Celiné Sciamma and Hong Sang-soo headline the… | Little White Lies

Festivals

Celiné Sci­amma and Hong Sang-soo head­line the 2021 Berlin Film Festival

11 Feb 2021

Words by Adam Woodward

Autumn forest scene with large wood pile and two people in red jackets standing nearby.
Autumn forest scene with large wood pile and two people in red jackets standing nearby.
This year’s two-part edi­tion will also play host to Daniel Brühl’s direc­to­r­i­al debut.

Fol­low­ing suc­cess­ful vir­tu­al edi­tions of Sun­dance and Rot­ter­dam, this year’s Berli­nale will take place in two parts for the first time in the festival’s 71-year his­to­ry. First, between 1 – 5 March, an indus­try-focused pro­gramme will run online; then, from 9 – 20 June, a Sum­mer Spe­cial event will replay the main line-up in a phys­i­cal setting.

A total of 15 films from 16 coun­tries, two of which are first fea­tures, will com­pete for the Gold­en Bear and the Sil­ver Bear prizes, reflect­ing the festival’s com­mit­ment to cham­pi­oning both emerg­ing and estab­lished tal­ent from across the film world. The films select­ed for this year’s com­pe­ti­tion are:

Drift Away, by Xavier Beau­vois
Bad Luck Bang­ing or Loony Porn, by Radu Jude
Fabi­an – Going to the Dogs, by Dominik Graf
Bal­lad of a White Cow by Behtash Sanaee­ha and Maryam Moghad­dam
Wheel of For­tune and Fan­ta­sy, by Ryusuke Ham­aguchi
Mr Bach­mann and His Class, by Maria Speth
I’m Your Man, by Maria Schrad­er
Intro­duc­tion, by Hong Sang-soo
Mem­o­ry Box, by Joana Had­jithomas and Khalil Jor­eige
Next Door, by Daniel Brühl
Petite Maman, by Céline Sci­amma
What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?, by Alexan­dre Koberidze
For­est – I See You Every­where, by Bence Flie­gauf
Nat­ur­al Light, by Dénes Nagy
A Cop Movie, by Alon­so Ruizpalacios

The festival’s Artis­tic Direc­tor Car­lo Cha­tri­an had this to say about the selec­tion: If the Com­pe­ti­tion offers a pic­ture of the cin­e­ma as it is and as it will be, we can say that the dis­rup­tion brought on by the events of 2020 has led film­mak­ers to make the most of this sit­u­a­tion and cre­ate deeply per­son­al films. This Com­pe­ti­tion is less rich in num­bers but very dense in con­tent and style.”

The 71st Berlin Film Fes­ti­val runs 1 – 5 March. For more info vis­it berli​nale​.de

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