This is a major year for the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival. In the coming weeks, curtains will rise on its historic 75th edition, featuring new leadership and programmers, as well as additional venues and film sections. Also in the spotlight are several political controversies that have unfolded over the last year or so.
The Berlinale kicks off Thurs., Feb. 13 and runs through Sun., Feb. 23 under the auspices of Jury President Todd Haynes, director of “Carol” and “May December.” However, navigating this year’s edition (including whether to attend) won’t just be a matter of finding the best bus routes and bratwurst joints. Rather, it will involve taking stock of the event as a whole—from its trading and licensing platform European Film Market to its Berlinale Talents program for emerging filmmakers and critics—in a much wider context.
After all, the Berlinale was first established during the height of the Cold War thanks to Oscar Martay, an American film officer at the Allied High Commission who convinced the U.S. military to fund the festival. Its very inception as a pipeline linking American cinema and the German public was political. The fest has been around long enough to witness both the erection and dismantling of the Berlin Wall—remnants of which can be seen just steps from its central hub at Potsdamer Platz. The very act of attending the film festival is steeped in history, and its ongoing story remains charged.
New leadership, lineups, and competitions
In 2023, the German Ministry for Culture and the Media—the festival’s primary benefactor—announced that Tricia Tuttle would replace departing co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariëtte Rissenbeek. Tuttle brings an exciting profile to the Berlinale, having overseen the BFI London Film Festival and considerably raising its profile during her tenure by nearly doubling its audience. However, former co-chair Chatrian expressed concerns about the future of the event. According to the Hollywood Reporter, he has even cited the Ministry’s demands for veto power over the programming as one of his reasons for leaving the position.
While any direct influence over the film selections is yet to be seen—the festival’s lineup is expected to be announced in late January—there has been an inadvertent effect in the meantime: The festival’s budget was reduced, leading to the axing of its five-year-old Encounters section, which was dedicated to “aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers.” In its stead will be a new Perspectives competition, expanding the already-existing Best First Feature Award and offering a prize of 50,000 euros to the winning film. The Competition, Panorama, and Shorts sections will remain.
Exciting new programmers
Tuttle’s appointment brings with it not only years of high-level festival experience, but the addition of smart and accomplished programmers across its various sections. In her capacity as director, Tuttle appointed a pair of world-renowned programmers as new co-directors of film programming, both of whom have strong ties to the Berlinale: Jacqueline Lyanga, a former U.S. delegate to the festival, and Michael Stütz, who previously headed its Panorama section. In addition, long-time Berlinale curator (and recent Berlinale Talents co-head) Florian Weghorn was made the festival’s first chief of staff.
The restructuring continued via the appointment of a new four-member Selection Committee that constitutes a wide berth of artistic and cultural experience. The quartet consists of remarkably insightful curators and programmers from around the world: Festival Scope co-founder Mathilde Henrot, Berlin-based film critic Jessica Kiang, Ghana-based curator Jacqueline Nsiah, and former Jerusalem Film Festival artistic director Elad Samorzik.
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A new venue and festival hub
In addition to its regular theaters that are spread across the city, the Berlinale’s core location at the Potsdamer Platz complex—home to the Berlinale Palast movie palace and the CinemaxX multiplex—will see the addition of two new venues. The first is the Stage Bluemax Theater at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz, a 500-seat location dedicated to the new Perspectives competition, and to other film premieres from across the festival’s selections.
The second new addition will be the nearby Berlinale HUB75. The temporary setup will host free morning talks for public audiences, while also functioning as a networking space for filmmakers and other industry attendees.
An increased political spotlight
The Berlinale has, for the last year and a half, been plagued with political contentions including the culture ministry’s rumored veto demands, and the invitations sent to members of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party for last year’s opening night. (Those invites were eventually rescinded after more than 200 film professionals, most of them from within the German industry, signed an open letter in protest.) However, controversies continued during the festival’s awards ceremony, after the announcement of best documentary winner “No Other Land” (directed by an Israeli-Palestinian collective: Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor. The acceptance speech, made by Israel’s Abraham (standing alongside Palestine’s Adra) included calls for peace and ceasefire, and soon became part of an ongoing debate over whether public statements that don’t line up with the German government’s stances on Israel ought to be condemned as antisemitism.
There have been subsequent calls to boycott the festival—as there were last year, when several filmmakers pulled out. The context of these demands is worth keeping in mind as well, as they shed light on what the organization Strike Germany calls “a wave of political repression across Germany’s cultural sector that predominantly targeted Arab, Jewish, Black, and Brown artists” over the last year—a possible hurdle to free expression at the government-financed festival.
Incoming director Tuttle has since weighed in, and has noted similar concerns from filmmakers worried they may not be allowed to speak, or express sympathy for victims in Gaza. However, she has also been working to reassure artists that the festival will welcome a wide range of perspectives. These dueling claims are at the very least worth considering when deciding whether or not to attend the Berlinale, and what sort of climate to expect on the ground.
