The 68th annual Berlin International Film Festival/Berlinale

The 68th annual Berlin International Film Festival is currently taking place from 15 to 25 February 2018.

The Berlin International Film Festival (German: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), also called the Berlinale, is one of the world’s leading film festivals and most reputable media events. It is held annually in Berlin, Germany.

Founded in West Berlin in 1951, the festival has been celebrated annually in February since 1978.

The Berlinale is the city’s most glamourous event. With more than 400 films shown it attracts the elite of the film industry as well as the largest audience of any film festival in the world.

Berlin is famous for being a cosmopolitan, exciting capital with international appeal. This becomes particularly apparent during the Berlinale, one of the most important events in the international film industry’s calendar.

More than 20,000 film professionals and critics as well as numerous film fans from more than 120 countries are accredited for and visit the Berlin International Film Festival each year. With over 330,000 tickets sold, the Berlinale draws the largest audience of any film festival in the world by far.

German filmmaker, Tom Tykwer will serve as a jury president.

Other members of the jury include Belgian actress Cécile de France, the former director of the Filmoteca Española Chema Prado, US producer Adele Romanski, Japanese composer Ryūichi Sakamoto and US film critic Stephanie Zacharek.

The festival is composed of seven different film sections.

Films are chosen in each category by a section director with the advice of a committee of film experts. Categories include “Competition“, “Panorama“, “Forum“, “Generation“, “Perspektive Deutsches Kino“, “Berlinale Shorts“, “Retrospective“.

“The First Big European Festival of Year will unleash almost 400 movies of all shapes and sizes. From high-profile premieres like Wes Anderson’s opening night entry “Isle of Dogs,” to bold offerings from bright European directors like Christian Petzold and Corneliu Porumboiu, and a wide array of work by emerging filmmakers from all over the world, the Berlinale is an incredibly eclectic (and almost overwhelmingly large) cornucopia of new cinema.”

10 Must-See Films at the 2018 Berlin International Film Festival

“Artistic vision, the courage to be different, a desire for the unfamiliar, a profound historical awareness or pioneering personalities: the objective of the Panorama is to seek out from across the world new impulses in the prevailing trends and in cinematic creation and to present these in the spectrum of the programme.

New works by renowned directors, debut films and discoveries celebrate their world or European premieres in the Panorama and invite to engage with them on a critical level as well as enjoying the cinematic experience.

The Panorama challenges its audience and has the confidence to explore new avenues. Press Conferences and public discussions enable the press and audiences to enter into a dialogue about the films with their directors, producers and actors. At the same time, the film selection does not shy away from the current market, aiming both to sound it out and to bring it new impulses.”

Isle of Dogs” is set in a dystopian future where a wayward Japanese boy named Atari Kobayashi sets out to find his missing pup, only to crash-land on an island that’s overrun with canines (and lots of industrial waste). Supposedly inspired by Akira Kurosawa, the film is full of familiar voices, with the dogs played by a mixed breed of Anderson regulars (Bill Murray, Tilda Swinton, etc.) and exciting newcomers (Greta Gerwig, Ken Watanabe).”

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2018/feb/15/isle-of-dogs-review-wes-anderson

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/dec/04/wes-anderson-isle-of-dogs-open-berlin-film-festival-bryan-cranston

https://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html

The Berlin Film Festival’s Programme

“The Berlinale‘s programme includes about 400 films of various genres and formats that are open to the general public, the vast majority of which are world or European premieres.

It is divided into different sections, each with a unique profile: Major international productions in the Competition, independent and art-house productions in Panorama, films for a young audience in the Generation category, the most exciting German cinema productions in Perspektive Deutsches Kino, an in-depth look at films from “distant” countries and experimental forms in the Forum, and an investigation of various other cinematic possibilities in the Berlinale Shorts.

The programme is topped off by a thematic Retrospective and a Homage that focuses on the life’s work of a great film personality. Both these categories, which are curated by the Berlin Film Museum, aim to place contemporary cinema within a historical context.

A Unique Network: The Berlinale and the European Film Market

The European Film Market (EFM), a film trade fair that is part of the Berlinale where 400 companies and 8,000 film professionals foster synergies, has developed into one of the most important events for the international film business. The Berlinale and the EFM, the festival and the market, form a unique network of formal and informal connections - also to the benefit of Berlin as a location for film-making.”

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