This year's 71st edition is entirely dedicated to the artistic themes and challenges of life. The awards ceremony and the grand opening of the Berlin Film Festival are expected on June 9, but it sets new standards anyway
The 71st edition of the Berlin Film Festival is scheduled for June 9-20. Due to the pandemic, everything is different this year. Thus, the Berlinale, like other major world festivals, was divided into two parts, initially planning to have a virtual and later a physical edition. Of course, expecting the coronavirus to calm down. Therefore, the online edition of the festival has already taken place from March 1 to 5, and in June the physical maintenance should follow, with the planned red carpet and festive events. But, whether that will be the case, remains to be seen given the situation and the still strict measures in force in Germany. There is a month until the start of the festival, but the situation, despite the vaccination, does not look very promising, especially for such mass gatherings, where are expected guests from many different countries around the world.
However, what is interesting, is that for the first time should be held the Festival that has already been held. Namely, the program was announced, the films were available online, but not for everyone, and the six juries on schedule made their decisions. So this year, even before we go to the Berlin Festival, we know who won the prestigious "Bears". Of course, if it is possible to go to the festival at all, that will not take excitement, because everyone wants to see the films premiered in the beautiful Berlin cinemas, and the atmosphere and the feeling are definitely irreplaceable. Especially considering that many have not seen the films, because the virtual event was primarily intended for the international industry, and so it was with the European Film Market, whose online edition had 12 thousand participants from 131 countries worldwide.
But, let's look at the movies. This year, there are 15 films competing for the famous "Bears", mainly from Europe and Asia. Most films come from the host country, Germany, as many as 4, two films are selected from Hungary and France, and one each from Romania, Georgia, Iran, Japan, Korea, as well as Mexico and Lebanon. It is interesting that what is noticed this year, the emphasis is on artistic themes, complex and difficult stories situated to the present, that focus on the challenges of today's life, and everything and brings meaning and essence. So the organizers announced, what is important in this year's selection is "reshaping the film forms based on traditional formats."
The "Golden Bear" is already known to have won the Romanian film "Bad Luck Banging ili Looney Porn" by Radu Jude, who is coming to Berlin for the third time, and whose "Aferim" won the "Silver Bear" in 2015. Jude's new film deals with a very current topic, about the life of a teacher after her intimate (porn) recording appeared on the Internet. For him, the jury will say that he has that rare quality of a permanent work of art. The jury awards also won the Japanese film "Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy" by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and the German film "Mr. Bachmann and His Class" by Maria Speth, one for the power of silence and the other for true communication and magic.
"The Silver Bear" went to Hungary for Denes Nagy's war film "Natural Light", while the screenwriter's award went again to Korean wizard, Hong Sangsoo, for his film "Introduction" (last year for excellent movie “The Woman Who Ran” got the "Bear" for directing). It is unusual this year that the jury was composed entirely of winners in recent years: Ildiko Enyedi, Mohammad Rasoulof, Nadav Lapid, Adina Pintilie, Gianfranco Rossi and Jasmila Zbanic.
The special program, out of competition, is expected to have the world premiere of the film about Tina Turner, entitled "Tina", as well as “The Mauritanian" by Kevin Macdonald, who has already raised dust with his topic about the Guantanamo Bay military prison, where prisoners were held for years without trial or indictment. The film is based on a true story with: Tahar Rahim and Jodie Foster. Many more interesting films and world premieres have been announced, about which we are yet to write.
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