The world premiere of “La Vie en Rose,” a biopic of legendary French singer Edith Piaf, will open the competition at the Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 8, festival organizers said Wednesday.
Written and directed by Olivier Dahan, “Rose” stars Marion Cotillard, as Piaf, and Gerard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud and Emmanuelle Seigner. It will be released by Constantin Film in Germany, Picturehouse in the U.S. and TFM in France.
In other Berlinale news, the European Film Promotion board has announced the 25 young actors selected as this year’s Shooting Stars. Now in its 10th year, the picks honor up-and-coming actors. Honorees have included Rachel Weisz, Daniel Craig and Franka Potente.
The program’s 10th anniversary will be celebrated with two days of activities (Feb. 11-12), culminating with the presentation of the Studio Hamburg Shooting Stars Awards by festival director Dieter Kosslick. This is the first year in which Poland, Romania and Slovakia have sent representatives to the podium.
The 2007 Shooting Stars are Nils Althaus (Switzerland), Nicolai Cleve Broch (Norway), Maximilian Brueckner (Germany), Padraic Delaney (Ireland), David Dencik (Denmark), Kate Dickie (U.K.), Tommi Eronen (Finland), Gisli Orn Gardarsson (Iceland), Agnieszka Grochowska (Poland), Klara Issa (Czech Republic), Oscar Jaenada (Spain), Kevin Janssens (Belgium), Melanie Laurent (France), Marko Mandic (Slovenia), Peter Nagy (Hungary), Tana Pauhofova (Slovakia), Afonso Pimentel (Portugal), Maria Popistasu (Romania), Halina Reijn (Netherlands), Sabrina Reiter (Austria), Gustaf Skarsgard (Sweden), Rain Tolk (Estonia), Jasmine Trinca (Italy), Panoyata Vladi (Greece) and Jules Werner (Luxembourg).
