Richard Linklater, Michel Franco and Hong Sang-soo will compete for the Golden Bear at the 75th edition of the Berlinale, which will be held from February 13 to 23, and which will not have a Spanish presence in any of its sections. A contest that in previous years served as a showcase for important national titles such as Summer 1993 and Alcarras by Carla Simon, 20,000 species of bees by Estibaliz Urresola, five little wolves by Alauda Ruiz de Azúa, The girls by Pilar Palomero and one day, one nightby Isaki Lacuesta.
A priori, one of the highlights of the film dreamsby Mexican Michel Franco, who will once again feature actress Jessica Chastain in a film that Tricia Tuttle, new director of the contest, has defined as “a sharp examination of the ways in which power and privilege can corrupt.” Also Blue Moon by Richard Linklater, led by Margaret Qualley, Andrew Scott and Ethan Hawke; and What Does that Nature Say to You, by Hong Sang-soo.
The official section is completed by titles such as The message by the Argentine Iván Fund, Or last blue by the Brazilian Gabriel Mascaro, Ari by Léonor Serraille, The cache by Lionel Baier, Drommer (Sex love) by Dag Johan Haugerud, hot milk by Rebecca Lenkiewicz, If I had legs I’d kick you by Mary Bronstein, Continental ’25 by Radu Jude, Mother’s baby by Johanna Moder, Reflection in a dead diamond by Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzani, Living the land by Huo Meng, Timestamp by Kateryna Gornostai, The ice tower by Lucile Hádzihalilovic, What Marielle knows by Frédéric Hambalek, girls on wire by Vivian Qu and yunan by Ameer Fakher Eldin.
The films that are up for Best First Feature
Mexican Ernesto Martínez Bucio opts for his debut feature film The Devil Smokes (and keeps the burnt match heads in the same box) for the award for best debut film in the Berlinale Perspectives competition section. According to programming co-director Jacqueline Lyanga, with his first feature film, the filmmaker “fulfills the promise of his short films.” The director “creates a dreamlike cinematographic language that blurs the line between what is real and what is unreal in the story of five children who live alone with a grandmother who struggles with mental illness,” he said.
Among the fourteen debut films is also the Indian film Baksho Bondi Shadowbox’by Tanushree Das and Saumyananda Sahi, co-produced with Spain, France and the United States, in which Maya discovers that her husband – a former soldier suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder – is the main suspect in a murder case. To keep the family together, she and her teenage son are forced to go to extremes.
The movie is also in this section Mad Bills to Pay (or Destiny, tell him I’m not bad)in which its director, Joel Alfonso Vargas, explores textures of his Dominican-American upbringing. “The film is beautifully shot with long takes and Vargas directs his actors, who were hired on the streets of the Bronx, in an emotionally powerful story about the life of a teenager and his home, which is transformed when his girlfriend becomes pregnant” Lyanga explained.
For the director of the festival, Tricia Tuttle, the newly created Perspectives section brings together exceptional international filmmakers with great stylistic diversity as a theme. “The fact that this is the future of cinema is a very good omen,” she said with conviction. The award for best debut film is endowed with 50,000 euros to be distributed between the director and the producer of the winning film.
As previously announced, Tilda Swinton will receive the Honorary Golden Bear and American director Todd Haynes (Carol) will preside over the jury. The team has reported that 41% of the films that will participate in the festival have been directed by women and 4% by people who identify as non-binary.
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