Berlinale Drops Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize After Nazi Accusations Against Festival’s Founder Director

The Berlin Film Festival will rebrand the Alfred Bauer Prize, named after the festival's first director, following revelations about Bauer's activities under the Nazis.Bauer was a film historian who ran the Berlinale from its start in 1951 through 1976.

The 70th anniversary of the Berlin International Film Festival should be a cause for celebration. But recent revelations about the festival's first director, Dr.

Joseph Vilsmaier, the German director of Stalingrad, The Harmonists and Marlene Dietrich biopic Marlene, has died. He was 81.Vilsmaier's agent on Wednesday confirmed media reports that the director "died peacefully at his home" in Bavaria on Tuesday.Born in Munich in 1939, Vilsmaier studied music and worked as a technician before gaining a foothold in the film business in the early 1960s, starting as a runner.

Bayer Leverkusen's Twitter account has trolled a Manchester United fan over the gap between the Reds and Premier League leaders Liverpool.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Christian Petzold’s “Undine,” which world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Petzold won the Silver Berlin Bear for best director for “Barbara” in 2012.

Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique expands their slate for the upcoming Berlin Film Festival with global sales rights on “Last and First Men,” from the late Icelandic-born filmmaker-composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, which will world premiere in the Berlinale Special section.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the first clip from Berlinale Special Gala film “Curveball,” which is inspired by the true story of how the work of the German secret service led to the Iraq War.

By Andreas Wiseman

He was one of 95,786 crammed into Hampden and so small he could barely see the pitch.

The Berlin Film Festival has suspended its Alfred Bauer Prize following revelations that the award’s namesake and the Berlinale’s first director was much more closely affiliated with the Nazi Party than previously known.

It’s not that the knives were out, exactly. It’s just that the faint whiff of lame duckishness has hung over the Berlin Film Festival since the announcement of longtime director Dieter Kosslick’s 2019 departure, an impression that intensified during the last two editions, which were generally regarded as among the weakest the festival has recently seen.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Swiss/Croatian feature film “Mare,” written and directed by Andrea Staka, which will have its world premiere in the Panorama Section of the Berlin Film Festival.

The BBC and TVNZ’s adaptation of Man Booker Prize winning novel “The Luminaries,” starring Eva Green, is among the scripted TV projects that will feature in this year’s Berlinale Series Market and Conference program at the Berlin International Film Festival.

By Tom Grater

Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights to Caru Alves de Souza’s coming-of-age tale “My Name is Baghdad,” which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14 section.