Led for the second time by artistic director Tricia Tuttle, the festival features 22 films in competition for the Golden Bear. Among them are Queen at Sea with Juliette Binoche, The Rose starring Oscar-nominated Sandra Hüller as a soldier concealing her identity, and The Blood Countess, a showcase for Isabelle Huppert.
Highlighting the festival’s commitment to both political engagement and cinematic wonder, Tuttle said during a January press conference, “Cinema is a vital space for shared experience—something we need now more than ever.”
The lineup includes a wide array of genres: the jazz portrait Everybody Digs Bill Evans, the anime A New Dawn by Yoshitoshi Shinomiya, Warwick Thornton’s western Wolfram, and the documentary Love Is a Rebellious Bird. Also in competition is Dust, a Belgian-Polish-Greek-British co-production about entrepreneurs facing personal collapse.
Polish cinema will be present in the Panorama Dokumente and Berlinale Shorts sections. The Ukrainian-Polish documentary Traces by Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk explores the stories of Ukrainian women who survived torture and sexual violence by Russian soldiers since 2014. Zuzanna Banasińska’s short film Kontrewers, a surreal tale of a spirit visiting an elderly woman, will also screen.
The festival opens with Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men, a political romance set in 2021 Afghanistan. The gala will honor actress Michelle Yeoh with an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement. Director Sean Baker will present his new short Sandiwara, a celebration of identity and cultural heritage.
On February 18, composer Max Richter will receive the Berlinale Camera award. His recent credits include Hamnet by Chloé Zhao and the series Behind the Curtain. Tuttle praised his work for “deepening the cinematic language.”
Special screenings will include Ulrike Ottinger’s The Blood Countess, co-written with Nobel laureate Elfriede Jelinek, and The Testament of Ann Lee by Mona Fastvold, starring Amanda Seyfried as a feminist religious leader. Audiences will also see Have a Nice Trip and Survive, a satire starring Sam Rockwell.
Berlinale will showcase rising voices as well. Notable debuts include Allegro Pastell by Anna Roller and The Moment, a mockumentary about pop star Charli XCX, featuring Alexander Skarsgård and Rosanna Arquette.
The festival concludes Saturday, February 22, with awards selected by a jury chaired by Wim Wenders and including Polish producer Ewa Puszczyńska, actor Bae Doona, and others.
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Source: PAP