Why have so many UK festivals been cancelled or postponed?

Catherine Bray Two years after their Berlinale prizewinner “Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush,” veteran German director Andreas Dresen and his regular screenwriter Laila Stieler reteam for the moving drama “From Hilde, With Love.” Drawing on the compelling real-life case of the Hilde and Hans Coppi, a young married couple arrested and executed for treason by the Gestapo in wartime Berlin, the film cross-cuts between an idyllic summer romance and much darker later events.

“This is a very, very romantic film,” Gael García Bernal said of his Berlin competition title, Another End. 

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent Highland Film Group has locked key territory deals for sci-fi thriller “The Astronaut” from “A Quiet Place” producer Brad Fuller Pic stars Kate Mara (“A Teacher”), Laurence Fishburne (“John Wick” films) and Gabriel Luna (“Terminator: Dark Fate”). The film wrapped shooting late last year in Ireland. “The Astronaut” has sold to Signature Entertainment for the U.K., Capelight Pictures for Germany, Blue Swan Entertainment for Italy, Nos Lusomundo Audiovisuais for Portugal, DeAPlaneta for Spain, Spentzos Film for Greece, Cinemania Group for former Yugoslavia, Shoval Film Production for Israel, Falcon Films for the Middle East, Filmfinity for South Africa and Roadshow Films for Australia and New Zealand.

Filmmaker Andreas Dresen and actress Liv Lisa Fries took part morning in the press conference for new drama From Hilde, With Love, which debuts this weekend in Competition at the Berlin Film Festival.

Hunter Schafer is stepping out in Berlin!

EXCLUSIVE: The EFM packages aren’t done just yet. Pirates Of The Caribbean director and Oscar winner Gore Verbinski has pulled together a strong cast for his fun-sounding next movie, titled Good Luck, Have Fun, Don’t Die.

Berlinale, which looks to be one of the most politically charged editions in recent history. Several filmmakers have already canceled their participation to the festival in protest of Germany’s attitude towards Palestinian voices, while more than 50 Berlinale workers have signed an open letter this week demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and asking that the festival leadership take a “stronger institutional stance” on what the statement calls “the current assault on Palestinian life” and calling on the festival to take a stance that is “consistent with those taken in response to other events that have struck the international community in recent years.” The war in Gaza followed Hamas’ attacks on Israel on Oct.

Cillian Murphy and Matt Damon are stepping out for the premiere of their new movie!

The Berlin Film Festival officially kicked off this evening with an eventful opening ceremony at the Berlinale Palast theater in the German capital. 

Ed Meza @edmezavar Germany’s film and TV sectors are eagerly awaiting the biggest reform in the history of German film funding this year, and while the government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz struggles to navigate a major budget crisis, leading industry representatives are confident the planned overhaul will improve business despite the hurdles. Overseen by Claudia Roth, the federal government commissioner for culture and media (BKM), the plan aims to create a more centralized film funding system to support production, distribution, world sales and cinemas.

Ellise Shafer During a press conference on Thursday, Berlinale jury president Lupita Nyong’o responded to the festival inviting and then disinviting politicians from far-right group AfD to its opening ceremony. “I’m a foreigner here. I don’t know the ins and outs of the political situation here,” Nyong’o said in response to a question asking if she would have attended the ceremony had the politicians still been invited.

Mark Schilling Japan Correspondent Screening out of competition in the Berlinale Special section, Ishii Gakuryu’s “The Box Man” had a long and difficult gestation. Based on a 1973 novel by Abe Kobo, this film about a man who wears a cardboard box as a mobile carapace started as a successful pitch from Ishii to Abe 32 years ago. “Abe had seen my films and liked them,” says Ishii at the office of the film’s production company and local distributor, Happinet Phantom Studios.

EXCLUSIVE: HanWay Films has closed a Germany & Austria pre-sale on Berlinale competition title La Cocina with SquareOne Entertainment.

EXCLUSIVE: The Berlin Film Festival gets underway tomorrow but organizers and staff will be doing so bruised after an uncomfortable build-up to the event.

A group of Berlin Film Festival workers have released a statement calling for an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the “release of all hostages”, and “stronger institutional leadership”, including from the Berlinale, in response to what they describe as the “current assault on Palestinian life”.

Ellise Shafer A group of Berlinale workers have published an open letter to the festival, demanding a ceasefire in Gaza and asking that leadership take a “stronger institutional stance” on what the statement calls “the current assault on Palestinian life.” The letter, which was published on Instagram Monday night with a link to a Google Form for others to sign, was in response to the Berlinale’s Jan. 19 statement on the Israel-Hamas war.

Elsa Keslassy International Correspondent For decades, the Berlin Film Festival has been forging its own iconoclastic path, known for screening the best of world cinema and edgy underground discoveries as well as its cold February temperatures, while the starrier and warmer Cannes and Venice fests have been in fierce competition to grab the limelight (aka Oscar movies). But the Berlinale — a public institution created at the beginning of the Cold War in 1951 — could be changing course next year with the appointment of Tricia Tuttle, a progressive American film journalist and curator who led the BFI London Film Festival during a fast-growing five-year chapter, and has been indirectly tasked by Germany’s culture minister Claudia Roth to turn the Berlinale into a proper rival to Cannes and Venice, while maintaining its political edge and flare for arthouse cinema.

Germany‘s UFA Group has brought in a senior Netflix exec, as part of a management re-org.

—a question that has long dogged the Chiefs feels more relevant now than ever: Why are they still called that?Many feel the team’s name—a reference to Indigenous chiefs, people with powerful leadership roles within their communities and nations—is appropriative, and its associated imagery (the arrowhead logo, the “” war chants popular among fans) is racist, rendering Native Americans as stereotypical caricatures. So, given other sports teams like the (now the Washington Commanders) and the (now the Cleveland Guardians) have responded to public pressures and changed their names, why haven’t the Chiefs?It’s a complex issue, but before diving into it, one must first understand the Chiefs’ history.

Leo Pearlman I am Leo Pearlman, born in Sunderland, living in London. I am a partner at production company Fulwell 73, where we make content including “Carpool Karaoke” and “Cinderella.” I am a husband, a father, a son and a brother. But I know that even today in some parts of the world there are those who would define me simply as: Jew.