A star-studded press conference opened the 2018 Berlinale, with the full cast of Wes Anderson's Isle of Dogs in attendance for the tonight's premiere at the Berlinale Palast. 

The stop motion animation takes us to near future Japan, where dogs are being extradited to a trash island away from humans, due to an infectious virus. When the mayor's nephew escapes in an attempt to find his dog Spots, the first that was sent away by his tyrannnic uncle, he sets off to a lifechanging adventure where he makes some new furry friends. 

Director and writer Wes Anderson comes to the Berlinale for the fourth time, surrounded by an impressive cast including Tilda Swinton, Bryan Cranston, Greta Gerwig, Bill Murray, Liev Schreiber and many more. 

The majority attended the press conference this morning and spoke about the challenges of creating an animated film, the peculiar difficulties that you do not encounter with any other genre and the great sense of freedom and creativity it gives. 

Wes Anderson spoke about "those little detials that make such a difference in animation and you need to constantly look for and improve. Like for example, two years into the project you notice that one of the puppets is not looking right and you have to change it all over. But it is all such great fun." 

The entire cast referred to the great experience working with a master like Anderson and the amount of funny moments they had while giving their voices to the characters in the film. 

Isle of Dogs opens the festival tonight and will be on general release in March. 

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Photos / text: Martin I. Petrov