The Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its full juries for the 2024 edition (February 16-24), with Italian actress Jasmine Trinca and German filmmaker Christian Petzold among those joining president Lupita Nyong’o on the main international jury.
Also on the jury are filmmakers Ann Hui (Hong Kong) and Albert Serra (Spain) alongside Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.
The international jury will select the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears from the 20 films playing in Competition.
The three-member jury for the Encounters strand comprises filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).
The Encounters jury will choose the winners of best film,...
Also on the jury are filmmakers Ann Hui (Hong Kong) and Albert Serra (Spain) alongside Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.
The international jury will select the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears from the 20 films playing in Competition.
The three-member jury for the Encounters strand comprises filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).
The Encounters jury will choose the winners of best film,...
- 2/1/2024
- ScreenDaily
The international jury at the 74th Berlin Film Festival, led by Lupita Nyong’o, will include filmmakers Christian Petzold (Germany) and Ann Hui.
The international jury members also include actor-producer-director Brady Corbet (U.S.), filmmaker Albert Serra (Spain), actor-director Jasmine Trinca (Italy) and writer Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine). They will decide who will win the festival’s Golden and the Silver Bears.
The three-member jury that chooses the winners for best film, director and the special jury award at the Berlinale’s Encounters strand is made up of filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).
Director and screenwriter Ilker Çatak (Germany), sound artist and researcher Xabier Erkizia (Spain) and director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer Jennifer Reeder (U.S.) are the international short film jury for the 2024 Berlinale Shorts competition. They will be choosing the winner of the Golden Bear for best short film, the winner of the...
The international jury members also include actor-producer-director Brady Corbet (U.S.), filmmaker Albert Serra (Spain), actor-director Jasmine Trinca (Italy) and writer Oksana Zabuzhko (Ukraine). They will decide who will win the festival’s Golden and the Silver Bears.
The three-member jury that chooses the winners for best film, director and the special jury award at the Berlinale’s Encounters strand is made up of filmmakers Lisandro Alonso (Argentina), Denis Côté (Canada) and Tizza Covi (Italy).
Director and screenwriter Ilker Çatak (Germany), sound artist and researcher Xabier Erkizia (Spain) and director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer Jennifer Reeder (U.S.) are the international short film jury for the 2024 Berlinale Shorts competition. They will be choosing the winner of the Golden Bear for best short film, the winner of the...
- 2/1/2024
- by Naman Ramachandran
- Variety Film + TV
Deckert Distribution CEO Liselot Verbrugge is to launch a new company as the German sales agency prepares to wind down its operations in 2024, with founder Heino Deckert moving fully to production. Verbrugge is attending IDFA documentary festival this week, where the Sundance awarded film “Against the Tide,” one of the agency’s bestsellers this year, is playing in the Best of Fest section.
Amsterdam-based Verbrugge joined Deckert at the start of 2019 as head of sales and acquisition, starting with the roll out of double Academy Award nominated “Honeyland.” She took over the reins of the company as CEO two years ago.
Verbrugge commented: “I am very happy with what we managed to build over the last few years here. But with the company officially residing in Leipzig, there were certain practical elements that became obstacles. Both in the legal sense of running a company from another country, as in sharing...
Amsterdam-based Verbrugge joined Deckert at the start of 2019 as head of sales and acquisition, starting with the roll out of double Academy Award nominated “Honeyland.” She took over the reins of the company as CEO two years ago.
Verbrugge commented: “I am very happy with what we managed to build over the last few years here. But with the company officially residing in Leipzig, there were certain practical elements that became obstacles. Both in the legal sense of running a company from another country, as in sharing...
- 11/9/2023
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Without going into the specifics of the obstacles that were overcome by the heroic efforts of film distributors, 2020 was a stronger year for films released in the United States than could have been reasonably expected, though it only sparingly reached the heights of last year. Note the specific term “released”: all of the films on my list premiered before 2020 even began, which only further heightens the importance of both the festival circuit and the people dedicated to giving films their proper due, whether it be in repertory theaters or in virtual cinemas. One special mention: my favorite film released this year from the previous decade is Hong Sang-soo’s Yourself and Yours, which premiered in 2016 but only just received a release; my personal eligibility rules limit the films on this list to a two-year window, but otherwise it would be at the very top of this list.
Honorable Mentions: Lovers Rock,...
Honorable Mentions: Lovers Rock,...
- 1/2/2021
- by Ryan Swen
- The Film Stage
Frank Beauvais's Just Don't Think I'll Scream is exclusively playing on Mubi in most countries from June 25 - July 25, 2020 in Mubi's Undiscovered series.Top: Asparagus. Above: Man Is in PainThe idea of the film appeared while France was plunged into a state of emergency, following the November 2015 terrorist attacks. The police and army were everywhere, and politicians and state ideologues were, as usual in such a context, taking advantage of the situation to legitimize stronger surveillance of the population, justify questionable identity controls or searches, and distill and infuse fear amongst citizens. At that time, I was living all by myself, in a small village in Alsace not far from the German border. I had broken up a few months before and was expecting a vacancy in a friend’s flat to move back to Paris. I kept fighting with a fiction script I felt less and less inclined to develop,...
- 6/24/2020
- MUBI
Get in touch to send in cinephile news and discoveries. For daily updates follow us @NotebookMUBI.NEWSGoodbye, Dragon Inn (2003)Cancellations, closures, and cuts continue in the wake of Covid-19. Box Office Pro, Cineuropa, and Complex will be regularly updating timelines of the virus's impact on theatres and the film industry. In response to these events, website Screen Slate and New York City-based cinema Light Industry have launched the Cinema Worker Solidarity Fund, which seeks to help movie theater workers whose jobs have been affected by the closure of local cinemas. Meanwhile, the fate of this year's Cannes Film Festival remains indeterminate, with film companies planning a virtual market (and online screenings) should the festival be cancelled. Elsewhere, SXSW pushes forward by opting to distribute screening links to its jurors for award decisions. Recommended VIEWINGAll of avant-garde filmmaker Sky Hopinka's short films are now available for free, including Fainting Spells...
- 3/18/2020
- MUBI
IIf some of the most consequential filmmakers of contemporary German cinema, such as Christian Petzold, Angela Schanelec, and Thomas Arslan, to cite but a few names that are inevitably lumped together under the loosely defined term “Berlin School,” work primarily in fiction to probe in very different ways the realities of post-unification Germany, then undoubtedly one of the most significant voices working in documentary to do the same is Thomas Heise. However, unlike, for example, Petzold and Schanelec, both of whom recently enjoyed full retrospectives at Film at Lincoln Center in New York, Heise, who has been steadily making films for over three decades, has until now not enjoyed the kind of wider exposure to North American audiences that he rightly deserves. Therefore, the theatrical release of his latest film, Heimat is a Space in Time (2019), a brilliant, expansive essay that uncovers the ineradicable linkages between personal biography and national...
- 3/12/2020
- MUBI
The director’s latest documentary, the German production Heimat Is a Space in Time, has scooped the Jury Prize after the jurors discussed their verdict in front of the audience attending the gathering. On the evening of Friday 29 November, Javier Fuentes, the director of the Lanzarote Muestra Internacional de Cine (Lanzarote International Film Festival), outlined the procedure according to which the official section jury would be explaining, openly and in front of the audience, their reasoning for rewarding one of the seven titles that had been vying for the top prize at the ninth edition of the Canarian event – “because group reflection is a basic concept and must spring forth from culture”. After two hours of deliberations, in which the audience was encouraged to participate actively, the German production Heimat Is a Space in Time, the latest documentary by maestro Thomas Heise, emerged victorious, winning the €2,000 Jury Prize....
Thomas Heise’s four-hour documentary draws on the journals of his own family to construct a powerful, agonising history
The 63-year-old German film-maker and dramatist Thomas Heise has created what may possibly come to be seen as his masterpiece. I was sometimes captivated but often frustrated by this epic essay-film, a meditation on Germany and his own family history that is stark, fierce, austerely cerebral and almost four hours long.
Using letters and journals from his parents and grandparents, he recounts an agonised story of his own Jewish background, and his forebears’ experience of antisemitism in the Nazi era and then later a queasily similar pattern of bullying from the Communist party authorities in East Germany.
The 63-year-old German film-maker and dramatist Thomas Heise has created what may possibly come to be seen as his masterpiece. I was sometimes captivated but often frustrated by this epic essay-film, a meditation on Germany and his own family history that is stark, fierce, austerely cerebral and almost four hours long.
Using letters and journals from his parents and grandparents, he recounts an agonised story of his own Jewish background, and his forebears’ experience of antisemitism in the Nazi era and then later a queasily similar pattern of bullying from the Communist party authorities in East Germany.
- 11/21/2019
- by Peter Bradshaw
- The Guardian - Film News
One of the strengths of German cinema is its diversity, says Simone Baumann, managing director of the national film promotion agency German Films.
As well as the three films at Toronto directed by female German helmers, there was also German filmmaker Thomas Heise’s documentary film essay “Heimat Is a Space in Time.” Then there were the many German-funded films directed by non-Germans, including “My Zoe,” by France’s Julie Delpy, and “Guns Akimbo,” by New Zealander Jason Lei Howden.
The country is one of the world’s leading coproduction nations, which was much in evidence in Toronto – with 30 German films in the festival, including coproductions such as U.S. helmer Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Swede Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness,” and “Proxima,” by France’s Alice Winocour.
It is hard to make generalization about German cinema, a point the filmmakers make themselves. Since the heyday of the Berlin School,...
As well as the three films at Toronto directed by female German helmers, there was also German filmmaker Thomas Heise’s documentary film essay “Heimat Is a Space in Time.” Then there were the many German-funded films directed by non-Germans, including “My Zoe,” by France’s Julie Delpy, and “Guns Akimbo,” by New Zealander Jason Lei Howden.
The country is one of the world’s leading coproduction nations, which was much in evidence in Toronto – with 30 German films in the festival, including coproductions such as U.S. helmer Terrence Malick’s “A Hidden Life,” Swede Roy Andersson’s “About Endlessness,” and “Proxima,” by France’s Alice Winocour.
It is hard to make generalization about German cinema, a point the filmmakers make themselves. Since the heyday of the Berlin School,...
- 9/15/2019
- by Leo Barraclough
- Variety Film + TV
Director Thomas Heise was born and raised in East Berlin, and he’s been working long enough in documentaries that his earliest films were suppressed by Gdr censors. His understanding of the German national character is rooted in the belief in its potential for curbing freedoms at a minimum and tipping into violent nationalism and fascism in its darkest moments. Over the course of his 218-minute opus “Heimat Is a Space in Time,” Heise examines nearly 100 years of German history through the prism of his own complex genealogy, drawing on letters, diaries and other documents from throughout the 20th century. It’s an enormous undertaking for Heise — and for even the most adventurous viewers — but his essay-film
Screening in the experimental Wavelengths section at the Toronto Film Festival — as opposed to Tiff Docs, the larger repository for nonfiction — “Heimat Is a Space in Time” is notable as much for what...
Screening in the experimental Wavelengths section at the Toronto Film Festival — as opposed to Tiff Docs, the larger repository for nonfiction — “Heimat Is a Space in Time” is notable as much for what...
- 9/13/2019
- by Scott Tobias
- Variety Film + TV
Winner of the Caligari Film Prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Heimat is a Space in Time is German documentarian Thomas Heise’s absorbing look at 20th-century history in his homeland via his own family’s artifacts — most notably astonishingly intimate letters that sweep us from the rise of Nazism, to the Cold War division of the country, to life on the Stasi-controlled side of the Berlin Wall. Three generations of firsthand accounts, read in unobtrusive voiceover, are gracefully interwoven with family photos and archival images to create a nearly three-and-a-half-hour cinematic epic — one that unfolds in digestible parts like a […]...
- 9/6/2019
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine - Blog
Winner of the Caligari Film Prize at this year’s Berlin Film Festival, Heimat is a Space in Time is German documentarian Thomas Heise’s absorbing look at 20th-century history in his homeland via his own family’s artifacts — most notably astonishingly intimate letters that sweep us from the rise of Nazism, to the Cold War division of the country, to life on the Stasi-controlled side of the Berlin Wall. Three generations of firsthand accounts, read in unobtrusive voiceover, are gracefully interwoven with family photos and archival images to create a nearly three-and-a-half-hour cinematic epic — one that unfolds in digestible parts like a […]...
- 9/6/2019
- by Lauren Wissot
- Filmmaker Magazine-Director Interviews
How much of our ancestry is tied to the history of the places we call home? While some of us would probably answer “None,” we’d be wrong. Just because your family tree was lucky enough to exist on the periphery of major historical moments as bystanders doesn’t mean you haven’t been impacted by wars, tragedies, inventions, and art in ways that defined your choices and subsequently the choices of your children. Why did my grandfather immigrate to America from Lebanon (then part of Syria) when he did? How did my father not getting drafted to Vietnam influence my sister’s birth and my own? Where does 9/11 fit in as an Arab American who never had an ethnic option on forms to check besides “Caucasian” previously? History defines us.
With that said, however, some are embedded much deeper than others. One example is German documentarian Thomas Heise. His...
With that said, however, some are embedded much deeper than others. One example is German documentarian Thomas Heise. His...
- 9/6/2019
- by Jared Mobarak
- The Film Stage
One of the most famous cinematic fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz, begins in black-and-white and transitions to color. German filmmaker Thomas Heise takes the opposite tack in his three-and-a-half-hour documentary, Heimat Is a Space in Time, opening with a verdant color sequence (one that itself references a beloved folk story — Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf), then shifting, with little exception over the rest of its running time, to stark black-and-white visuals.
The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...
The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...
One of the most famous cinematic fairy tales, The Wizard of Oz, begins in black-and-white and transitions to color. German filmmaker Thomas Heise takes the opposite tack in his three-and-a-half-hour documentary, Heimat Is a Space in Time, opening with a verdant color sequence (one that itself references a beloved folk story — Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf), then shifting, with little exception over the rest of its running time, to stark black-and-white visuals.
The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...
The monochromatic palette pairs well with Heise's own narration, which is mesmerically flat and unaffected, even when he's speaking as ...
Efa members will now choose five nominations from the list.
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ Syrian war documentary For Sama and Sundance award winner Honeyland are among the 12 titles on the documentary longlist for the 2019 European Film Awards.
Scroll down for the full longlist.
For Sama launched at SXSW in the Us, before joining the Cannes official selection as a special screening. The film shows the female experience of the Syrian conflict through the lives of al-Kateab and her young daughter Sama. Republic Film Distribution has UK rights on the title, with PBS Distribution handling a Us theatrical release.
Honeyland,...
Waad al-Kateab and Edward Watts’ Syrian war documentary For Sama and Sundance award winner Honeyland are among the 12 titles on the documentary longlist for the 2019 European Film Awards.
Scroll down for the full longlist.
For Sama launched at SXSW in the Us, before joining the Cannes official selection as a special screening. The film shows the female experience of the Syrian conflict through the lives of al-Kateab and her young daughter Sama. Republic Film Distribution has UK rights on the title, with PBS Distribution handling a Us theatrical release.
Honeyland,...
- 8/27/2019
- by Ben Dalton
- ScreenDaily
Germany has chosen Nora Fingscheidt’s “System Crasher” as its entry for the newly re-branded International Feature Film award at the 92nd Academy Awards, it was announced Wednesday by promotional body German Films.
Produced by Kineo Filmproduktion and Weydemann Bros, the film won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received its world premiere in February, and has since gone on to be a fixture on the festival circuit picking up a number of other prizes. It stars Helena Zengel as nine-year-old Benni, whose untamed energy in her wild quest for love drives everyone around her to despair.
The film was chosen from a list of seven films, submitted by their producers, by the eight members of the German selection committee, which consists of representatives from eight German cinema trade associations and institutions. German Films organizes the selection procedure for the German candidate for the Oscars’ International...
Produced by Kineo Filmproduktion and Weydemann Bros, the film won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, where it received its world premiere in February, and has since gone on to be a fixture on the festival circuit picking up a number of other prizes. It stars Helena Zengel as nine-year-old Benni, whose untamed energy in her wild quest for love drives everyone around her to despair.
The film was chosen from a list of seven films, submitted by their producers, by the eight members of the German selection committee, which consists of representatives from eight German cinema trade associations and institutions. German Films organizes the selection procedure for the German candidate for the Oscars’ International...
- 8/21/2019
- by Robert Mitchell
- Variety Film + TV
Tiff Co-Heads Cameron Bailey and Joana Vicente added several more films in the Gala and Special Presentations sections of the 44th Toronto International Film Festival that runs September 5-15.
Here are the new ones:
Gala Premieres
The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.
The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.
Special Presentations
The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.
The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.
The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.
The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere
Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere
Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;
Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;
Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;
Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...
Here are the new ones:
Gala Premieres
The Tom Harper-directed Aeronauts will make its Canadian premiere, with Felicity Jones and Eddie Redmayne starring.
The Giuseppe Capotondi-directed Burnt Orange Heresy will make its North American premiere.
Special Presentations
The Kenny Leon-directed American Son makes its world premiere.
The Quentin Dupieux-directed Deerskin ( Le Daim ) makes its international premiere.
The Gregor Jordan-directed Dirt Music makes its world premiere.
The Geetu Mohandas-directed The Elder One makes its world premiere
Guns Akimbo, directed by Jason Lei Howden, makes its world premiere
Human Capital, directed by Marc Meyers, makes its world premiere;
Jungleland, directed by Max Winkler makes its world premiere;
Lucy in the Sky, directed by Noah Hawley, makes its world premiere;
Lyrebird, directed by Dan Friedkin,...
- 8/13/2019
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
Film won the Caligari Prize in the Berlinale Forum section this year.
Thomas Heise’s Heimat Is A Space In Time, the feature documentary chronicling three generations of the filmmaker’s family, set against the backdrop of dramatic events in German and global history dating back more than a century, has been picked up by UK distributor/exhibitor Ica Cinema.
The outfit struck the deal with sales representative Deckert Distribution and is planning to release the title on November 22.
The documentary premiered at the Berlinale this year, winning the Caligari Prize in the Berlinale Forum section. It also won the...
Thomas Heise’s Heimat Is A Space In Time, the feature documentary chronicling three generations of the filmmaker’s family, set against the backdrop of dramatic events in German and global history dating back more than a century, has been picked up by UK distributor/exhibitor Ica Cinema.
The outfit struck the deal with sales representative Deckert Distribution and is planning to release the title on November 22.
The documentary premiered at the Berlinale this year, winning the Caligari Prize in the Berlinale Forum section. It also won the...
- 7/19/2019
- by Tom Grater
- ScreenDaily
Film named best international competition feature at Nyon Visions du Réel this year.
New York-based documentary specialist Icarus Films has acquired North American rights to 2019 Berlin Forum winner of the Caligari Prize Heimat Is A Space In Time.
Thomas Heise directed the chronicle of three generations of the filmmaker’s family, set against the backdrop of dramatic events in German and global history dating back more than a century.
Germany’s Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktion produced Heimat Is A Space In Time in association with Navigator Film from Austria and Germany’s Zdf/3sat.
It was named best feature in...
New York-based documentary specialist Icarus Films has acquired North American rights to 2019 Berlin Forum winner of the Caligari Prize Heimat Is A Space In Time.
Thomas Heise directed the chronicle of three generations of the filmmaker’s family, set against the backdrop of dramatic events in German and global history dating back more than a century.
Germany’s Ma.ja.de. Filmproduktion produced Heimat Is A Space In Time in association with Navigator Film from Austria and Germany’s Zdf/3sat.
It was named best feature in...
- 7/15/2019
- by Jeremy Kay
- ScreenDaily
The verteran German director was giving a masterclass at Nyon’s Visions du Reel festival.
German director Werner Herzog voiced his reluctant support of film piracy during a masterclass at Switzerland’s documentary-focused Visions du Réel International Film Festival in Nyon which closed on April 13.
¨Piracy has been the most successful form of distribution worldwide,” said Herzog in response to a comment from Ukrainian producer Illia Gladshtein of Phalanstery Films. Gladshtein said he was only able to access the filmmaker’s works via illegal Torrent sites in Ukraine.
“If you don’t get [films] through Netflix or state-sponsored television in your country,...
German director Werner Herzog voiced his reluctant support of film piracy during a masterclass at Switzerland’s documentary-focused Visions du Réel International Film Festival in Nyon which closed on April 13.
¨Piracy has been the most successful form of distribution worldwide,” said Herzog in response to a comment from Ukrainian producer Illia Gladshtein of Phalanstery Films. Gladshtein said he was only able to access the filmmaker’s works via illegal Torrent sites in Ukraine.
“If you don’t get [films] through Netflix or state-sponsored television in your country,...
- 4/16/2019
- by Martin Blaney
- ScreenDaily
Photo courtesy of Pablo Ocqueteau and Berlinale 2019Below you will find our favorite films of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.AwardsFAVORITE Filmsdaniel KASMANHeimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream (Frank Beauvais)Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Delphine and Carole (Callisto McNulty)Holy Beasts Years of Construction (Heinz Emigholz)Bait (Mark Jenkins)Giovanni Marchini CAMIASynonyms (Nadav Lapid)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Just Don't Think I'll Scream (Frank Beauvais)The Blue Flower of Novalis (Gustavo Vinagre & Rodrigo Carneiro)The Portuguese Woman (Rita Azevedo Gomes)The Last to See Them (Sara Summa)Earth (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)Heimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Ms Slavic 7 (Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell)Jordan Cronki Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec...
- 2/28/2019
- MUBI
I Was at Home, But...There is no shortage of essay films at the Berlinale, and Thomas Heise’s documentary Heimat Is a Space in Time suggests that the personal address possible in this kind of documentary can be a very powerful tool indeed. This feeling was confirmed with an almost painfully moving encounter at the festival, Frank Beauvais’s extraordinary Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream. It is a kind of memoir of the director’s life between April and October 2016 in images and words, and while the words, beautifully written, are what one may expect—concise but rich details of family upbringing, personal worries, life events, anxieties and encounters, observations on home, town, and country—the images are not. To construct the image-story of this seven-month time period, a period filled with national and international attacks and terror, love for and hatred of his home in a small Alcasian town,...
- 2/14/2019
- MUBI
Heimat Is a Space in TimeThe Berlinale, one of the world’s biggest and most important film festivals, is at the beginning of a major transition. Its director of the last 19 years, Dieter Kosslick, will retire after this 69th edition, and is to be replaced by Carlo Chatrian, who has impressively stewarded the Locarno Festival for the last six editions with its reputation as a bastion of challenging art cinema paired with comprehensive retrospectives. For an outside visitor who has attended the Berlinale only ten years of Kosslick’s tenure, the festival is a sprawling event prioritizing abundance over quality, centered around a once-essential competition that only erratically curates a substantial amount of the year’s biggest or most important art films. This main competition is the unstable keystone of an immense program with numerous subsections and many wonderful things scattered hither and thither that have struggled to uphold the festival's reputation.
- 2/8/2019
- MUBI
Selection includes 39 titles and 31 world premieres.
This year’s Forum programme at the Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) will feature 39 films, including 31 world premieres.
The Forum brings together challenging and thought-provoking filmmaking that brings together film with visual art, theatre and literature.
Highlights include a Super 8 silent vision of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel ’Die Kinder der Toten’ in a film of the same name by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska, Ghassan Salhab’s “essayistic collage” An Open Rose for which the filmmaker has used the letters from prison by Polish Marxist Rosa Luxembourg, and the documentary Landless, the...
This year’s Forum programme at the Berlin Film Festival (Feb 7-17) will feature 39 films, including 31 world premieres.
The Forum brings together challenging and thought-provoking filmmaking that brings together film with visual art, theatre and literature.
Highlights include a Super 8 silent vision of Elfriede Jelinek’s ghost novel ’Die Kinder der Toten’ in a film of the same name by Kelly Copper and Pavol Liska, Ghassan Salhab’s “essayistic collage” An Open Rose for which the filmmaker has used the letters from prison by Polish Marxist Rosa Luxembourg, and the documentary Landless, the...
- 1/18/2019
- by Louise Tutt
- ScreenDaily
David Cairns, writing for Criterion: "You can consider gags as decoration—little nuggets of entertainment dispensed on the way through a story—or you can view them as architecture, structural elements that tell the story using action. Or you can see them as Jacques Tati did, which has very little to do with story at all." Also in today's roundup of news and views: Cate Blanchett remembers former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam; the CIA and Animal Farm; Thomas Heise's Städtebewohner; remembering Renee Asherson; a discussion Fritz Lang's The Big Heat; and Jamie Foxx will join Benicio del Toro in Harmony Korine's The Trap. » - David Hudson...
- 11/5/2014
- Fandor: Keyframe
David Cairns, writing for Criterion: "You can consider gags as decoration—little nuggets of entertainment dispensed on the way through a story—or you can view them as architecture, structural elements that tell the story using action. Or you can see them as Jacques Tati did, which has very little to do with story at all." Also in today's roundup of news and views: Cate Blanchett remembers former Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam; the CIA and Animal Farm; Thomas Heise's Städtebewohner; remembering Renee Asherson; a discussion Fritz Lang's The Big Heat; and Jamie Foxx will join Benicio del Toro in Harmony Korine's The Trap. » - David Hudson...
- 11/5/2014
- Keyframe
Finnish documentary expert Leena Pasanen has been appointed as the first non-German in the almost 60-year history of Dok Leipzig to succeed Claas Danielsen as its festival director.
Pasanen previously worked in documentary programming at public broadcaster Yle and as the director of the European Documentary Network in Copenhagen, among others.
She will take up her post on January 1, 2015 with an initial five-year contract .
Claas Danielsen, who has headed Dok Leipzig as festival director for the past ten years, will open his swansong edition on Oct 27 with Citizenfour, the final part of Laura Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy, centred on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan and Ulrich Seidl’s Im Keller are among 12 titles selected for the International Competition for Feature Documentaries to compete for the €10,000 Golden Dove.
Other films in this competitive section include Fernand Melgar’s The Shelter, which premiered at Locarno in August; Zuzanna Solakiewicz’s 15 Corners Of The World; Giovanni Donfrancesco’s [link...
Pasanen previously worked in documentary programming at public broadcaster Yle and as the director of the European Documentary Network in Copenhagen, among others.
She will take up her post on January 1, 2015 with an initial five-year contract .
Claas Danielsen, who has headed Dok Leipzig as festival director for the past ten years, will open his swansong edition on Oct 27 with Citizenfour, the final part of Laura Poitras’ 9/11 trilogy, centred on Nsa whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Sergei Loznitsa’s Maidan and Ulrich Seidl’s Im Keller are among 12 titles selected for the International Competition for Feature Documentaries to compete for the €10,000 Golden Dove.
Other films in this competitive section include Fernand Melgar’s The Shelter, which premiered at Locarno in August; Zuzanna Solakiewicz’s 15 Corners Of The World; Giovanni Donfrancesco’s [link...
- 10/21/2014
- by screen.berlin@googlemail.com (Martin Blaney)
- ScreenDaily
Highlights include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman, and Abel Ferrara’s controversial Dsk feature Welcome To New York.
The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.
New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.
Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.
Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...
The full line-up of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (Eiff) has been revealed this morning by artistic director Chris Fujiwara at Edinburgh’s Filmhouse.
This year’s festival, which runs from June 18-29, will comprise 156 features from 47 countries, including 11 world premieres, eight international premieres, seven European premieres and 95 UK premieres.
New titles announced today include Anton Corbijn’s A Most Wanted Man, starring the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in one of his final performances that was first shown at Sundance in January.
Straight from its lively premiere in Cannes is Abel Ferrara’s controversial title Welcome To New York, inspired by the case of former Imf managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, starring Gérard Depardieu, which will receive its UK premiere at Eiff.
Other new titles added to the line-up include [link=nm...
- 5/28/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
We’ll Never Have Paris, from Big Bang Theory star Simon Helberg, to close the festival, which has also revealed details of its Germany focus.
Simon Helberg’s romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris has been named as the closing night film of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 18-29).
Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz in Us sitcom The Big Bang Theory, wrote, co-directed with Jocelyn Towne and stars in the film, based on the co-directors’ real life romantic history. Zachary Quinto, Alfred Molina, Melanie Lynskey, Jason Ritter and Maggie Grace co-star.
The film follows a neurotic young man (Helberg) rattled by a sudden declaration of love from an attractive co-worker (Grace) moments before he is about to propose to his girlfriend (Lynskey). Heartbroken, she flees to Paris, and he must race across the Atlantic to win her back.
Released in the UK by Metrodome, the film is produced by Robert Ogden Barnum (All is Lost) and Katie Mustard...
Simon Helberg’s romantic comedy We’ll Never Have Paris has been named as the closing night film of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival (June 18-29).
Helberg, who plays Howard Wolowitz in Us sitcom The Big Bang Theory, wrote, co-directed with Jocelyn Towne and stars in the film, based on the co-directors’ real life romantic history. Zachary Quinto, Alfred Molina, Melanie Lynskey, Jason Ritter and Maggie Grace co-star.
The film follows a neurotic young man (Helberg) rattled by a sudden declaration of love from an attractive co-worker (Grace) moments before he is about to propose to his girlfriend (Lynskey). Heartbroken, she flees to Paris, and he must race across the Atlantic to win her back.
Released in the UK by Metrodome, the film is produced by Robert Ogden Barnum (All is Lost) and Katie Mustard...
- 4/29/2014
- by michael.rosser@screendaily.com (Michael Rosser)
- ScreenDaily
★★★☆☆ Chronicling the daily rigmarole within a German crematorium, Thomas Heise's Consequence (Gegenwart, 2012) is a muted observation of a process many of us know very little about. Considerate, yet in no way eulogising of the dead, Heise's clinical documentary often manages to evoke a rather confusing sense of joie de vivre. The monotony of the working day has rarely been presented quite so joylessly as it is here. We watch on as coffins have their precious metals prised off, bodies are checked against burial records, machinery is maintained and floors scrubbed, all with the same essential monotony.
It's not often that phrases like 'load', 'grind' and 'dump' appear on-screen with such impassive connotations, but this morbid procedural undeniably manages to get under your skin, turning that initial sense of curiosity into a furtively invigorating experience. Consequence's lack of dialogue and its conceivable attempts to delve into the mindset of the...
It's not often that phrases like 'load', 'grind' and 'dump' appear on-screen with such impassive connotations, but this morbid procedural undeniably manages to get under your skin, turning that initial sense of curiosity into a furtively invigorating experience. Consequence's lack of dialogue and its conceivable attempts to delve into the mindset of the...
- 6/29/2013
- by CineVue UK
- CineVue
At least since the 1990s, Austria has commanded a central place within global cinema culture, certainly within that portion of it governed in a semi-official manner by film festivals and arthouses. Like many such European film scenes, many of its members have moved quite easily between fiction and documentary modes (Ulrich Seidl and Michael Glawogger, to cite the most obvious and prolific). Still, the documentary element remains too seldom remarked upon as a spiritual source for the unique, penetrating gaze that characterizes so many of key Austrian films. Generally speaking, fictional features by the likes of Michael Haneke, Jessica Hausner and Michael Schleinzer have drawn more attention from programmers and distributors than the documentaries of Nikolaus Geyrhalter. This is par for the course with nonfiction cinema. But it nevertheless seems worth mentioning here because, in terms of the tone, construction, and global attitude of Geyrhalter’s cinema, his work seems...
- 7/24/2012
- MUBI
Revision
There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):
Outstanding
1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).
3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.
Very Good
4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).
Good
5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.
6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.
7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.
8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.
9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.
10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.
11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.
Just Above The Middle Line
12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.
13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).
14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.
There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):
Outstanding
1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).
3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.
Very Good
4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).
Good
5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.
6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.
7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.
8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.
9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.
10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.
11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.
Just Above The Middle Line
12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.
13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).
14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.
- 2/19/2012
- MUBI
Die Lage (Condition)
For many, myself included, this is the Berlinale lineup we anticipate most each year: "The 42nd Berlinale Forum will be showing 38 films in its main program, including 26 world premieres and 8 international premieres." There'll be special screenings, too, which we'll be hearing about later, but for now, the main program with synopses from the festival:
Al Juma Al Akheira (The Last Friday) by Yahya Alabdallah, Jordan/United Arab Emirates - International Premiere. "Taxi driver Yousef is forced to bring some order into his failed existence. This lovingly photographed film casts a laconic and occasionally humorous gaze on daily life in the Jordanian capital Amman."
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank) by Marlon N Rivera, the Philippines. "In this biting satire, three young filmmakers do everything in their power to obtain international fame. They are all too aware of foreign audiences' expectations of Philippine cinema: prostitution,...
For many, myself included, this is the Berlinale lineup we anticipate most each year: "The 42nd Berlinale Forum will be showing 38 films in its main program, including 26 world premieres and 8 international premieres." There'll be special screenings, too, which we'll be hearing about later, but for now, the main program with synopses from the festival:
Al Juma Al Akheira (The Last Friday) by Yahya Alabdallah, Jordan/United Arab Emirates - International Premiere. "Taxi driver Yousef is forced to bring some order into his failed existence. This lovingly photographed film casts a laconic and occasionally humorous gaze on daily life in the Jordanian capital Amman."
Ang Babae sa Septic Tank (The Woman in the Septic Tank) by Marlon N Rivera, the Philippines. "In this biting satire, three young filmmakers do everything in their power to obtain international fame. They are all too aware of foreign audiences' expectations of Philippine cinema: prostitution,...
- 1/20/2012
- MUBI
Berlin -- Richard Loncraine's "My One and Only," a '50s-era comedy starring Renee Zellweger and Kevin Bacon, was squeezed into the competition lineup for this year's Berlin International Film Festival, barely a week before the event kicks off.
Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.
Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.
All three films should give an added boost of star power to...
Zellweger plays a glamorous single mom on the hunt for a rich man to foot the bill for her and her sons' lifestyle. Produced by Merv Griffith Entertainment and Ray Gun Prods., "My One and Only" will have its world premiere in Berlin. Essential Entertainment is handling international sales.
Berlin also added Lone Scherfig's Sundance favorite "An Education" with Peter Sarsgaard, Alfred Molina and Emma Thompson and Davis Guggenheim's music documentary "It Might Get Loud" for its Berlinale Special Galas, ensuring the films will get the red carpet treatment without any of the pressure of competition.
All three films should give an added boost of star power to...
- 1/27/2009
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Cologne, Germany -- The Berlinale's avant-garde sidebar Forum has completed its lineup, adding new political documentaries from the likes of Hans-Christian Schmid, Simone Bitton and Thomas Heise.
Bitton follows up her Sundance award winner "Wall" (2004) with another documentary focused on the conflict in the Middle East. "Rachel" takes up the story of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip.
Schmid, whose drama "Storm" will screen in competition in Berlin, has a Forum entry with the doc "The Wonderful Life of Laundry," a look at the lives of Polish workers who launder the dirty linen trucked across the border from Berlin luxury hotels. Heise's new documentary, "Material" is also set in Berlin and features previously unreleased footage of events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Other nonfiction entries at the 2009 Forum include Thai documentary "Citizen Juling,...
Bitton follows up her Sundance award winner "Wall" (2004) with another documentary focused on the conflict in the Middle East. "Rachel" takes up the story of U.S. peace activist Rachel Corrie, who was killed in 2003 while trying to prevent the destruction of houses in the Gaza Strip.
Schmid, whose drama "Storm" will screen in competition in Berlin, has a Forum entry with the doc "The Wonderful Life of Laundry," a look at the lives of Polish workers who launder the dirty linen trucked across the border from Berlin luxury hotels. Heise's new documentary, "Material" is also set in Berlin and features previously unreleased footage of events surrounding the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
Other nonfiction entries at the 2009 Forum include Thai documentary "Citizen Juling,...
- 1/19/2009
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
- Last week The European Film Academy announced the ten finalists for the category of european documentary film of the year (see complete list below) and today they've announced that the big winner is Helena Trestikova's RENÉ. The docu receives the 2008 Documentary Prix Arte award discerned by the Academy. The jury statement reads as follows: This is a film which tells a powerful story – filmed over 20 years – about an extraordinary character on the edge of society. It is a longitual documentary of outstanding quality. The jury found its examination of the relationship between subject and filmmakerfascinating and thought-provoking. Known for shooting her subjects for long periods of time, Trestikova began shooting her subject in 1989 at a youth correctional facility in Libkovice. René has been in prison since he was 16. While in custody, he and several others attempted a riot, which extended his sentence. History repeats itself in and out
- 10/21/2008
- IONCINEMA.com
Cologne, Germany -- Politics, big and small, are the themes running through this year's nominees for the Prix Arte -- the European Film Academy's best documentary award.
Political films of all stripes will be in the running for Europe's top docu prize, from resurgent Russian nationalism in Mikhail Morozov's "Durakovo -- Village of Fools" to African dictatorship in Klaarte Quirijns' "The Dictator Hunter"; from a private look at the former Czech president in Pavel Kotecky and Miroslav Janek's "Citizen Havel" to "Shadow of the Holy Book," Arto Halonen's comic criticism of crony capitalism.
Other nominees include "Children. As Times Flies," Thomas Heise's picture of social deprivation in eastern Germany; "Rene," a 20 years-in-the-making portrait of a petty criminal from Czech director Helena Trestikova; and "The Mother," Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov's look at a woman raising her family on a Russian farm away from her violent husband.
Political films of all stripes will be in the running for Europe's top docu prize, from resurgent Russian nationalism in Mikhail Morozov's "Durakovo -- Village of Fools" to African dictatorship in Klaarte Quirijns' "The Dictator Hunter"; from a private look at the former Czech president in Pavel Kotecky and Miroslav Janek's "Citizen Havel" to "Shadow of the Holy Book," Arto Halonen's comic criticism of crony capitalism.
Other nominees include "Children. As Times Flies," Thomas Heise's picture of social deprivation in eastern Germany; "Rene," a 20 years-in-the-making portrait of a petty criminal from Czech director Helena Trestikova; and "The Mother," Antoine Cattin and Pavel Kostomarov's look at a woman raising her family on a Russian farm away from her violent husband.
- 10/16/2008
- by By Scott Roxborough
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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