Berlin Film Festival Celebrates Studio Babelsberg’s 100th Anniversary With Film Series

BERLIN – The Berlin International Film Festival will celebrate the 100th anniversary of Studio Babelsberg with a special series of 10 films shot at the legendary German backlot: one for each decade of the studio’s existence.

The series will include recent Oscar winners The Reader from Stephen Daldry and The Pianist from Roman Polanski as well as German cinema classics such as Josef von Sternberg’s Blue Angel starring Marlene Dietrich; Wolfgang Staudte’s post-war drama The Murderers Are Among Us and Friedrich Wilhelm Murnau’s The Last Laugh.

A highlight for film history buffs will be The Dance of the Dead, a short directed by Urban Gad and the first-ever film shot at Studio Babelsberg. Babelsberg has restored the original print of The Dance of the Dead and will screen it for the first time at their 100th anniversary birthday party on Feb. 12 at the Marlene Dietrich Hall on the Babelsberg studio backlot.

The other films in Berlin’s Babelsberg series are: The Adventures of Baron Munchhausen from Josef von Baky; Kurt Maetzig’sThe Rabbit Is Me; Goya from director Konrad Wolf;The House on the River from Roland Graf and Leander Haussmann’s East Berlin comedy Sun Alley.

“Studio Babelsberg has written film history and, both politically and film historically, experienced a turbulent 100 years,” said Berlin Festival director Dieter Kosslick. “Today it still enjoys high regard at home and abroad as a production site. The Berlinale wants to congratulate the studio on its birthday and looks forward to many more Babelsberg films.”

Kosslick will also award Studio Babelsberg a special Berlinale Camera, the festival’s lifetime achievement award.

The 62nd Berlin International Film Festival runs Feb. 9-19.