Side Effects Screen Grab - H 2012
COLOGNE, Germany — Steven Soderbergh‘s Side Effects, a thriller starring Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Channing Tatum and the action comedy The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman from commercials director Fredrik Bond will compete this year for the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Side Effects is Soderberg’s fourth film to screen in competition in Berlin — following The Good German (2006), Solaris (2002) and Traffic (2001). The Oscar-winning director made the trip to the German capital last year with the actioner Haywire, which had an out-of-competition screening. In Side Effects Mara plays a woman who turns to prescription drugs to fight anxiety after her husband (Tatum) is released from prison.
PHOTOS: The Top European Media and Entertainment Industry Stories of 2012
In The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman, Shia LaBeouf plays the eponymous Countryman, an ordinary guy who falls in love with Gabi Banyai (Evan Rachel Wood), the girlfriend of a violent crime boss. Bond’s feature debut has an all-star cast including Oscar-winner Melissa Leo, Harry Potter alumnus Rupert Grint, Parks and Recreation actress Aubrey Plaza, Mads Mikkelsen and Germany’s Til Schweiger. Voltage Pictures is handling sales of the film and will be shilling it to buyers at Berlin’s European Film Market.
Berlin announced nine more competition titles today, filling out the official line up for the 63rd Berlinale. In addition to the U.S. titles, Berlin’s 2013 competition includes new films by Oscar winner Danis Tanovic, French auteur Bruno Dumont and, perhaps most astoundingly, a new work from imprisoned Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi. Panahi’s Closed Curtain, co-directed with Cafe Transit helmer Kambozia Partovi, will have its world premiere in Berlin, as will Tanovic’s An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker and Dumont’s biopic Camille Claudel 1915, which stars Juliette Binoche as the famed French sculptor with Jean-Luc Vincent playing her brother, the poet and diplomat Paul Claudel.
Emmanuelle Bercot‘s On my Way, which stars Catherine Deneuve as a Breton widow who goes on a soul-searching road trip across France with a 10-year-old boy, also made the competition cut, as did Gold, a period drama from German director Thomas Arslan set among German emigrants during the Klondike gold rush which stars Nina Hoss, Lars Rudolph, Marko Mandic and Uwe Bohm.
Another French title in competition this year is The Nun from director Guillaume Nicloux (A Private Affair). A loose adaptation of the 18th century novel by Denis Diderot, which purports to be the memoirs of a nun who has escaped from her convent, it stars Isabelle Huppert, Pauline Etienne, Martina Gedeck and Louise Bourgoin.
South African-born, German-based director Pia Marais, whose first feature, The Unpolished (2007) won the Rotterdam Film Festival’s Tiger Award, will make her Berlinale competition debut with Layla Fourie, an English-language drama starring Rayna Campbell and August Diehl. Match Factory is selling the film.
Other high-profile titles in Berlin’s competition line-up this year include Gus van Sant‘s Promised Land, which stars Matt Damon and Frances McDormand; the drama Paradise: Hope from Austrian filmmaker Ulrich Seidl and Nobody’s Daughter Haewon, the latest from prolific Korean helmer Hong Sang-Soo (In Another Country).
DreamWorks’ 3D animated feature The Croods, from How to Train Your Dragon director Chris Sanders and Space Chimps‘ helmer Kirk De Micco and featuring voice work from Nicolas Cage, Ryan Reynolds and Emma Stone, will have its world premiere out of competition in Berlin.
Wong Kar-Wai‘s martial arts epic The Grandmasters, starring Tony Leung, Chang Chen and Ziyi Zhang, will open the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival on Feb. 7, 2013.
The film, inspired by the life of the legendary martial artist the Ip Man, mentor to Bruce Lee, will also screen out of competition as director Wong will judge this year’s Berlin Golden and Silver Bear contenders as President of the International Jury.
The 63rd Berlinale runs Feb.7-17.
Here is the full list of latest competition titles:
Camille Claudel 1915 ?– World Premiere
Director: Bruno Dumont
Starring: Juliette Binoche, Jean-Luc Vincent ?
Elle s’en va (On my Way)? (France) – World Premiere
Director: Emmanuelle Bercot
Starring: Catherine Deneuve?
Epizoda u životu bera?a željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker)? – World Premiere
Director: Danis Tanovic
Starring: Senada Alimanovic, Nazif Mujic, Sandra Mujic, Semsa Mujic?World Premiere
Gold? – World Premiere
Director: Thomas Arslan
Starring: Nina Hoss, Marko Mandic, Uwe Bohm, Lars Rudolph
La Religieuse (The Nun)? – World Premiere
Director: Guillaume Nicloux
Starring: Pauline Etienne, Isabelle Huppert, Louise Bourgoin, Martina Gedeck
Layla Fourie – ?World Premiere
Director: Pia Marais
Starring: Rayna Campbell, August Diehl, Rapule Hendricks
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman? – International Premiere
Director: Fredrik Bond
Starring: Shia LaBeouf, Evan Rachel Wood, Melissa Leo, Rupert Grint Mads Mikkelsen
?International Premiere
Parde (Closed Curtain)? – World Premiere
Directors: Jafar Panahi and Kambozia Partovi
Starring: Kambozia Partovi, Maryam Moghadam,Jafar Panahi, Hadi Saeedi
Side Effects? – International Premiere
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Starring: Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Channing Tatum
