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

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