This year’s Berlin Film Festival has announced its Berlinale Special and Competition programs and there are some clear highlights worth mentioning, which means that this year’s line-up is one of the more interesting in recent years.
Obviously, the big name showing in Germany this year is Adam McKay’s “Vice.” Though it’s already in the middle of its US theatrical release and deep into Oscar season, the Dick Cheney biopic will premiere out of competition at the festival. Another out of competition release is the highly-anticipated documentary/concert film featuring Aretha Franklin, “Amazing Grace,” which was announced in late-2018 and is finally going to be released after being on the shelf for more than 40 years.
“Farewell to the Night,” which stars Catherine Deneuve is getting its world premiere at the festival, but as with the other films, will be playing out of competition. Another world premiere comes from acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou, who made a splash on last year’s festival circuit with his film “Shadow.” This year, he’s premiering his latest film, “One Second.”
Here are the films that were selected for Competition and Berlinale Special:
The following films will complete the Competition programme:
L’adieu à la nuit (Farewell to the Night)
France / Germany
by André Téchiné (Being 17, In the Name of My Daughter, The Witnesses)
with Catherine Deneuve, Kacey Mottet Klein, Oulaya Amamra, Stéphane Bak, Mohamed Djouhri
World premiere – Out of competition
Amazing Grace – Documentary
USA
Realised by Alan Elliott from original 1972 Warner Bros. footage
European premiere – Out of competition
Synonymes (Synonyms)
France / Israel / Germany
by Nadav Lapid (Policeman, From the Diary of a Wedding Photographer, The Kindergarten Teacher)
with Tom Mercier, Quentin Dolmaire, Louise Chevillotte
World premiere
Vice
USA
by Adam McKay (The Big Short)
wih Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Steve Carell, Sam Rockwell, Tyler Perry
German premiere – Out of competition
Yi miao zhong (One Second)
People’s Republic of China
by Zhang Yimou (Red Sorghum; The Road Home; A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop)
with Zhang Yi, Fan Wei
World premiere
Berlinale Special at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele
Peter Lindbergh – Women Stories – Documentary
Germany
by Jean Michel Vecchiet (Vies et morts d’Andy Warhol; Basquiat, une vie; 6 juin 1944, ils étaient les premiers)
World premiere
Berlinale Special Gala at the Friedrichstadt-Palast
Photograph
India / Germany / USA
by Ritesh Batra (The Lunchbox, Our Souls at Night, The Sense of an Ending)
with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Vijay Raaz, Jim Sarbh, Akash Sinha, Saharsh Kumar Shukla
European premiere
Weil du nur einmal lebst – Die Toten Hosen auf Tour (You Only Live Once – Die Toten Hosen on Tour) – Documentary
Germany
by Cordula Kablitz-Post (Christoph Schlingensief – Die Piloten, Nina Hagen – Godmother of Punk, Lou Andreas-Salomé: The Audacity to be Free) concert director Paul Dugdale (Taylor Swift: Reputation Stadium Tour, The Rolling Stones Olé, Olé, Olé!: A Trip Across Latin America, Adele Live at the Royal Albert Hall)
World premiere
Competition films:
L’adieu à la nuit (Farewell to the Night) by André Téchiné (France / Germany) – Out of competition
Amazing Grace realised by Alan Elliott (USA) – Documentary, Out of competition
Der Boden unter den Füßen (The Ground beneath My Feet) by Marie Kreutzer (Austria)
Di jiu tian chang (So Long, My Son) by Wang Xiaoshuai (People’s Republic of China)
Elisa y Marcela (Elisa & Marcela) by Isabel Coixet (Spain)
Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove) by Fatih Akin (Germany / France)
Gospod postoi, imeto i’ e Petrunija (God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya) by Teona Strugar Mitevska (Macedonia / Belgium / Slovenia / Croatia / France)
Grâce à Dieu (By the Grace of God) by François Ozon (France)
Ich war zuhause, aber (I Was at Home, But) by Angela Schanelec (Germany / Serbia)
The Kindness of Strangers by Lone Scherfig (Denmark / Canada / Sweden / Germany / France) – Opening film
Kız Kardeşler (A Tale of Three Sisters) by Emin Alper (Turkey / Germany / Netherlands / Greece)
Marighella by Wagner Moura (Brazil) – Out of competition
Mr. Jones by Agnieszka Holland (Poland / United Kingdom / Ukraine)
Öndög by Wang Quan’an (Mongolia)
The Operative by Yuval Adler (Germany / Israel / France / USA) – Out of competition
La paranza dei bambini (Piranhas) by Claudio Giovannesi (Italy)
