Tuesday, February 13----Actress-turned-director Julie Delpy's TWO DAYS IN PARIS, which had its world premiere in the Panorama section of the Berlin Film Festival a few days ago, has been purchased for North American rights. The Samuel Goldwyn Company and Netflix's Red Envelope Entertainment have announced the joint acquisition of the film, which they are planning to release in the US and Canada this coming summer. TWO DAYS IN PARIS is a romantic comedy about a French woman photographe...
Tuesday, February 13-----On Monday, there was a constellation of Shooting Stars in the skies over the Berlin Film Festival. The stars in question are not of the celestial kind, but represent twenty-five of the hottest actors and actresses of European cinema. This initiative of the European Film Promotion, the pan-European organization of almost thirty European national film promotion boards, celebrates its tenth year of presenting Europe's newest acting talents, with several special events d...
Monday, February 12----A new film festival has been launched on the beautiful and historic island nation of Malta. The Malta International Film Festival, which will be held from September 15-23, 2007, hosted a press conference and reception this morning at the Hotel Berlin to introduce the international film community to the festival team and to its ambitious plans for its inaugural event. The Festival is being organized by the AECEO (Association pour l'Echange Culturel Entre l'Europe ...
Monday, February 12----The International Film Festival Summit (IFFS), the first international conference for film festival directors, programmers, fundraisers and sponsors held on the European continent, hosted a reception today at the Vox Bar at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in the heart of Potsdamer Platz, the nerve center for the Berlin Film Festival. IFFS made a number of exciting announcements at the event, for both the International Film Festival Summit Europe, to be held on April 18, 2007 at the ...
Sunday, February 11----The Panorama section is the non-competitive sidebar of the Berlinale that has a reputation among Festival veterans as the most ambitious and exploratory program in the Festival. The section has introduced many of world cinema’s most illustrious talents. Showcasing more than 50 films, most making their international premieres, the Panorama opened on Friday with Canadian director Bruce McDonald’s THE TRACEY FRAGMENTS, a visually inventive exploration of a fifteen-year-...
Sunday, February 11----Arts Alliance Media (AAM), a UK company that is leading the charge on the creation of digital cinema networks in the UK and the rest of Europe, is the leading sponsor for the European Film Market (EFM). This successful collaboration will culminate next year with the company serving as the exclusive main partner of the EFM. “With Arts Alliance Media, we have found the ideal partner for digital film services,” comments EFM director Beki Probst.
The London-based compan...
Sunday, February 11---Seven young film fans from Germany and France comprise the independent jury that will determine the DIALOGUE EN PERSPECTIVE prize, which is awarded to a German feature film in the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section of the Berlinale. The prize was initiated in 2004 by the French TV Channel TV5MONDE and the Berlinale, and will be awarded in collaboration with the Deutsch-Französisches Jugendwerk (DFJW).
In view of the large number of excellent entries, the selection commit...
Saturday, February 10----The Berlinale is paying homage and awarding an Honorary Golden Bear to the pioneering American director Arthur Penn. From his roots in New York theater and live television to his landmark films of the 1960s, Penn established himself as a leading icon of the New American Cinema, with such films as THE MIRACLE WORKER (1962), MICKEY ONE (1965), BONNIE AND CLYDE (1967), ALICE’S RESTAURANT (1969), LITTLE BIG MAN (1970) and THE MISSOURI BREAKS (1976). In his distinguished 4...
Saturday, February 10---With appropriate fanfare, Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and Campus Director Dorothee Wenner officially opened the fifth edition of the Berlinale Talent Campus in the presence of 600 invited guests in the Theater Hebbel am Ufer. The 350 Talents from more than 100 countries will meet with international experts through February 15 in a series of workshops and lectures. In addition to director Walter Salles, the Campus experts Jia Zhangke, Jan Kaczmarek and Jasmila Žba...
Friday, February 9----To view streaming video from the Berlin Film Festival, log on to: Berlin Film Festival Video Streaming.
Sandy Mandelberger
Berlin Online Dailies Editor
...
Friday, February 9----As the hooplah from last evening's Gala Opening Night has died down, it is now time for the Berlinale to get serious about the business of international film. After several days of preparation, the European Film Market opens this morning, shattering previous records of attendance, exhibition booths and films to be screened. With the changes in the industry calendar of the past few years, the EFM has become an indispensable place for sellers to hawk their wares and for buy...
Thursday, February 8----Two legends collided in one city tonight as the Berlin International Film Festival began this evening. For one night only, Edith Piaf waltzed with Marlene Dietrich on the steps of the Berlinale Palast, in the heart of the "new Berlin" Potsdamer Platz. Of course, the two, most deceased, were not dancing in the flesh. But when the music of Edith Piaf, as captured in the Berlinale Opening Night Film LA VIE EN ROSE, spilled onto the streets of Marlene Dietrich Platz, two l...
Berlin in action!
Around 400 films will show this year as part of the Berlinale's public programme, the vast majority of which are world or European premieres. Films of every genre, length and format.
The Berlinale is divided into different sections, each with its own unique profile: big international movies in the Competition, independent and art-house productions in Panorama, movies for a young audience in the Generation and its Kplus and 14plus programmes, the most exciting German cinema pr...
..."The COO of the Paris-based Filmfestivals Entertainment Group, Bruno Chatelin, insists the mixture of small independent films and mainstream industry at the Berlinale is actually good for business on both sides. "The industry thrives on things that major media are interested in," he said. "At the same time, there is the film focus where the media is just looking for the next gem. It's not war exactly, but it's a fight for distribution. And sometimes the small need the big."
Mr. Kosslick, me...
Wednesday, February 7----Berlin has always been hospitable to American indies, with the sidebar sections Panorama and Forum generally showcasing most of the newest works from filmmakers working "off-Hollywood". However, this year, the Berlinale Competition boasts two highly anticipated bigger budget American independent films, which are in the running with their Hollywood bretheren for the Golden Bear (the Berlinale's top honor).
Gregory Nava, a veteran indie filmmaker whose 1983 film EL NORTE...
Tuesday, February 6----With the ballots for the Academy Awards in the mail, speculation is growing about what has become an impossible to predict Best Picture race. While BABEL was considered the frontrunner, especially following its Golden Globe win last month, there is now industry speculation that BABEL and Martin Scorsese's THE DEPARTED may split the "serious film" vote. So, what exactly does that mean? Well, one scenario points to an upset win by the indie smash LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE (that'...
Filmfestivals correspondant Claus Mueller sat down last year with Dieter Kosslick head of the Berlin festival for an open discussion on the festival changes.
Claus Mueller What is the most important change compared to last year (2005)?
Dieter Kosslick The most important change of course is that we finished out five year plan, including the change of the market, that is the move to the Martin Gropius Bau. That was a big move, and there is another little change, that we give the awards at the en...
Monday, February 5----While the Berlin Film Festival, which opens on Thursday evening, is certainly an international affair, it has traditionally been one of the important showcases for new European cinema. With a French film opening the prestigious Berlinale Competition section (LA VIE EN ROSE by Olivier Dahan) and top-flight French and UK films included this year (see earlier stories), the rest of Europe gets equal billing as the Festival presents mainly world premieres from some of Europe's ...
With Berlin's international film festival starting next Friday, its director seems worried about well-funded competitors on the festival circuit. Experts say that he needn't lose too much sleep over it. DDA's Chris Paton, Filmfestivals.com Bruno Chatelin, Thorsten Schaumann, the head of Bavaria Films express their views. But is there a controversy?
Read full article onDeutsche Welle website
...
Friday, February 2----Two British films receiving their international premieres are prominently featured in the Competition Section of the Berlin Film Festival, which opens this coming Thursday.
NOTES ON A SCANDAL, features two tasty (and Oscar-nominated) performances by Dame Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett as, respectively, a sexually repressed olderschool teacher who blackmails a younger teacher who is having a secret affair with a young male student. The psycho-sexual thriller with lesbian o...
Thursday, February 1----With a musical biopic of legendary French chanteuse Edith Piaf opening the 57th edition of the Berlin Film Festival next week, the love affair of the Berlinale with French cinema is also evident in the prominent showcasing of two French film masters in the Competition Section.
Veteran director Jacques Rivette will present the world premiere of NE TOUCHEZ PAS LA HACHE (Don’t Touch The Ax), an adaptation of a Balzac novella about a beautiful duchess who wards off the ...
Thursday, February 1-----The 57th Berlin International Film Festival opens with a musical treat….the world premiere of LA VIE EN ROSE, a sumptuous film from French director Olivier Dahan that chronicles the colorful and passionate life of French chanteuse Edith Piaf. The film and its stars will receive the full red carpet treatment at the Berlinale Palast on the evening of February 8th.
Known as “the little sparrow”, Piaf has become a singer for the ages, a full-throated songbird who n...
The Malta International Film Festival will announce its own film market during Berlin Festival.
The 1st Malta International Film Market (MIFM) is organized by the AECEO (Association pour l'Echange Culturel entre l'Europe et l'Orient; a cultural association based in Paris, France) with the collaboration of AraMage Artistic Production, AJR Events and with the support of Maltese Ministry of tourism and culture and Malta Tourism Authority (MTA) and Media Desk Malta in partnership with fest21.com.
...
Tom Tykwer and Kees Kasander explore virtual worlds
These days, no other stories do as well in the cinemas as stories set in fantastical worlds or that take audiences on a journey into the past. Elaborate adventure-fantasy films like The Lord of the Rings and Eragon and opulent historical epic dramas like Perfume: The Story of a Murderer and Kingdom of Heaven are among the biggest box-office winners. A similar development can be observed in the gaming world. Here, online role-playing games are...
The hottest young European actors and actresses have been announced by European Film Promotion as SHOOTING STARS 2007. 25 up-and-coming actors have been chosen by EFP member organizations across Europe, and will go on to take part in a series of events at the Berlin International Film Festival (10th - 12th February) designed to encourage the international film industry, media and public to acknowledge the incredible screen talent that lies within Europe.
In very special anniversary celebration...
