Massive Berlin Aquarium EXPLODES, Injuring Guests & Killing Over A Thousand Fish!

A scary start to the year. Jeremy Renner was hospitalized on New Year’s Day after sustaining injuries while plowing snow in Nevada.

On the mend. Jeremy Renner was hospitalized after sustaining injuries while plowing snow.

After two truncated years of pandemic-related disruptions, film festivals around the world returned with full-flowing in-person events this year.

Edward Berger caused a splash in 2015 with the sleeper-hit TV series Deutschland ’83, a slow-build spy drama set in the deep freeze of the cold war. This year he went even further back into Germany’s history for All Quiet on the Western Front, a brutal retelling of Erich Maria Remarque’s First World War novel, first published in 1929. Many years in limbo, including a period of time with Daniel Radcliffe attached, the project received an adrenaline shot when Berger came on board to take the novel back to its German roots. The harrowing Netflix production has captivated audiences all over the world with the story of rookie soldier Paul Bäumer (Felix Kammerer), and has a strong shot at the International Oscar, having made the 15-title shortlist while opening up four further possibilities for music and craft.

In Todd Field’s Tár, we meet Lydia Tár, a revered composer-conductor heading up the Berlin Philharmonic, played by Cate Blanchett. Nina Hoss, as Lydia’s wife Sharon, is concertmaster and first chair violin, and together they navigate the politics of their musical life while parenting their daughter Petra. But Lydia, who is at the top of her game, and readying for her career-pinnacle live recording, begins to self-destruct, forming an obsessive attachment to Olga, a young cellist, just as a troubling past entanglement comes to light. The target of criticism from her students and a New York Post article, Lydia’s staff and Olga desert her. Then Sharon takes flight with Petra, and Lydia finally slides into the demise of both her personal and professional life. In conversation with Antonia Blyth, Blanchett and Hoss discuss the absence of objective truth, how change is built on open-hearted discussion, and the emergence of art from the raw, painful edge of experience.

EXCLUSIVE: Peacock launched — some of it by design some by necessity because of the pandemic — with original comedies as well as dramas repurposed from linear NBCUniversal networks. In the first year following its July 2020 launch, Peacock debuted comedies Saved By the Bell, Punky Brewster, Rutherford Falls and Girls5eva, along with drama Brave New World, which had been originally produced for USA Network.

Supermarket chain Aldi copied the look of Marks & Spencer’s “Instagrammable” festive gin bottles, the British retailer has argued at the High Court.

A huge aquarium in the centre of Berlin burst on Friday, causing a wave of devastation in and around the Sea Life tourist attraction, German police said.

Deadline reports that the Berlin Film Festival has its titles for its Panorama section this February. And while not the Festival’s main titles in competition, it’s a stellar crop of films annually.

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the first titles selected for its Panorama section at the upcoming in-person edition that takes place February 16-26. (Scroll down for the full list)

Dominik Moll’s The Night of The 12th, which world premiered in Cannes in May, has topped the nominations for the 28th edition of France’s Lumière Awards.

European Film Promotion Unveils 2023 European Shooting StarsBelgian actress Joely Mbundu, co-star of  Luc and Jean-Pierre Dardenne’s Cannes 2022 feature Tori And Lokita, is among the eight rising talents selected for the 2023 edition of European Film Promotion’s European Shooting Stars initiative. The selection also includes Italy’s Benedetta Porcaroli, seen recently in Venice Horizons 2022 title Amanda, and Norway’s Kristine Kujath Thorp, who previously made her mark in Fanny, The Burning Sea and Ninjababy, and also won praise for her performance in Cannes Certain Regard 2022 selection Sick of Myself. The other spotlighted titles comprise Alina Tomnikov (Finland), Leonie Benesch (Germany),  Yannick Jozefzoon (The Netherlands), Judith State(Romania), Gizem Erdogan (Sweden) and Kayije Kagame (Switzerland) Thorvaldur Kristjansson (Iceland). This year’s talents were selected by an eight-person jury featuring Polish director Jan Komasa, Dutch casting director Rebecca van Unen and Norwegian producer Maria Ekerhovd. The eight talents will participate in a four-day program during the upcoming Berlin Film Festival (February 16-26), during which they will meet journalists, casting directors, producers and filmmakers.

that will have you downloading dating apps again. There’s no reason to ask, “What book should I read?” for quite some time.Get your card out—whether it’s a Visa or a good old-fashioned library card—and get ready to order these new 2022 books.

Winner of the Golden Bear at this year’s Berlinale Festival and Spain’s official selection for Best International Feature at the 95th Academy Awards, Spanish filmmaker Carla Simón’s sun-dappled and deeply moving sophomore film, “Alcarràs” was one of the most acclaimed films of the year from the festival circuit. Shot in Alcarràs, Catalonia (North Eastern Spain, where they generally don’t speak Spanish), in the Western dialect of the Catalan language, featuring a non-professional cast of actors, the film is a family drama about the disappearance of traditional peach-harvesting activities.

Icarus Films has picked up North American rights to the Oscar-qualifying documentary Myanmar Diaries, helmed by the anonymous Myanmar Film Collective.

Actress, screenwriter and director Kristen Stewart has been named president of the International Jury at the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival.“We’re excited about Kristen Stewart taking on this distinguished task. She’s one of the most talented and multi-faceted actors of her generation,” festival directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said in a statement. “From Bella Swan to the Princess of Wales she has given life to everlasting characters.