‘Senior Moment’ Starring William Shatner, Jean Smart & Christopher Lloyd Lands At Screen Media

Berlinale Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian were determined to be in a cinema today when broadcasting the lineup for this year’s Competition program.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentM-Appeal has taken world distribution rights to Japanese filmmaker Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy,” which has its world premiere In Competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.

William Shatner The difference in our ages was only three years, but in those early years in Montreal, Chris was more advanced as an actor, with experience and talent. He was part of the theatrical scene of Montreal, and he was making a living working on Canadian Broadcasting Corp.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentARRI Media Intl. has signed a deal with Faktura Film to handle the international sales for the Marxist vampire comedy “Bloodsuckers.” The film has been selected to world premiere in the Berlin Film Festival’s Encounters section, which aims to “foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers.” Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer.ARRI Media Intl.

The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the titles that will screen in its Forum section this year, which focuses on cutting-edge and experimental cinema.

Hannah Einbinder (Just For Laugh’s 2019 New Face of Comedy, standup The Late Show with Stephen Colbert) and Carl Clemons-Hopkins (Hamilton, Candymanare) are set as leads in HBO Max’s as-yet untitled comedy starring Jean Smart, from Broad City alums Paul W. Downs, Lucia Aniello and Jen Statsky.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentPicture Tree International has acquired international rights to “Mission Ulja Funk,” which has been selected for Berlin Film Festival’s youth-centric Generation KPlus competition.The film, which is the debut feature of German writer/director Barbara Kronenberg, is about the 12 year old girl Ulja, who sets out on a road trip in a stolen hearse to Eastern Europe to witness the impact of an asteroid she discovered.Kronenberg studied at the Academy

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentGeneration, the Berlin Film Festival’s section for youth-centric movies, has unveiled its lineup, with a majority of its films directed by women.Sixty per cent of the films are directed by women, and many of them feature “strong willed” female protagonists, the festival said, such as “Ninjababy,” in which Rakel is six months pregnant, but doesn’t want to become a mother.

Nearly 200 LGBTQ actors in Germany, including some of the country's biggest film and TV stars, staged a mass coming-out in a German national newspaper on Friday, in a public appeal for more diversity on stage and screen. The 185 gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender actors — among them Babylon Berlin star Udo Samel, and Karin Hanczewski and Mark Waschke from No.

Anne Feeney, a folk singer who collaborated with Pete Seeger, John Prine and Peter, Paul and Mary and an impassioned activist who fought for workers' and women's rights, died Wednesday in Pittsburgh of COVID-19 complications. She was 69.

Anne Feeney, a key part of the folk music movement and a committed political and labor activist, died Wednesday in Pittsburgh, Pa. from complications of Covid-19. She was 69 and her daughter, Amy Sue Berlin, announced her passing on Facebook.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe European Film Market, which is being staged as a virtual event from March 1-5, is to arrange screenings of films selected as part of the Berlin Film Festival lineup in movie theaters in four cities around the world.The initiative, running under the banner “EFM Goes Global,” will see physical screenings for distributors in Tokyo for the Asian market, Melbourne for Oceania, São Paulo for South America, and Mexico City for Central America.

Nick Vivarelli International CorrespondentDirector Ronny Trocker, whose second feature “Human Factors” world-premiered at Sundance on Jan. 29 in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition, was born in Bolzano, Italy, capital city of the autonomous province of South Tyrol where German is the first language of most of the population.

Six former winners of the Berlin International Film Festival's Golden Bear for best film will make up the jury for this year's event.

Leo Barraclough Senior International CorrespondentThe Berlin Film Festival has unveiled the International Jury for its 71st edition.The jury will comprise Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, Israeli director Nadav Lapid, Romania director Adina Pintilie, Hungary director Ildikó Enyedi, Italian director Gianfranco Rosi and Bosnian director Jasmila Žbanić.As previously announced, the festival will take place in two stages this year, due to the pandemic.

Matt Donnelly Senior Film Writer“Minyan,” an acclaimed tale of sexual and spiritual identity directed by Eric Steel, has sold to Strand Releasing in North America.The film, starring stage breakout Samuel H. Levine of Broadway and the West End’s “The Inheritance,” played in the official selection at last year’s Berlin International Film Festival and went on to win Outfest’s grand jury prize for U.S.

Vikings spin-off series on Netflix, Viking: Valhalla, has confirmed its core cast members.The show will feature Sam Corlett, Frida Gustavsson, Leo Suter, Bradley Freegard, Jóhannes Jóhannesson, Laura Berlin, David Oakes and Caroline Henderson among others.Valhalla takes place in the early 11th century, and will focus on “the legendary adventures of some of the most famous Vikings who ever lived – Leif Eriksson, Freydis Eriksdotter, Harald Hardrada and the Norman King William the Conqueror,” a

Screen Media has acquired the worldwide rights to “Senior Moment,” a comedy starring William Shatner, Jean Smart and Christopher Lloyd, and the distributor will release the film in theaters and on-demand in March.Giorgio Serafini directed the film that stars Shatner as a retired NASA test pilot who gets his license revoked after drag racing his vintage Porsche convertible, forcing him to take public transportation for the first time.