Before a jam-packed schedule featuring films about Iran and Ukraine, Berlin Europe’s first significant film festival of the year, kicks off on Thursday with a comedy starring Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei, and Peter Dinklage.
With new feature films and documentaries, the 73rd annual festival, which has historically had the largest political focus of the three major European film festivals, will commemorate both the first anniversary of the Russian invasion and the anti-regime demonstrations in Iran.
The organizers have planned special events, including panel discussions and red-carpet protests, to show “solidarity” with the people of Iran and Ukraine.
The Berlinale will honour the “catalysing and revolutionary notion of film which unifies even when it divides,” according to the festival’s creative director Carlo Chatrian.
Based on a series of interviews, the Hollywood actor Sean Penn, who was in Kyiv at the beginning of the Russian assault, will present “Superpower,” a documentary that charts Volodymyr Zelensky’s development from comic to president to war hero.
The two-time Oscar winner told the weekly film industry publication Variety last week that Zelensky “was two completely different creatures from one day to the next.” “He was a spirit waiting to happen.”
The festival’s video link address from the Ukrainian president is anticipated.
anime is once again popular.
The Berlinale has prohibited filmmakers, businesses, and journalists with close ties to the Iranian or Russian governments from attending the event, including its sizable European Film Market, a crucial marketplace for the trade of film rights.
The first of roughly 300 brand-new films from around the world to premiere during the 11-day event is Rebecca Miller’s “She Came to Me,” about a New York composer struggling with writer’s block and starring Peter Dinklage as the character.
The jury for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes will include French-Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani (“Paterson”) under the leadership of Hollywood star Kristen Stewart, the festival’s youngest president at 32.
A thriller starring Jesse Eisenberg and Adrien Brody about an Uber driver who is expecting his first child and is drawn into a cult, “Manodrome,” is one of the 19 movies competing for the major prizes.
China’s Liu Jian will present “Art College 1994,” while Makoto Shinkai’s “Suzume” will be the first Japanese anime to compete at the Berlinale since Hayao Miyazaki’s “Spirited Away” won the Golden Bear in 2002. Two other animated films from Asia will participate in the competition.
For Spielberg, victory
The German capital has scheduled Steven Spielberg, a three-time Oscar winner, to arrive and receive an honorary Golden Bear for the body of work that has been the subject of a retrospective.
The eagerly anticipated “Golda,” in which British actor Helen Mirren portrays Israel’s sole female prime minister, Golda Meir, will have its world premiere.
Vicky Krieps, the well-known Luxembourg-born actor from “Phantom Thread” and “Corsage,” will make her debut in a biopic by seasoned German director Margarethe von Trotta as famed Austrian author Ingeborg Bachmann.
Women direct one-third of the films in the festival’s competition, accounting for 40% of the festival’s directors.
The international premiere of “Love to Love You,” a documentary about disco diva Donna Summer, who helped shape Beyonce’s most recent album “Renaissance” and defined an era on the dance floor, will take place.
Brooklyn Sudano, Summer’s daughter, co-directed the movie, which also includes never-before-seen family recordings.
However, The Berlinale is one of Europe’s biggest film festivals, along with Cannes and Venice. It will culminate with showings of well-liked films from this year’s selection on February 26 after presenting the Golden and Silver Bear awards at a gala event on February 25.