Deckert Distribution has picked up world rights to Close To Vermeer directed by Suzanne Raes, and has already closed a first deal on the film with US distributor Kino Lorber.
The feature documentary follows the curation of the biggest ever exhibition devoted exclusively to the Dutch master painter. Taking place in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and to run until June this year, the event has sold out all first tickets in record time.
The deal with Kino Lorber was negotiated by doc consultant Jan Rofekamp and Deckert Distribution’s Liselot Verbrugge.
German documentary sales outfit Deckert Distribution has picked up world rights to Close To Vermeer directed by Suzanne Raes, and has already closed a first deal on the film with US distributor Kino Lorber.
The feature documentary follows the curation of the biggest ever exhibition devoted exclusively to the Dutch master painter. Taking place in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum and to run until June this year, the event has sold out all first tickets in record time.
The deal with Kino Lorber was negotiated by doc consultant Jan Rofekamp and Deckert Distribution’s Liselot Verbrugge.
- 2/21/2023
- by Geoffrey Macnab
- ScreenDaily
This year, Latvia is sharing a spotlight with neighboring Lithuania and Estonia at the European Film Market, which has dedicated its 2023 Country in Focus Spotlight to the Baltic nations. It’s a sign of the tremendous strides the country has taken to put itself on the world cinema map, with the screen industries both producing more films and TV series than ever before and luring increasingly ambitious international projects to Northeastern Europe.
Here’s a rundown of some of the top Latvian projects in the pipeline that their producers will be pitching in Berlin:
Blue Blood
Director: Juris Kursietis
Producers: White Picture, Stellar Film, Asterisk*
The follow-up to Kursietis’ Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “Oleg” is the story of a successful couple whose comfortable life is turned upside-down when the husband is implicated in a massive corruption scandal.
Sales: N/A
Soviet Milk
Director: Ināra Kolmane
Producers: Jānis Juhņēvičs, Marta Romanova-Jēkabsone...
Here’s a rundown of some of the top Latvian projects in the pipeline that their producers will be pitching in Berlin:
Blue Blood
Director: Juris Kursietis
Producers: White Picture, Stellar Film, Asterisk*
The follow-up to Kursietis’ Cannes Directors’ Fortnight player “Oleg” is the story of a successful couple whose comfortable life is turned upside-down when the husband is implicated in a massive corruption scandal.
Sales: N/A
Soviet Milk
Director: Ināra Kolmane
Producers: Jānis Juhņēvičs, Marta Romanova-Jēkabsone...
- 2/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When the European Film Market kicks off in Berlin on Feb. 16, the three Baltic nations of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will share the stage as the EFM’s joint Countries in Focus. The showcase, which is supported by the Estonian Film Institute, the National Film Center of Latvia and the Lithuanian Film Center, will offer a range of events within the framework of the EFM, along with a selection of market premieres and screenings of Baltic films already making waves on the festival circuit. Twelve up-and-coming Baltic producers will also be presented to the international industry during a happy hour on Feb. 17 in the Gropius Bas.
Here’s a selection of Baltic buzz titles that the region’s top producers will be taking to Berlin:
Last Sentinel
Director: Tanel Toom
Producers: Ben Pullen, Ivo Felt, Jörg Bundschuh, Pippa Cross, Matthew James Wilkinson
Kate Bosworth stars in this sci-fi thriller from...
Here’s a selection of Baltic buzz titles that the region’s top producers will be taking to Berlin:
Last Sentinel
Director: Tanel Toom
Producers: Ben Pullen, Ivo Felt, Jörg Bundschuh, Pippa Cross, Matthew James Wilkinson
Kate Bosworth stars in this sci-fi thriller from...
- 2/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
When a young Viesturs Kairiss started to dream about becoming a filmmaker thirty-some-odd years ago, he knew his path wouldn’t be straightforward or easy. Before the fall of the Soviet Union, aspiring Latvian directors would have to travel to Moscow or St. Petersburg to enroll in venerable Soviet film schools. After independence, Kairiss was among the first class of graduates from the newly launched film studies program at the Latvian Academy of Culture, one of many ways in which the small Baltic republic attempted to assert its own identity after half a century of Soviet rule.
“We didn’t have any technique,” Kairiss admits of he and his film school peers, laughing. For his first feature film, “Leaving by the Way” (2001), he enlisted friends for below-the-line work and recruited actors from the local theater school. When the film bowed in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival,...
“We didn’t have any technique,” Kairiss admits of he and his film school peers, laughing. For his first feature film, “Leaving by the Way” (2001), he enlisted friends for below-the-line work and recruited actors from the local theater school. When the film bowed in the Crystal Globe competition at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival,...
- 2/17/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
There’s been no shortage of moral support for the Ukrainian cause since Russia’s unprovoked invasion last year, and the country’s beleaguered screen industry has gotten a much-needed boost from foreign buyers. Ukrainian documentaries are doing brisk business as global audiences search for broader context on the conflict, while even narrative features that hit the festival circuit last year are finding a home with specialty distributors.
As the war drags into its second year, however, the Ukrainian industry is at an inflection point. Russia’s relentless attacks on critical infrastructure continue to wreak havoc on the country’s power grid and force film crews to work under constant threat. The theatrical market has collapsed, broadcasters and streaming platforms are virtually bankrupt, and public money that might have once bolstered film and TV production is being diverted to the war effort instead.
There is an awareness, too, among Ukrainian...
As the war drags into its second year, however, the Ukrainian industry is at an inflection point. Russia’s relentless attacks on critical infrastructure continue to wreak havoc on the country’s power grid and force film crews to work under constant threat. The theatrical market has collapsed, broadcasters and streaming platforms are virtually bankrupt, and public money that might have once bolstered film and TV production is being diverted to the war effort instead.
There is an awareness, too, among Ukrainian...
- 2/16/2023
- by Christopher Vourlias
- Variety Film + TV
The Berlin Film Festival, held every year in February, the cruelest month of the German winter, has never been able to match the Mediterranean flair of Cannes or Venice, or the laid-back indie cool of Sundance. But when it comes to serious movies, few festivals, big or small, can match the Berlinale.
In place of the big blockbuster movies, Berlin has doubled down on political dramas and documentaries that focus on the real troubles of the world. The war in Ukraine — launched by Russia’s invasion a year ago — will be on screens everywhere this Berlinale. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s documentary Superpower, shot just before and after Russia’s invasion, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Special Screening section and there are three more Ukraine documentaries — Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies, Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko’s doc Eastern Front,...
In place of the big blockbuster movies, Berlin has doubled down on political dramas and documentaries that focus on the real troubles of the world. The war in Ukraine — launched by Russia’s invasion a year ago — will be on screens everywhere this Berlinale. Sean Penn and Aaron Kaufmann’s documentary Superpower, shot just before and after Russia’s invasion, and featuring several interviews with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, will have its world premiere in Berlin’s Special Screening section and there are three more Ukraine documentaries — Roman Liubyi’s Iron Butterflies, Vitaly Mansky and Yevhen Titarenko’s doc Eastern Front,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
2023 truly begins taking shape with next month’s Berlinale, which will run from February 16 to February 26 and feature more than a few of our most-anticipated films this year. Among them are Christian Petzold’s Afire (Roter Himmel), starring new muse Paula Beer; Hong Sangsoo’s In Water, which will appear in the Encounters section; and Philippe Garrel’s The Plough, once known as La lune crevée starring his three children Louis, Esther, and Lena, and (judging from the still) his first color feature since 2011’s A Burning Hot Summer. Meanwhile: Angela Schanelec will return with Music, and––six years after the wonderful Person to Person––it’s nice spotting a new feature from Dustin Guy Defa, The Adults.
Find the lineup below and head back next month for our coverage of the festival headed by Kristen Stewart’s jury.
Competition
20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
The Shadowless Tower (Zhang...
Find the lineup below and head back next month for our coverage of the festival headed by Kristen Stewart’s jury.
Competition
20,000 Species of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
The Shadowless Tower (Zhang...
- 1/23/2023
- by Leonard Pearce
- The Film Stage
The Berlin Film Festival on Monday said that Sean Penn will debut the documentary he shot in Ukraine with Volodymyr Zelenskyy at Berlin next month.
Related Story Berlin Film Festival Lineup: Sean Penn, Philippe Garrel, Margarethe Von Trotta & Christian Petzold In Competition — Full List Related Story Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live Related Story Berlin Co-Heads On Securing U.S. Star Power, Asia's Return & Iran-Russia Bans: "One Of Our Goals Was To Bring Back The Glamorous Side That Was Missing"
The doc is titled Superpower and documents Ukraine and President Zelenskyy at the start of Russia’s invasion. Penn shares a co-director credit with Aaron Kaufman.
Introducing the doc, Berlin artistic director Carlo Chatrian said: “This is a documentary film done under very difficult circumstances, but it is also a film that tells the role of art and artists in difficult times.”
Chatrian added that the film features...
Related Story Berlin Film Festival Lineup: Sean Penn, Philippe Garrel, Margarethe Von Trotta & Christian Petzold In Competition — Full List Related Story Berlin Film Festival: Watch Competition Lineup Revealed Live Related Story Berlin Co-Heads On Securing U.S. Star Power, Asia's Return & Iran-Russia Bans: "One Of Our Goals Was To Bring Back The Glamorous Side That Was Missing"
The doc is titled Superpower and documents Ukraine and President Zelenskyy at the start of Russia’s invasion. Penn shares a co-director credit with Aaron Kaufman.
Introducing the doc, Berlin artistic director Carlo Chatrian said: “This is a documentary film done under very difficult circumstances, but it is also a film that tells the role of art and artists in difficult times.”
Chatrian added that the film features...
- 1/23/2023
- by Zac Ntim
- Deadline Film + TV
18 titles selected for competition, including films by Christian Petzold, Emily Atef, Margarethe Von Trotta and Philippe Garrel.
The 18-strong Competition line-up for the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival has been announced by festival heads Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek.
Scroll down for full list
New films from Christian Petzold, Margarethe Von Trotte, Emily Atef and Lila Avilés are among those selected. Some 15 of the 18 titles are world premieres, with international premieres for Celine Song’s Past Lives after debuting to strong reviews at Sundance; Makoto Shinkai’s animation Suzume, released in Japan last November; and Australia’s The Survival Of Kindness by Rolf de Heer,...
The 18-strong Competition line-up for the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival has been announced by festival heads Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek.
Scroll down for full list
New films from Christian Petzold, Margarethe Von Trotte, Emily Atef and Lila Avilés are among those selected. Some 15 of the 18 titles are world premieres, with international premieres for Celine Song’s Past Lives after debuting to strong reviews at Sundance; Makoto Shinkai’s animation Suzume, released in Japan last November; and Australia’s The Survival Of Kindness by Rolf de Heer,...
- 1/23/2023
- by Michael Rosser
- ScreenDaily
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