Films to Compete at the 70th Berlin Film Festival are Announced

The films that will compete at the 70th Berlin Film Festival between February 20 and March 1 have been announced.

Berlin Film Festival, one of the leading film festivals in Europe, is getting ready to meet with cinema lovers for the 70th time between February 20 and March 1 this year.

This year, Jeremy Irons, who is 71-year-old Oscar-winning film and theatre actor, will chair the festival. My Salinger Year directed by Philippe Falardeau, who is known for its Monsiuer,  Lazhar and starred by Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley will open the 70th Berlin Film Festival.

The festival committee announced the films that will take place at the festival this year in a press release yesterday. Carlo Chatrian, who took the director of the festival over from Dieter Kosslick, said that the films they chose revealed “the dark side of the people”. In the introduction of the program, it was stated that if in the selected films “dark colors outweigh, the reason for this is not to spread fear, but to want people to open their eyes”. Chatrian emphasized that their only criteria when choosing films for the main competition was “artistic quality”.

British actress Helene Mirren was granted the Honorary Golden Bear award this year. A selection of the films played by Helene Mirren will be shown in the Hommage section.

No film from Turkey

No Turkish films will be featured this year at the Berlin Film Festival. In addition, Turkish films are not featured in other important parts of the festival such as Forum and Panorama.

Michael Stütz, director of the Panorama section, which includes examples from the world cinema, said that while they were preparing the program, they also went to Istanbul and watched many movies. Speaking to DW Turkish, Stütz mentioned that “it is a privilege and an advantage to see a significant section of this year’s films shot in Turkey in three days “. Stütz said that they had “discussed up to the last minute” for the inclusion of a few movies but they could not find the “right” movie to be included in the program.

Competition Films for the Golden Bear Award

Berlin Alexanderplatz – Burhan Qurbani

DAU. Natasha – Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel

Domangchin yeoja (The Woman Who Ran) – Hong Sangsoo

Effacer l’historique (Delete History) – Benoît Delépine, Gustave Kervern

El prófugo (The Intruder) – Natalia Meta

Favolacce (Bad Tales) – Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo

First Cow – Kelly Reichardt

Irradiés (Irradiated) – Rithy Panh

Le sel des larmes (The Salt of Tears) – Philippe Garrel

Never Rarely Sometimes Always – Eliza Hittman

Rizi (Days) – Tsai Ming-Liang

The Roads Not Taken – Sally Potter

Schwesterlein (My Little Sister) – Stéphanie Chuat, Véronique Reymond

Sheytan vojud nadarad (There Is No Evil) – Mohammad Rasoulof

Siberia – Abel Ferrara

Todos os mortos (All the Dead Ones) – Caetano Gotardo, Marco Dutra

Undine – Christian Petzold

Volevo nascondermi (Hidden Away) – Giorgio Diritti