Berlin announce excit­ing 2024 com­pe­ti­tion line-up

The worlds of pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball and glob­al film fes­ti­vals are clos­er bed­fel­lows than you might ini­tial­ly imag­ine. Late­ly, the idea of a film fes­ti­val employ­ing an artis­tic direc­tor for enough time for them to real­ly grow into and evolve the role seems like a rel­ic from a bygone era, hence the com­par­i­son to the cut­throat and pre­car­i­ous occu­pa­tion of foot­ball manager. 

Car­lo Cha­tri­an is known for his work cul­ti­vat­ing and expand­ing the Locarno Film Fes­ti­val, bring­ing to it a sense of cachet and dis­cov­ery that had per­haps been miss­ing in the pre­ced­ing years. And he brought his meth­ods and his men­tal­i­ty with him – along with his ace pro­gram­ming team – to his stew­ard­ship of the Berli­nale, but for what­ev­er rea­son, things just didn’t work out, and the 2024 fes­ti­val is set to be his last. The great Tri­cia Tut­tle, of Lon­don Film Fes­ti­val fame, is set to pick up the baton for 2025. 

From the van­tage of an objec­tive observ­er, it seemed that Chatrian’s focus on artistry, expres­sion and the role of the film fes­ti­val as a locus for dis­cov­ery rubbed a fair few peo­ple the wrong way, main­ly jour­nal­ists look­ing to bur­nish their out­lets with Hol­ly­wood star­dust. I men­tion all this as con­text for the news of the 2024 com­pe­ti­tion line-up, which, on paper, comes across as a Rio Bra­vo-style, guns-blaz­ing fight to the bit­ter end. Excit­ing auteurs, whose films some­times don’t land at the more glitzy Cannes Film Fes­ti­val, are giv­en pride of place. And named brand film­mak­ers aren’t giv­en pref­er­ence over those who have made works that aim to expand our view of cinema’s potential.

We’re very excit­ed to see new films from Bruno Dumont, Mati Diop, Olivi­er Assayas and Hong Sang­soo, but equal­ly excit­ed to make some new dis­cov­er­ies of the less­er-known names who have been ele­vat­ed to the heights of an inter­na­tion­al com­pe­ti­tion. Else­where there’s Vik­tor Kos­sakovsky, who arrives with Archi­tec­ton, his fol­low-up to the immer­sive piglet doc­u­men­tary, Gunda. 

Aaron Schim­berg made waves in Sun­dance with his Sebas­t­ian Stan-star­ring A Dif­fer­ent Man, and we’re always inter­est­ed to see what young Mex­i­can film­mak­er Alon­so Ruiz­pala­cios comes up with (a new film star­ring Rooney Mara in the case of La Coci­na). There are films from Nepal (Min Bahadur Bham’s Shamb­ha­la) and Domini­can Repub­lic (Nel­son Car­los De Los San­tos Arias’s Pepe). In gen­er­al, it’s a mod­el line-up that favours qual­i­ty and diver­si­ty over hyper­bole and hype. And as is always the case with Berlin under Cha­tri­an, this com­pe­ti­tion is just the tip of the iceberg.

Small Things Like These by Tim Mielants (open­ing film)
Anoth­er End by Piero Messi­na
Archi­tec­ton by Vik­tor Kos­sakovsky
Black Tea by Abder­rah­mane Sis­sako
La Coci­na by Alon­so Ruiz­pala­cios
Dahomey by Mati Diop
A Dif­fer­ent Man by Aaron Schim­berg
The Empire by Bruno Dumont
Glo­ria! by Margheri­ta Vic­ario
Sus­pend­ed Time by Olivi­er Assayas
From Hilde, With Love by Andreas Dresen
My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghad­dam and Behtash Sanaee­ha
Langue Étrangère by Claire Burg­er
Who Do I Belong To by Meryam Joobeur
Pepe by Nel­son Car­lo De Los San­tos Arias
Shamb­ha­la by Min Bahadur Bham
Ster­ben by Matthias Glas­ner
The Devil’s Bath by Veroni­ka Franz and Sev­erin Fiala
Sons by Gus­tav Möller
A Traveller’s Needs by Hong Sangsoo

The 2024 Berli­nale 2024 runs from 15 to 25 Feb. Head here to explore the full line-up.