Monday, February 19----The 57th Berlin International Film Festival came to a successful close this past weekend, reaching its climax on Saturday night with the Berlinale Awards Ceremony.  Sixteen hundred guests crowded the Berlinale Palast for the awards gala, which was hosted by Charlotte Roche and broadcast live on 3sat. In addition to the prize-winners, the film crew of the closing film ANGEL (director François Ozon, Susanna Antunes, Amanda Davis, Olivier Delbosc, Oriana Elia, Michael Fass...

Sunday, February 18-----The audience has decided.....the Panorama Audience Award, sponsored by “radioeins” of RBB, Berlin-Brandenburg’s public radio and television broadcasting station, and Berlin’s city magazine “tip” in collaboration with the Berlinale’s Panorama section – goes to the film BLINDSIGHT (Lucy Walker, Great Britain). The documentary tells the extraordinary story of a group of blind mountain climbers, who use their remaining senses to allow them to literally soar t...

Saturday, February 17------In a surprise twist, a Chinese film has won the Berlinale Golden Bear, the Berlin Film Festival's highest honor. TUYA'S MARRIAGE by Chinese director Wang Quan'an won the Festival's top prize, which was announced with other awards at the Festival's closing  ceremony this evening. The film, the story of a woman living in rural northwestern Mongolia and facing pressure to abandon her life as a shepherd, did not figure on most critics' predictio...

 Saturday, February 17--- The Berlinale Competition section closes with the world premiere of ANGEL, the latest film from international favorite François Ozon (8 WOMEN). The film, a French-Belgian-British co-production, is the French director's first film in English., Set in England at the beginning of the 20th Century, the film portrays the rise and fall of a young woman from humble beginnings, who breaks into the highest echelons of society as an author. Romola Garai stars as the head-...

Saturday, February 17-----As the Berlin Film Festival moves into its final weekend, a host of films from Asia have demonstrated the continued vitality and excitement of Asian cinema on the world scene. In the Berlinale Competition section, four Asian films are competing for the top prize, the Berlinale Golden Bear. Celebrated Korean director Park Chan-wook (whose film OLDBOY was a major international arthouse hit) returns to the horror genre with a sense of humor, with his tongue-in-cheek film ...

Friday, February 16----Much has been written about the "golden age of documentaries" that we suddenly and fortunately are currently immersed in. Perhaps it is a response to a violent and confusing world to which we are looking to bring knowledge, healing and understanding. Aside from aesthetic considerations, the documentary has also proven to be a highly profitable item for distributors, with such films as FAHRENHEIT 911, MARCH OF THE PENGUINS and this year's AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH...

Friday, February 16-----The Berlinale Keynotes , a new information initiative launched this year by the Berlin Film Festival organization, got off to a successful start. Over 300 distinguished international industry representatives, invited by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the Berlin International Film Festival, came together to watch the new event format at the Ritz-Carlton, Berlin. The first edition focused on the future of the film industry in the digital age, in terms of technology, con...

Wednesday, February 14----Today, the Berlin Film Festival celebrated The World Cinema Fund (WCF) with a series of events the Festival dubbed World Cinema Fund Day. The Fund was founded in 2004 as a joint initiative of the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Berlin International Film Festival, with the Goethe Institute participating as a cooperation partner since 2005. The Fund supports film projects from the focus regions Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, as well...

 Wednesday, February 14-----Veteran Berlin Film Festival goers know that the program section that often has the most challenging, invigorating and energetically inventive cinema choices are in the Berlinale Forum, which has only grown in stature under the stewardship of Forum head Christoph Terteche. “We see the Berlinale Forum as a kind of laboratory for the mainstream cinema of the future”, Terteche explained. “We offer our audiences and attending professionals a challenging group of fi...

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 ...