Berlin Showbiz Latest News and Updates

Mahin’s friend Pouran likes talking about her ailments, real and imagined. More than that, she has something on her phone she is keen to show the ladies gathered for one of their regular lunches at Mahin’s place: the film she made of her colonoscopy. “That’s disgusting,” snorts Mahin (Lily Farhadpour). “I told her to marry! You wouldn’t be like this if you had!” Another of their wrinkly gang chips in. “What joy did our dead husbands ever bring us?” They all laugh, companionably.

Ellise Shafer Martin Scorsese was lauded with the Berlin Film Festival‘s honorary Golden Bear on Tuesday night, celebrating a lifetime of achievement in cinema. As he accepted the award, Scorsese — whose most recent film, “Killers of the Flower Moon,” is currently up for 10 Oscars — reflected on his career thus far and even teased a return to the festival “in a couple years.” Scorsese was introduced by German director Wim Wenders, who is also Oscar-nominated for his latest feature, “Perfect Days.” Wenders told a hilarious story, complete with a photo slideshow, about one of his earliest interactions with Scorsese at the Telluride Film Festival in 1978, where he came upon the director and his then-girlfriend Isabella Rossellini on the side of the road with a flat tire.

EXCLUSIVE: Beloved French actor Omar Sy stars in the debut feature from longtime producer Brandt Andersen in The Strangers’ Case, a searing and international ensemble that is world premiering at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday. Watch an exclusive clip above.

EXCLUSIVE: Cinetic Media has signed award-winning Iranian filmmaker Babak Jalali (Fremont, Land) for management across all media.

Martin Scorsese was presented with the Berlin Film Festival’s Honorary Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement on Tuesday evening, with old friend German director Wim Wenders paying a warm personal tribute to the director.

Rocco Siffredi claims that after making roughly 1,400 hardcore films — with titles like “The Ass Collector” and “Rocco’s Perfect Slaves” — over the past four decades, he has finally found “the peace of his senses.” “I could crack a bad joke and say I can’t get it up anymore,” says Siffredi, 59, speaking on a video call from the Budapest office of his Rocco Siffredi Production company, which houses the Siffredi Hard Academy, touted as the world’s first “university of porn.” “But that’s not the case. Quite the contrary,” the hardworking “Italian Stallion” hastens to add. I’ve asked Siffredi about being — or having notoriously been — a sex addict.

Ellise Shafer Martin Scorsese expanded upon his opinions on the current state of cinema during a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival, where he is receiving an Honorary Golden Bear. When asked if cinema could be dying, Scorsese said he prefers to think of the industry as “transforming.” “I don’t think it’s dying at all, no. I think it’s transforming,” Scorsese said.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief Two Taiwan-based production companies with features in this week’s Berlin Film Festival have joined forces to launch new venture, Long Hu Bao × An Attitude. Taiwan’s Yi Tiao Long Hu Bao International Entertainment, is one of eight co-producers on main competition film “Shambhala,” from Nepal’s Min Bahadur Bham.

The Money Heist prequel series Berlin has been renewed for a second season!

Martin Scorsese revealed he is still mulling how to tackle the life of Jesus on the big screen, at a press conference at the Berlin Film Festival where he will receive its honorary Golden Bear on Tuesday evening.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter The “Money Heist” spinoff series “Berlin” has been renewed for Season 2 at Netflix. The second season will once again see Pedro Alonso returning as the title character, along with fellow cast members Michelle Jenner as Keila, Tristán Ulloa as Damián, Begoña Vargas as Cameron, Julio Peña Fernández as Roi, and Joel Sánchez as Bruce. The Spanish-language series serves as a prequel to the events of “Money Heist” (a.k.a “La casa de papel”).

Pussy Riot protested Alexei Navalny’s death outside the Russian embassy in Berlin on Sunday (February 18), accusing Vladimir Putin and the Russian government of being “murderers”.The activist group staged the protest outside the embassy following the Russian opposition leader’s death on Friday (February 16).Details surrounding his death remain scarce, though authorities at the prison where he was being held said he suffered “sudden death syndrome”, according to the BBC. The state-run RT suggested via an unknown source that he died from a blood clot.Pussy Riot held large signs reading ‘Murderers’ at the demonstration.

Berlinale Series Market’s annual project pitching event. The prize consists of an invitation to the production’s team to present again at the industry centrepiece at next month’s Lille-based get-together, the Series Mania Forum’s Co-Pro Pitching Sessions.

Patrick Frater Asia Bureau Chief The route from idol group member to TV and film acting is a well-trodden one for multiple Japanese performers as they mature and attempt to broaden and extend their career. Few, however, can have received the plaudits of SixTONES member Matsumura Hokuto, who flies in to the Berlin Film Festival for the international premiere of two handed drama feature “All the Long Nights.” Derived from a novel by Seo Maiko and directed by Miyake Sho, the narrative features a woman (portrayed by Kamishiraishi Mone) whose pre-menstrual tension is so intense that it changes her character and disrupts her career. She is befriended by a younger, somewhat solitary man who, in turn, suffers from panic attacks.

Russian Pussy Riot Dissident Nadya Tolokonnikova has welcomed a pledge by Alexei Navalny’s widow Yulia Navalnaya to carry on his fight for democracy, following his death in an Arctic penal colony last week.

Holly Jones Amongst a slate of auspicious Brazilian films and series featuring in Berlin, “Cidade; Campo”– the latest from arthouse helmer Juliana Rojas – saw its world premiere on Monday, screening as part of the Encounters strand that aims “to foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers,” according to the fest. Backed by Brazil’s Dezenove Som e Imagem and Globo Filmes in tandem with France’s Good Fortune Films and Germany’s Sutor Kolonko, the loosely mystical narrative tells two disparate relocation stories fused by longing, grief and a rousing aesthetic.

Ed Meza @edmezavar Since its establishment in 2018, Gaumont Germany has produced a wide range of series and TV movies, among them such timely shows as the critically acclaimed “Deutsches Haus” (“The Interpreter of Silence”), which was nominated for the Critics Choice Awards, and the Ukrainian series “In Her Car.” A subsidiary of the French entertainment powerhouse, the Cologne and Berlin-based company also created such ambitious shows as Netflix’s historical epic “Barbarians” – the first season of which was one of the streamer’s most successful non-English-language series worldwide – and the award-winning Sky Original comedy “The Wasp,” about a professional dart player seeking to return to his former glory. Discussing the company’s latest productions, Gaumont Germany President Sabine de Mardt says it’s important to combine broader entertainment with relevance, something both “The Interpreter of Silence” and “In Her Car” offer.

Holly Jones Simmering teen angst meets social awareness in “Red Flags,” an Atresplayer Original created by award-winning author and playwright Nando López, whose novel “The Age of Anger” was previously adapted for television by Lucía Carballal (“Locked Up”) and backed by The Mediapro Studio (“The Head”) and Atresmedia TV (“Money Heist”). The project features within the second annual Next From Spain Sessions part of the Berlin Film Festival’s Berlinale Series Market, providing a first look at anticipated Spanish-language programming from industry heavy hitters that include the series producers Atresmedia TV and Zeta Studios.

Hillary Clinton and Sharon Stone shared the stage at the annual Cinema for Peace funder raiser in Berlin on Monday night with the latter presenting the former U.S. secretary of state with the NGO’s Cinema for Peace Award.

Korean director Hong Sang-soo is such a Berlinale favorite that his film in competition, featuring Isabelle Huppert as an apparently penniless tourist trying to scrape together a living in Seoul, is his sixth film to be invited to the festival since 2020 — remarkably, that’s not even his entire output over that time. He hits this pace by keeping things simple, shooting each film in just a couple of weeks with very few crew and small casts, most of whom have been his collaborators for years, and covering many of the key technical jobs himself.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Berlin Film Festival hosted the 10 young European actors selected for the Shooting Stars program, run by European Film Promotion, at a gala event Monday. The presentation of the Shooting Stars took place prior to the screening of Claire Burger’s “Langue Étrangère,” which plays in competition.

Holly Jones Brazilian activist and sociologist, Herbert de Souza, inspires the latest Globoplay Original series “Living On A Razor’s Edge,” (“Betinho: No Fio da Navalha”) featuring in Berlin as part of the European Film Market’s Berlinale Series Market Selects, an exclusive advance on anticipated titles with farer-reaching potential. The title, teased at Content Americas, was created by José Junior (“Anti Kidnapping Unit”) and is directed by “Under Pressure” star Julio Andrade – also tackling the role of protagonist – and Lipe Binder (“Written In The Stars”).

Anna Marie de la Fuente Spanish indie film studio Filmax has sold sleeper hit “The Teacher who Promised the Sea” to Italy’s Officine Ubu following sales to Nachshon Films in Israel, Angel Films Scandinavia, India’s BookMyShow and airline rights to Encore Inflight. “The Teacher…” is based on the real story of Antoni Benaiges, an instructor from Catalonia who, back in 1935, was assigned to teach at a little village school in the province of Burgos.

Money Heist spin-off Berlin has been renewed for a second season by Netflix.

Lissy (Corinna Harfouch) is huddled on the floor in her nightgown, trying to ring her son. Her legs and nightgown are smeared brown with her regular nightly incontinence, but it is her husband who worries her: Gerd (Hans-Uwe Bauer) has wandered outside again, not sure where he is and wearing no pants. Her neighbor is at the door, insisting on being helpful, while Lissy just wants her to cut short this humiliation; has she spotted that even the phone is now daubed with excrement?

“This might sound very irresponsible, but I don’t know what I’m doing,” South Korean filmmaker Hong Sangsoo told a Berlinale presser this afternoon when quizzed on his unique directing style. 

Nick Vivarelli International Correspondent Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (GEA) has launched a new film fund called Big Time Investment to boost production of quality Arabic movies and announced a slate of Egyptian feature films toplined by a biopic of Egyptian icon Umm Kulthum who is considered the Arab world’s greatest singer. Prominent Egyptian director Marwan Hamed, whose epic “Kira and El Gen” about local resistance to British occupation, is recent hit, will direct the film titled “El Set.” Egyptian star Mona Zaki will play Kulthum who from the late 1920s onwards became the first prominent Arab singer to disseminate her work to the masses via the new technologies of the times: radio, the phonograph, cinema and television.

Guy Lodge Film Critic “We need a new idea of beauty,” says Michele De Lucchi, the Italian architect who talks us through certain stretches of “Architecton,” a singularly imposing and sonorous new documentary from Russian non-fiction auteur Victor Kossakovsky. His argument is that the earth can no longer sustain the kind of hefty architectural grandeur, built from the fabric of the Earth itself, that we’ve asthetically prized for centuries, and nor can the cycle of more disposable concrete construction continue without devastating environmental impact.

Stockport is being recognised for its nightlife after receiving a prestigious award.

Mubi has snapped up rights across multiple territories on Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger, the Martin Scorsese-narrated doc set to debut this week at the Berlin Film Festival. 

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor Kirsten Niehuus, head of German film fund Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, is confident that the changes to film funding proposed by the German government recently will have a “very positive effect on the production scene in Berlin-Brandenburg.” The proposed changes to the funding system were presented last week to German lawmakers in the Bundestag by commissioner for culture and media Claudia Roth (see here). Speaking to Variety Saturday at a party Medienboard hosted at Berlin’s Holzmarkt, Niehuus said the changes “will mean that we would have a tax system in place that could compete, for instance, with Budapest or Prague, so that not so many German productions would go and shoot somewhere else, and more foreign productions would come and shoot in Germany.” Looking at the media landscape across Germany she notes that one major challenge is the decision by high-end outlets such as Paramount+, HBO and Sky to cancel local productions, and she noted “the streamers are not such reliable partners anymore.” She added: “So I think producers are having a really hard time at the moment.” On a happier note, the Berlin government raised Medienboard’s budget by Euros 6 million over the next two years, which will be targeted at the exhibition sector in the region, allowing for the upgrading of facilities at movie theaters.

Alex Ritman ‘Made in England: The Films of Powell and Pressburger,’ the documentary produced and narrated by Matin Scorsese, has been acquired by Mubi ahead of the film’s world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival. The arthouse streamer, distributor and production company has bought all rights for Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, Latin America, Turkey and India.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent As the European Film Market starts to unwind, the verdict is already in: Even if global economics are rocky, buyers are back and on the lookout. This week, dealmaking has been happening on both star-driven packages as well as arthouse and foreign-language movies.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Playtime has had a busy EFM, where it’s locked a raft of major deals on “The Devil’s Bath,” a period psychological thriller in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. “The Devil’s Bath” is directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, the Austrian filmmaking duo behind “Goodnight Mommy.” Set in rural Austria in 1750, “The Devil’s Bath” stars Anja Plaschg, the up-and-coming singer and composer known as Soap & Skin. Plaschg plays Agnes, a young married woman who feels oppressed in her husband’s world, which is devoid of emotions and limited to chores and expectations.

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor “From Hilde, With Love,” which world premiered Saturday in competition at the Berlinale, has debuted its trailer (below). The film, directed by Andreas Dresen, centers on a group of young anti-Nazi activists in Berlin during World War II. (Read Variety‘s review here.) The film, which is being sold by Beta Cinema and is produced by Claudia Steffen and Christoph Friedel for Pandora Film, stars “Babylon Berlin” breakout Liv Lisa Fries and Johannes Hegemann.

Callum McLennan Chile’s Storyboard Media brings its latest documentary venture to Berlin, a project centered on Jorge González, a Latin American music legend frontman of Los Prisioneros. Set to be shown at the EFM, the doc feature charts the life and legacy of a musician whose songs became anthems of resistance during Pinochet’s dictatorship in Chile, and are still played loud when protests flare.