Culture
63rd Berlinale: February 7th to February 17th, 2013
The President of the Berlin International Film Festival, Dieter Kosslick, will be opening the 63rd Berlinale in two weeks on February 7th. The festival poster with the Berlinale Bear is already all over the German capital since the middle of January. “The poster for the Berlinale 2013 will again add a bright note to the city’s winter landscape and set the mood for the Festival. The Berlinale Bear has no time to sleep in winter,” he said in a press release.
The official poster of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival, designed by the BOROS Agency – Copyright Berlinale
“The Grandmaster”, a drama about martial arts will open the Berlinale on Thursday night. The film, directed by this year’s President of the Jury, Chinese Director Kar Wai, is out of competition. It took him over 3 years of filming and 10 years of research.
Every evening there will be Gala nights at the Friedrichstadt Palast on the Potsdamer Platz and in other theatres. “Les Misérables” by Director Tom Hopper, which received a prize at the Golden Globe Awards for best musical comedy, will be showing as a German Première.
Les Misérables Berlinale Special 2013 GBR 2012 DIRECTOR – Tom Hooper with Anne Hathaway – Laurie Sparham copyright Universal Pictures
There will be a homage and honorary Golden Bear for one of the most well-known documentary filmmakers of our time, Claude Lanzmann. Last’s year award was given to actress Meryl Streep. During the homage a retrospective of his work will be shown and the screening of his 2001 documentary “Sobibor, 14 Octobre 1943, 16 hours”.
The Frenchman, now in his late 80’s and born to a Jewish family, fought in the resistance during WWII. He is mainly remembered for his work on Shoah (1985), a long documentary about the Holocaust. In 2009 he published his memoirs “The Pantagonian Hare”, where he talked about his time with writers Simone de Beauvoir and Jean-Paul Sartre.
Homage to Meryl Streep 2012 – Festival director Dieter Kosslick, Meryl Streep and laudator Jake Gyllenhaal – copyright Berlinale
The Berlinale has films in 9 categories which are: in competition films, perspective German films, Berlinale Generation, Panorama, Forum Expanded, Berlinale shorts, homage, retrospective and culinary cinema.
There will be 19 films in the competition category from 22 countries, some being World, International and German Premières. One film is the French film “Camille Claudel 1915” by Director Bruno Dumont with actress Juliette Binoche.
Camille Claudel 1915 Competition 2013 Director Bruno Dumont with Juliette Binoche – copyright Berlinale
The Perspective will have 6 fictions, 3 documentaries and 2 medium size featured films. The topics vary from survival, separation, homosexuality, love triangle and natural catastrophes. The first film is the Dutch & German film “Freier Fall” by Stephan Lacant, a film about a love triangle . “Zwei Mütter” (Two mothers) from Zohra Berrached is about homosexuality.
The Berlinale Generation (Generation 14 Plus & Generation KPlus) will offer this year 60 short and full length films from 36 countries. The films are about war, poverty, friendship, homeless children and teenager motherhood.
The Berlinale-Palast at the Opening Night – copyright Berlinale
The Panorama section will have 30 featured films from 23 countries with 1/3 being documentaries. The topics of the films are about sex addiction, friendship, Palestine, State 194. The opening film will be “Boven is het stil” (It’s all Quiet) from Nanouk Leopold. American director Josepth Gordon Lewitt will present his film “Don Jon’s Addiction” as an International Première and Canadian director Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette her film “Inch’allah”.
Berlinale Inch’allah Panorama 2013 CAN 2013 DIRECTOR – Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette
Something new in 2013 at the Berlinale is Native, the story of indigenous people, focussing on the people of North America, the Antartic, Australia and Oceania. It will show 24 short and long features and documentaries of the last 50 years.
The Forum Expanded category “Upheaval & Transition” will present 42 films this year and the Berlinale shorts will show 27 films from 20 countries. The retrospective called “Weimar Touch” is all about Weimar after 1933. Thirty-three films will be shown at the Cinemax X and the Zeughaus cinema. Two of them are the 1941 film “How Green Was My Valley” from director John Ford and the 1959 film of Billy Wilder “Some like it hot”.
How Green Was My Valley Schlagende Wetter Retrospektive 2013 USA 1941 DIRECTOR John Ford Walter Pidgeon and Roddy McDowall Source Deutsche Kinemathek
The Berlinale Goes Kiez, a flying red carpet, which started only three years ago will continue as it has received much success the previous years. Every night during the festival, it will go in a different theatre around the capital, visiting a total of seven cinemas. The first night on February 9th it will be at the Bundesplatz Kino showing Berlin Ecke Bundesplatz from Detlef Gumm & Hans Georg.
TeaTime Trust in Taste – Star chef Michael Hoffmann and his blind cooking partner Hans Maier – copyright Berlinale
And of course the Culinary Cinema is there for the 7th time with its new motto “Dig your Food – From Field to Fork”. It will show 16 films at the Martin-Gropius Bau with various topics such as social and ecological issues, food and environment. A movie will be about mussels, one about red wines and the Bordeaux vineyards, another about the life of a fruit farmer, a dairy farmer in England and about a young girl working in a rice field in China. In addition there will be some activities during the day and the evening at the Gropius Restaurant. At 5:00 p.m. there will be readings and food tastings with famous chefs and in the evenings at 7:30 p.m. some meals will be served and prepared by Chefs Hendrik Otto, Michael Hoffmann, Tim Raue and Nils Henkel. The Australian documentary about wine “Red Obsession” from Warwick Ross and David Roach is a World Première.
Once again the Berlinale 2013 has an amazing program to offer to all of the movie lovers in Berlin for the festival. The program will be online on January 28th in the afternoon.
