On Thursday, February 20, the 70th Berlin International Film Festival begins its work. The opening ceremony will be held in the theater on Potsdamer Platz, after which the screening of the film "My Salinger Year" by Canadian director Philip Falardo, selected for the Special program, will take place. Leading the event will be actor Samuel Finzi.

This year the festival will be held for the first time under new leadership: Dieter Kosslik, who has been the director of the show since 2001, has been replaced by Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbek.

Upon entering a new position, the managers promised to take into account all the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century in their work and make the festival more spectator.

The first changes introduced by the new leadership have already touched the anniversary screening program. Shatrian and Rissenbeck decided to remove the sections "Culinary cinema" and Native, adding a new category - "Clashes".

In total, more than 340 films will be shown as part of the show, including 88 short films and 94 documentaries. The main competition included 18 paintings from 18 countries. Among them is “Dow. Natasha ”, one of the series of a large-scale project of the Russian director Ilya Khrzhanovsky, the drama Sally Potter“ Unchosen Roads ”with Javier Bardem, El Fanning and Salma Hayek in the lead roles, the picture of Abel Ferrara“ Siberia ”with Willem Defoe, the drama“ The First Cow ”by Kelly Reichardt other.

According to the artistic director of the Berlinale Carlo Chatrian, films of the main competition show the present without illusions and open the eyes of viewers to reality.

  • Spectator with tickets to the 70th Berlin Film Festival
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  • © Annegret Hilse

The best films will traditionally be chosen by an international jury, which this year was headed by the English actor Jeremy Irons. The jury also included the French actress Berenice Bejo, the German producer Bettina Brockemper, the Palestinian director Annmarie Jasir, the American director Kenneth Lonergan, the Italian actor Luca Marinelli and the Brazilian director Kleber Mendons Filho.

The Berlinale Special section contains 20 paintings from 19 countries, designed to surprise the audience with its expressiveness and excellent performance.

The section included another part of Khrzhanovsky’s project - “Dow. Degeneration ”, as well as“ Farsi Lessons ”by Vadim Perelman,“ Pinocchio ”by Matteo Garrone,“ Quack ”by Angeshka Holland, the animated film“ Forward ”by Dan Scanlon and other projects.

In the “Panorama” section - 36 paintings relating to migration issues, the search for one’s place in life, the overuse of the planet’s resources and the problems of LGBT people. The program presents a documentary film by the Russian director Andrei Gryazev “Pit”.

Other participants in the Berlin Film Festival from Russia include the short film My Galactic Twin Galaction by Alexander Svirsky (short-film contest) and Maria Ignatenko fell asleep (Forum).

In addition, the German-Russian-British film “The Last Sunday”, which tells about the last year of the life of writer Leo Tolstoy, will be screened in the Homage section dedicated to the British actress Helen Mirren this year.

The Berlinale is included in the "Big Three" of the main movie screenings, which also includes the Venice and Cannes festivals. The first time it was organized in 1951 in West Berlin by the allies of the Second World War - the USA, France and Great Britain.

Since 1978, the Berlinale has always been held in February. The organizers annually sell more than 400 thousand tickets, which makes it the largest film festival in the world in terms of the number of visitors.

  • People sleep in line for tickets to the 70th Berlin Film Festival
  • Reuters
  • © Annegret Hilse

The festival program consists of nine sections: “Competition”, “Panorama”, “Forum”, “Generation”, “Perspective German Cinema”, “Short Meter”, Berlinale Special, “Encounters” and “Retrospective”.

The Golden Bear is the highest award of the Berlin International Film Festival. It is awarded in the nominations "Best Film", "Best Short Film" and with the wording "For Life Achievements".

The owners of the "Silver Bear" are the artists who won in the categories of "Best Director", "Best Screenplay", "Best Actor", "Best Actress", festival Grand Prix winners, as well as various film figures - cameramen, costumes and others.

Since 1975, when the Soviet film ("One Hundred Days After Childhood" directed by Sergey Solovyov) took part in the main competition for the first time, many films of domestic production have visited the festival. The main prize received only two of them - "Ascent" (1977) Larisa Shepitko and "Theme" (1987) Gleb Panfilov.

Directors “Silver Bear” were awarded to directors Sergey Solovyov for the aforementioned “One Hundred Days After Childhood”, Georgy Shengelaya for the film “The Journey of a Young Composer” (1986) and Vadim Abdrashitov for his work on the film “A Piece for the Passenger” (1995).

In 2019, Russia was represented by the films “Russian Boy” by Alexander Zolotukhin (recently released in wide distribution) and “Acid” by Alexander Gorchilin.