At the European Film Market 25 Russian companies presented over 50 titles at the Created in Moscow x Roskino stands, organized by Moscow Export Center and by Roskino accordingly. Content from Russia will travel to USA, China, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea, Mexico, Brazil, as well as get co-production partners.
“Russia was on the spotlight in Berlin this year. The 70th Berlinale and the EFM saw unprecedented representation of Russian content. Russian projects feature in almo...
By Alex Deleon
Iranian Dissident Director, Mohammad Rasoulof, 47.
Yes, of course, it was a political decision, Highly political, and it was far from the best Itanian film ever and maybe not the best film of the festival, but it was doubtlessly the Right Thing to do, declaring "There is no Evil" the best film at Berlinale 70. Dissident Iranian director, Mohammad Rasoulof, whose film "A Man of Integrity" was awarded best film i...
(Argyris Pandazaras, Georgis Grigorakis © Lindsay R. Bellinger)
by Lindsay R. Bellinger
"I saw a poster in the train station here (Berlin) about the environmental crisis being the next Berlin Wall. And I think that this is what the film is about." ~ Georgis Grigorakis
The Greek film Digger from director Georgis Grigorakis won the Art Cinema Award on Saturday, the 29th of February, which was awarded by the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (CICAE) j...
(Lana Rockwell © Mélanie Akoka)
Premiered in Berlin, shaped like Sundance. The first paces of ‘Sweet Thing’ feel as they are taken from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘The Kid’. By iris-in, iris-out, long shot cuts into close- ups, the director Alexander Rockwell conveys a really fresh and intimate nostalgia beyond what you’d see in the usual Black & White indie flick. Van Morrison and Billie Holiday lyrics provey emotional LP magic to this soothing...
(Annie Heger, Eidin Jalali, Edson Cordeiro, Banafshe Hourmazdi, Faraz Shariat, TEDDY winners © Lindsay R. Bellinger)
by LINDSAY R. BELLINGER
German singer/actress/moderator Annie Heger as host of the TEDDY Awards was an inspired choice! On the evening of February 28, 2020 she brought the right amount of energy to the Volksbühne, maybe even more than some members of the audience. I was a little surprised that the older male German couple...
(Nico Rockwell & Lana Rockwell, © Lasse Tolbøll)
Antonio Castello:
Sweet Thing was a pleasure to the eyes; the genius mix of black and white and color 16mm films was very well done and goes according with our times. A story is only a good story when is well told and this movie finds a visual unique way to narrate the story using basic techniques, a low budget, and the love of his family and friends.
(Director/writer Alexandre Rockwell, © Ant...
(Thaia Perez, Agyei Augusto, Mawusi Tulani, © Hélène Louvart/Dezenove Som e Imagens)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Two Brazilians living in Berlin praised Competition film Todos os mortos (All The Dead Ones/All die Toten), a Brazilian-French co-production, at Berlinale 2020. Dimas Souza, living here for the past 17 years, and classically trained guitarist Victor Santana shared their impressions of Marco Dutra and Caetano Gotardo's film after its final scre...
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PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
Members of the Jury: Jeremy Irons (Jury President), Bérénice ...
PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
Members of the Jury: Jeremy Irons (Jury President), Bérénice Bejo, Bettina Brokemper, Annemarie Jacir, Kenneth Lonergan, Luca Marinelli, Kleber Mendonça Filho
GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM
(awarded to the film’s producers)
© Cosmopol Film
Sheytan vojud nadarad There Is No Evil Es gibt kein Böses by Mohammad Rasoulof produced by Mohammad Rasoulof, Kaveh Farnam, Farzad Pak
SILVER BEAR GRAND JURY PRIZ...
The winning films of the Cildren's Jury Generation Kplus (from left to right) Crystal Bear Best Film: Sweet Thing © Lasse Tolbøll | Special Mention: H Is for Happiness © David Dare Parker | Crystal Bear Best Short Film: El nombre del hijo © Constanza Sandoval | Special Mention: El sghayra © Eva Sehet
Generation
Crystal Bears
The members of the Children’s Jury in Generation Kplus – Jan-Nicl...
The audience has voted: The 22nd Panorama Audience Award for the best feature film goes to Otac (Father) by Srdan Golubović. Welcome to Chechnya by David France wins in the category Panorama Dokumente. The prizes are awarded by the Berlinale section Panorama together with radioeins and rbb television (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg).
Goran Bogdan in Otac (Father) by Srdan Golubović © Maja Medic/Film House Baš Čelik
Otac (Father) shows Nikola fighting for his children. After ...
Perspektive Deutsches Kino
The prize winners of the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino are:
• Compass-Perspektive-Award: Janna Ji Wonders for Walchensee Forever
• Kompagnon-Fellowships: Hristiana Raykova (Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2019) and Ian Purnell (Berlinale Talents 2020)
• Heiner-Carow-Prize: Natalija Yefimkina for Garagenvolk
Award winner Janna Ji Wonders © Daniel Seiffert
The Compass-Perspektive-Award for the best film of ...
The winning films of the Youth Jury Generation 14plus (from left to right) Crystal Bear Best Film Notre-Dame du Nil © Sophie Davin / Les Films du Tambour, Chapter 2 | Special Mention White Riot © Syd Shelton | Crystal Bear Best Short Film Clebs © Anna Cooley | Special Mention Goodbye Golovin © Ariel Methot
Generation
Crystal Bears
The members of the Youth Jury in Generation 14plus – Julina Jung, Ion Kebernik, Shahida Kitzov, Lucia Maluga, Rocco Mehlhose...
Here's a video message from Georgis Grigorakis and actor Argyris Pandazaras.
****UPDATE: An extended interview with Grigorakis and Pandazaras will be published in the coming days.
On Saturday 29th of February, the juries of the International Confederation of Arthouse Cinemas (CICAE) at the 70th Berlinale announced the winning films of the Art Cinema Award: “Digger” by Georgis Grigorakis of the Panorama sectio...
By Alex Deleon
At the Friday press conference for Mohammad Rasoulof's "Sheytan vojud nadarad" the director's seat at the center of the conference table is conspicuously empty! This has become a mini tradition here as another Iranian director, Jafar Panâhi, has been invited to Berlin twice in recent years, not allowed to travel, and accorded an honorary empty chair in absentia. Berlinale's vivid way of protesting the travel bans imposed by the Ir...
THE WINNERS
The six members of the international jury view films of queer interest within all sections of the Berlinale. Three or four films are nominated and one wins in each of the following categories: best feature film, best documentary/essay film and the best short film. The jury furthermore presents its Jury Award and the TEDDY Readers’ Award powered by queer.de.
(Agustina Comedi, Luciano Villareal, David France, Faraz Shariat, Tsai Ming-Liang, David ...
(Ekta Mittal, © Lindsay Bellinger)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Director/writer Ekta Mittal presented her short film Gumnaam Din (Missing Days) in the Berlinale Short V program, which delves into the pain of separation that faces many workers who see no other choice but to work far away from their home. She filmed Gumnaam Din as a short film after having completed a feature film handling the same topic. India’s Public Service Broadcasting Trust (PSBT) produced Mittal&...
Alex Piperno's debut feature WINDOW BOY WOULD ALSO LIKE TO HAVE A SUBMARINE ('Chico ventana también quisiera tener un submarino') won the Tagesspiegel Readers' Award 2020 at the Berlinale. Since 2007, the Berlin-based national daily newspaper has awarded a Readers' Prize. The jury consists of nine members and the prize is given to the best film in the Forum. Members of the jury were Peter Apel, Heike Bottke, Chris Feustel, Lui...
(© Rithy Panh)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Cambodian Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rithy Panh presented his shocking documentary to the world at the Berlinale Palast with his filmmaking team by his side. His documentary Irradiés (Irradiated), which is a Cambodian/French co-production running in Competition at Berlinale, is not an easy watch and clearly it was too heavy and vivid for some of the audience members who left during the screening. For those of us who stayed, we were treated to...
(Surya Amitrano, Thaís Schier, Anne Celestino Mota, © Renato Ogata & Gil Baroni)
By Lindsay R. Bellinger
Brazilian filmmaker Gil Baroni and some of his film team participated in a lively q&a after the screening of their comedy Alice Júnior, which runs in Berlinale's Generation 14plus. The audience was shy at first but pepped up after a bit and opened up an open and supportive dialogue with Baroni, his team and lead actress blogger Anne Celestino Mota. A number of...
On the occasion of the Berlinale, MEDIA Salles presented the new statistics on cinema-going at the traditional reception at Oxymoron: An exceptional 2019 for Europe’s cinemas: one billion 343 million spectators, with an increase of 4.1%
Admissions in Europe in 2019 (millions) and their percentage variations with regard to 2018
filmfestivals.com had a quick chat with Elisabetta Brunella about the key achievements and very positive figures in most territories last year.
...
Click on the map and, where available, you will obtain the titles of the highest grossing films in each country
http://www.mediasalles.it/dgt_online/DGT_online_informer_164.htm
Notes:
D: Figures provided by the distributors, according to which 2019 total admissions amount to 115 678 119.
I: Cinetel data (3 542 screens).
UK: Percentage of box office (UK films wholly or partly financed and controlled by a US studio, but featuring UK cast, c...
By Phillip Bergson
Life is change, but as the Dalai Lama says, the Lightbulb has to want to change. New dates, new directors, new directions, and what changing temperatures during this 70th edition of one of the most celebrated international film rendezvous in the calendar, created by a former (in dispute), charming (not in dispute as I remember him well on my first-footing, fresh from Oxford University, to what was to become the last summer edition of the Cold War cellu...
Academy Award® and Golden Globe nominee Paul Schrader (First Reformed, Raging Bull, Taxi Driver) has cast Emmy Award winner Tiffany Haddish (Like a Boss, Girls Trip), Tye Sheridan (Ready Player One, Mud) and four-time Academy Award® nominee Willem Dafoe (The Lighthouse, At Eternity’s Gate, The Florida Project) to star with Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac (Inside Llewyn Davis, Ex Machina, Show Me a Hero) in revenge thriller The Card Counter. Based on the origin...
Coproduction Office have announced they will sell Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel’s DAU. Natasha worldwide.
The first feature film in a series of five DAU features, DAU. Natasha will have its world premiere in competition at the Berlin Film Festival at 10.00pm CET on Wednesday 26 February. Its companion DAU. Degeneration, a work in nine chapters, will screen in Berlin as a Berlinale Special at Haus der Berliner Festspiele on Friday 28 February. D...
Chatelin Bruno 
