berlin
Ira Sachs’ ‘Passages’ to Open Toronto’s Inside Out Film Festival
The Ira Sachs film Passages is set to open the Inside Out 2SLGBTQ+ Film Festival after screening at Sundance. The French romantic drama, which stars Ben Whishaw, Franz Rogowski and Adèle Exarchopoulos, will receive a gala treatment in Toronto. And the 33rd edition of Inside Out will close with Tom Gustafson’s Glitter & Doom, a […]
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Berlinale Co-Head Mariëtte Rissenbeek to Step Down After 2024 Fest
Mariëtte Rissenbeek, the executive director of the Berlin International Film Festival, will step down after next year’s Berlinale. The German culture ministry, which finances the festival, announced Thursday that Rissenbeek will not be renewing her current contract, which expires in March 2024. German Culture Minister Claudia Roth said she accepted the resignation “with great regret” […]
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Berlin: Steven Spielberg Says He Won’t Tell Young Filmmakers to Get Out of His Office
A reflective Steven Spielberg talked about how he would advise young filmmakers when receiving an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on Tuesday, and he decided to not follow the lead of his childhood hero John Ford. “I’m not going to say, ‘Get the fuck out of my office.’ That’s a big difference […]
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Berlin: Filmmaker Johnnie To’s Remarks About Totalitarianism Strike Chord in Hong Kong
The Berlin International Film Festival’s jury press conference, headed by Hollywood star Kristen Stewart, concluded on Thursday, but remarks made by legendary Hong Kong filmmaker Johnnie To at the event are still reverberating a world away. When the festival jurors were asked by a journalist in the crowd to share their views on why cinema […]
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Makoto Shinkai on How Anime Blockbuster ‘Suzume’ Reflects the Current State of Japan: “The Most Honest Expression I Could Put on Screen”
The 2023 Berlin International Film Festival is screening its first Japanese anime film in competition in over two decades. The previous occasion was the international premiere of Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away in 2002, so it’s perhaps fitting that the latest selection is Suzume, the newest release from Makoto Shinkai, the director most often hailed as […]
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Berlin: Director Guy Nattiv on ‘Golda,’ Israeli Politics, Censorship and Casting Helen Mirren as the “Iron Lady of Israel”
The events of so-called Yom Kippur War, or the fourth Arab-Israeli War, are seared in the memory of all those who lived through them. The joint invasion by Arab forces from Egypt and Syria in the dawn hours of Oct. 6, 1973 nearly led to Israel’s complete military defeat. The country’s surprise victory changed the […]
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Berlin: Sean Penn Makes Plea for Greater Arms Support for Ukraine
For those paying attention to his year-long campaigning in support of Ukraine, Sean Penn covered a lot of familiar ground Saturday at the Berlin press conference for his latest film, Superpower, a documentary profile of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The actor-director spoke of Zelensky’s heroic wartime leadership, the Ukrainian people’s inspiring and universal fight for […]
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Berlin: Voltage Picks Up Milli Vanilli Biopic ‘Girl You Know It’s True’
Voltage Pictures has boarded worldwide sales, excluding Germany, on buzzy Milli Vanilli biopic Girl You Know It’s True from Leonine Studios and Wiedemann & Berg Film. The company began shopping the title at Berlin’s European Film Market after a footage showcase for buyers on Thursday. The film follows the spectacular 1980s rise of the Grammy-winning German-French […]
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What to Expect From Hong Kong Filmart’s First Post-Pandemic Edition
Once Asia’s largest annual gathering for film and television professionals in Asia, Hong Kong Filmart spent the last three years, like most events of its kind the world over, as a purely virtual event. It’s making a post-pandemic comeback a little later than its counterparts in the U.S. and Europe, but Filmart is throwing open its doors in 2023 […]
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Korean Star Jeon Do-yeon on Basing Netflix Assassin Movie ‘Kill Boksoon’ on Her Real-Life Experiences as a Mom
Within the Korean film industry, Jeon Do-yeon is both a big star and a deeply respected actor’s actor. In over 25 years on-screen, she has appeared in scores of K-dramas and over 20 films, including numerous titles now considered modern Korean classics. Now, she’s poised for greater global exposure as the star of Netflix’s forthcoming action […]
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Sean Penn’s Ukraine War Doc ‘Superpower’ Receives Warm Reception at Berlin World Premiere
Solidarity with Ukraine has been a constant theme at the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, but the issue came to the forefront Friday night at the world premiere of Sean Penn’s latest film Superpower, a documentary profile of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his wartime leadership. Before the curtain came up at Berlin’s Verti Music […]
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Is China’s Film Sector Opening Its Doors to the World Again?
As China’s post-pandemic reopening gathers steam, film executives in Beijing are feeling cautiously optimistic for the first time in years. Local audiences have cast off their masks and returned to the multiplex, regulators are signaling a relaxing of control, and film professionals are finally traveling freely again to re-engage with international festivals and markets. Beijing […]
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