Berlin Film Festival to take place despite pandemic

Naman Ramachandran France’s Vesoul International Film Festival of Asian Cinemas kicks off Feb. 1 with a gala screening of Iranian auteur Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s 2001 Cannes winner “Kandahar” and will conclude on Feb.

Dispatches from the Sundance Film Festival are usually accompanied by descriptions of the looming mountains, snowy premieres and frantic bus shuttles. This year's Sundance, which played out entirely virtually due to the COVID-19 surge driven by the omicron variant, meant less evocative screening circumstances: Laptops, digital links and Zooms.But even in reduced form, the films were often hypnotic, thrilling and urgent.

Christopher Vourlias Heretic, the Athens-based boutique production company and sales agent, has acquired world sales rights for “Working Class Heroes,” by director Miloš Pušić, which will have its premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Panorama strand. Variety has also been given exclusive access to the film’s trailer.Starring award-winning Serbian actress Jasna Đuričić, who played the lead role in Jasmila Žbanić’s Oscar-nominated “Quo Vadis, Aida?,” “Working Class Heroes” follows a cold-hearted businesswoman working for a construction investor of dubious morals.

Leo Barraclough International Features EditorPicture Tree Intl. has acquired Iranian genre crossover feature “Without Her,” and will introduce the film to buyers during the upcoming European Film Market at its Marriot Hotel located office in Berlin.

Berlin Film Festival organizers on Wednesday said they have further updated their Covid regulations ahead of the fest, which kicks off February 10.

Ed Meza @edmezavarGerman sales company Pluto Film is under new ownership following its sale by founders and former CEOs Heino Deckert and Torsten Frehse to Daniela and Benjamin Cölle.Deckert and Frehse, who established the Berlin-based shingle in 2015, are stepping down to focus on the activities of their respective companies, the Leipzig-based production shingle Maja.de and Berlin film distributor Neue Visionen.The new husband and wife team will head Pluto Film as co-CEOs, with Daniela Cölle also serving as head of acquisitions. Cölle has worked at the company since its launch, initially as festival manager.“We are very thankful to Torsten and Heino for trusting in us as new owners and CEOs,” she said.

The team behind the European Film Market (EFM), the industry wing of the Berlin Film Festival, had been busy preparing for a return to an in-person event in 2022 after they were forced to put last year’s edition online due to Covid.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival has confirmed its various juries, including who will be joining M. Night Shyamalan to award the International Competition prizes.

Joe Otterson TV ReporterFlula Borg is returning to the world of “Pitch Perfect,” with the German actor and comedian signing on for a role in the Peacock series continuation of the film franchise.Variety exclusively reported that the series had been ordered by Peacock in September 2021. Borg will star alongside previously announced series lead Adam Devine.

In 2009, when I was in the Air Force and stationed in Germany, I traveled to Berlin on New Year’s Eve to celebrate. As my friends and I were getting turnt up in the bar, I came out as a lesbian. The moment was random and unprovoked. I shared the news with all my friends and had a dope night ringing in the 2010s, but panic set in when I woke up the next day. I’m 27 years old and a lesbian: what do I do now? 

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterSundance Film Festival has revealed a mystery movie on its 2022 lineup.“Navalny,” a fly-on-the-wall documentary about Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, has been a late addition to the festival’s agenda. The film will debut on Jan. 25 at 6 p.m.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentThough the Berlin Film Festival’s European Film Market has been forced by the omicron variant to go online, the fact that the fest itself will instead be held in person means that, as anticipated by Variety, some industry players are planning to make the trek to Germany.This has prompted the EFM –- after some deliberation with local health authorities –- to set up separate industry screenings for films launching in the Berlinale’s 2022 official selection.“Even with the EFM going online, a number of industry delegates confirmed their intention to come to Berlin to visit the festival in person and the Berlinale offers industry accreditation even in its revised format,” EFM director Dennis Ruh (pictured) tells Variety. All festival accreditation holders will have access to tickets allocated for all public screenings.

Mexico’s Oscar-shortlisted Prayers For the Stolen directed by Tatiana Huezo won the FIPRESCI Prize for Best International Feature Film at the Palm Springs Film Festival, which revealed its juried winners Wednesday despite being forced to cancel its 2022 edition.

It feels like yesterday that I was on the phone to Berlinale directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian following their pre-recorded video announcement of the 2021 festival program, the three of us casting an eye forward to the following year with the hope that this pandemic would finally be behind us.

While somewhat arbitrary and beholden to what’s finished, what’s available, and what’s ready, film festivals tend to have good years and bad years, depending. And well, after several good years, where the Berlin Film Festival has re-established itself as a significant player in the world cinema film festival sweepstakes, the Berlinale has really upped the ante in 2022 with a terrific line-up.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau ChiefLeading indie sales agent Finecut has picked up international rights to “The Novelist’s Film.” The picture marks the third year in a row that South Korean director Hong Sang-soo has had a film selected for competition in Berlin.Hong, who works on low budgets, controls much of the production process and makes repeated use of a small pool of actors, is one of the most prolific feature directors in the world. Although his works divide critics, he appears to have been recently rehabilitated among selectors (and juries) at the major European festivals.Hong’s 2020 “The Woman Who Ran” earned Berlin’s silver bear for best director.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival is revealing its Competition line-up this morning from 11am CET, refresh this page for updates.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentFrench auteur Alain Guiraudie’s political drama “Nobody’s Hero” has been set as the opener of the 2022 Berlin Film Festival’s multifaceted Panorama strand, which has announced its full lineup.The latest feature from Guiraudie, who is best known for his 2016 “Staying Vertical,” takes place in Clermont-Ferrand, central France, where a terrorist attack triggers some paranoid dynamics involving a young homeless man, a middle-aged sex worker and her married lover who have taken refuge in a building. The film’s cast comprises actor-director Noémie Lvovsky, Jean-Charles Clichet and Doria Tillier.The ten-title Panorama Dokumente strand, which runs concurrently with the feature films, comprises previously announced transgender-themed doc “Nel Mio Nome” (“Into My Name”) by Italian director and producer Nicolò Bassetti.

The program announcements continue for the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival this week, with the full Panorama line-up now confirmed.