M. Night Shyamalan on Berlin Film Festival Jury President Role: ‘I’m Going to See Something That’s Going to Change Me’

If you’ve seen the hit Netflix series Dark, then you definitely are a Louis Hofmann fan. If you haven’t, it’s time to catch up!

The Berlin International Film Festival confirmed today it has recorded 128 positive Covid cases from 10,938 tests taken at testing stations around fest hub Potsdamer Platz.

Guy Lodge Film CriticThe Berlin Film Festival’s awards ceremony is under way, with M. Night Shyamalan’s jury soon to announce their selections from the festival’s official competition.

Winners are being announced for the 72nd Berlin International Film Festival. Follow the ceremony live via the below video feed from 7PM CET / 10AM PST, with the red carpet now underway.

Sat in front of a computer, musician Nick Cave reads a few questions aloud. These are deeply existential musings sent in by people he has never met.

Berlin Film Festival has staged its first in-person edition since 2020, soldiering on amid a wave of the COVID omicron variant in Germany and a last-minute virtual pivot for the European Film Market. Here are our main takeaways below:Film Industry Pining For In-Person Meetings Despite the EFM being online, a clutch of buyers and sellers made the trek to Berlin where they held a mix of online and physical meetings in the Marriott and a very bare Gropius Bau.

The streets outside her window are dripping with hope, and yet Élisabeth (Charlotte Gainsbourg) is lost. It is Paris, 1981, a new president has been elected, and Élisabeth’s husband has left, claiming the thrillingness of motion by moving in with a new girlfriend while his ex is left with the stagnance of remaining, the apartment where they’ve raised their children, Judith (Megan Northam) and Matthias (Quito Rayon-Richter), at once comfortingly familiar and dreadfully new.

Love letters rarely include knock-off Barbie dolls engaging in incest, but the conventional is often off the table when it comes to French director Bertrand Bonello. “Coma,” Bonello’s latest, begins with a miscellanea of incongruent images, zoomed in and blurred, an amalgamation of amorphous shapes that exacerbates the sharpness of the accompanying words.

Few directors are better equipped to make an interesting and entertaining film in the middle of a pandemic than Quentin Dupieux. Seemingly unperturbed by this “new normal,” the French filmmaker continues on his recent string of cost-effective but impactful films, each revolving around a simple but conceptually bold ‘what if’ scenario, with “Incredible But True,” premiering in the Special Gala section of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival.

EXCLUSIVE: The Berlin Film Festival, which got underway on Thursday evening, has recorded more than 60 positive Covid results from its testing procedures, organizers have confirmed to us.

Just as the Tiktok-ers and Instagrammites of the world had completed the mainstreaming of ASMR, master of the tactile Peter Strickland has returned to restore the unsettling, alien quality to sensation. In “Flux Gourmet,” his latest and most bizarre film — a hotly contested title he earns with this feverish stew of murdered turtles, torrid orgies, and heartrending fart-tending — texture is everything.

EXCLUSIVE: Organizers of the Berlin Film Festival have told us that the world premiere screening of opening film Peter Von Kant was disrupted last night due to “a server problem”.

EXCLUSIVE: Veteran editor Natalia Lopez Gallardo’s feature directing debut Robe Of Gems screens in competition today at the Berlin Film Festival, check out the first trailer above.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentSwitzerland, thanks to its prolific co-production activity, has a hand in a record-breaking 11 titles in the Berlinale’s official selection, including two films competing for the Golden Bear, and two more in Berlin’s cutting-edge Encounters section, as well as a Swiss talent selected for the fest’s Shooting Stars event, Souheila Yacoub.Ursula Meier’s “The Line” (competition) — Following “Home” and “Sister,” Meier continues to pursue “this idea of family that is as much necessary, as it is toxic,” says the film’s producer Pauline Gygax. After a violent argument with her mother, Margaret, 35 (Stephanie Blanchoud), who has a long history of inflicting and suffering from violence, is subjected to a restraining order.

Ed Meza @edmezavarThe 72nd Berlin Film Festival got off to a promising if somewhat subdued start Feb. 10 amid strict restrictions due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, which put a major damper on this year’s festivities and kept crowds to a minimum.While only some 800 guests attended the opening night ceremony at the Berlinale Palast — less than half of the normal capacity of the festival’s grand main venue — the event was nevertheless a hopeful sign for the local film industry and for cinema in general.The festival was uncompromising in its mask policy for the red carpet, rendering most high-profile guests unrecognizable — although many whipped them off for the phalanx of photographers.

The 72nd Berlin International Film Festival is officially up and running as an in-person event, pressing on determinedly despite the challenges presented by the Covid wave Germany is experiencing.

Manori Ravindran International EditorIn a year when a festival darling like Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s “Drive My Car” was able to garner four Oscar nominations, including best picture, questions for the Berlin Film Festival jury — which includes Hamaguchi — centered on the role of film festivals in connecting both arthouse and mainstream audiences.Declaring that he “felt like a kid” at the Berlinale, where his jury will be watching 18 films in all, M. Night Shyamalan sat beaming next to Hamaguchi, who is fresh off his Oscar nomination for best director earlier this week.

The 72nd Berlin Film Festival kicks off in physical form today with M. Night Shyamalan leading the main competition jury. Also notable among panelists is Oscar nominee Ryusuke Hamaguchi whose Drive My Car this week became the first Japanese movie ever nominated for the Best Picture Academy Award. Hamaguchi was actually on a plane heading to Berlin when the nominations were announced, and only learned of the results upon landing.

Manori Ravindran International EditorYou can’t say we weren’t warned.When the omicron wave hit in December, the Berlin Film Festival frantically pivoted to ensure a physical event went ahead, and organizers cautioned that heavy COVID restrictions would be in place at the 72nd edition of the fest.True to form, those measures are keenly felt on the ground in Berlin, where COVID-testing buses and strict vaccination and booster checks will be de rigueur over the next week. Depending on where you’re coming from, that may be a shock to the system, but it appears to be a lot more straightforward than it looks — and rest assured you’ll be spared the indignity of spitting into test tubes.A day before Thursday’s opening ceremony, which screens Francois Ozon’s “Peter von Kant,” the main festival grounds are noticeably subdued, with the Berlinale Palast red carpet still in the process of being set up.

Ed Meza @edmezavarOrganizers of the upcoming Berlinale continue to plan for a physical festival under strict safety measures, but with the EFM already moved online due to rising COVID-19 cases, this year looks set to be another gloomy gathering, not only for Germany’s dispirited film sector, but also for Berlin businesses bracing for more lost revenue.Local cinema operators and distributors have welcomed the move, but the condensed event and ongoing Omicron scare is likely to keep attendance on the low side.“This is such an important signal for the entire culture and film industry,” says Christian Bräuer, chairman of independent cinema association AG Kino – Gilde and managing director of Berlin’s Yorck-Kino group. “Of course, as social venues, we are aware of our responsibility.