The 74th Berlin International Film Festival unveiled its full lineup Monday at its official press conference in the House of World Cultures in Berlin. Berlinale managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek and artistic director Carlo Chatrian presented the films that will compete for this year’s Golden and Silver Bears both in the competition and encounters sections.
Mexican director Alonso Ruizpalacios, a Berlinale regular and two-time Silver Bear winner — for A Cop Movie in 2022 and Museo in 2018 — returns to Berlin competition with his English-language feature debut La Cocina. Rooney Mara and The Cop Movie alum Raúl Briones star in the drama set over the course of a single day in a bustling New York City restaurant. Briones plays an undocumented cook in a relationship with Julia (Mara), an American waitress who cannot commit to their relationship. Fifth Season and WME are selling North American rights to La Cocina with HanWay handling international sales.
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German director Andreas Dresen (Grill Point, Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush) another Berlinale stalwart, is back in competition with his latest, From Hilde With Love. Babylon Berlin star Liv Lisa Fries headlines in the period drama about a couple who fall in love in a blissful German summer before their lives are torn apart by the Gestapo. Beta Film is selling the movie worldwide.
Other Berlin regulars returning to competition this year include Olivier Assayas with Suspended Time, Russian documentarian Victor Kossakovsky, back with Architecton, and Mati Diop, whose new documentary Dahomey will compete for this year’s Golden Bear. And the ridiculously prolific Hong Sang-soo is back with his fifth Berlinale competition film in as many years, returning to the German capital with A Traveler’s Needs, his third contribution with French acting legend Isabelle Huppert.
Other acclaimed directors in competition this year include Abderrahmane Sissako, in the official lineup with Black Tea; Austrian auteur horror directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, whose The Devil’s Bath will premiere in Berlin; Bruno Dumont, whose Star Wars parody The Empire will screen in competition; and Piero Messina, whose feature Another End, starring Gael Garcia Bernal, gets its world premiere at the Berlinale. Newer Connect is handling international sales on Another End.
The Worst Person in the World breakout Renate Reinsve co-stars in Another End and also headlines Aaron Schimberg’s competition title A Different Man alongside Sebastian Stan.
Highlights of the Encounters lineup, a sidebar featuring more avant-garde and experimental films, include A Family, the directorial debut of acclaimed, and controversial, French writer Christine Angot, whose work as a screenwriter includes the script to 2022 Berlin competition entry Both Sides of the Blade from director Claire Denis; Matt and Mara by director Kazik Radwanski starring Blackberry director Matt Johnson and Deragh Campbell; and Some Rain Must Fall, the feature debut of acclaimed Chinese short film director Qiu Yang.
Last week Berlin unveiled its 2024 program for the festival’s Panorama, Generation, Forum and Forum Extended sidebars.
Rissenbeek and Chatrain began the presser with a statement on the political intentions and positioning of the festival, in particular about the ongoing war in Gaza. They said the Berlinale provides “a space for artistic expression and peaceful dialogue [as] places of encounter and exchange and contributing to international understanding…. We believe that through the power of films and open discussions, we can help foster empathy, awareness, understanding, even and especially in painful times like these. Our sympathy goes out to all the victims of the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East and elsewhere. We want everyone’s suffering to be recognized, and for our program to be open to discussing different perspectives on the complexity of the world. We are also concerned to see that anti-Semitism, anti-Muslim resentment and hate speech are spreading in Germany and around the world. As a cultural institution, we take a firm stand against all forms of discrimination and are committed to intercultural understanding.”
During this year’s Berlinale, Rissenbeek said, the festival will host panels and discussions together with the Tiny House project, a platform for discussion and debate set up by a joint team of Israeli and Palestinian activists.
Pro-Palestinian demonstrations have disrupted the Sundance Film Festival and the fierce debate over the war in Gaza rocked the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) last year, with several directors withdrawing their movies in protest.
Chatrian noted that two directors in sidebar sections pulled their films to protest the war in Gaza, joining the protest “Strike Germany,” which is boycotting German cultural institutions because of the German government’s unequivocal support of Israel during the current conflict.
Separately, Rissenbeek referenced the festival’s own troubled history with its first director, Alfred Bauer. In 2020, reporting uncovered Bauer’s close connections with the Nazi regime and the festival commissioned an independent study with the Leibniz Institute for Contemporary History (Institut für Zeitgeschichte – IfZ) into his past. An expanded version of that study has now been published as a book.
Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy will open the 74th Berlinale on Feb. 15 with the Irish drama Small Things Like These from director Tim Mielants. Murphy plays a man living in 1980s Ireland who discovers the shocking abuse taking place in the Magdalene laundries — asylums run by the Roman Catholic Church for “fallen women.” Matt Damon is a producer on the film through his Artists Equity company and Ben Affleck is an executive producer. FilmNation Entertainment is handling international sales on Small Things Like These.
This will be the final Berlinale for Chatrian and Rissenbeek, who are both stepping down after the 2024 festival wraps up on Feb. 25, to be replaced by Tricia Tuttle, formerly director of the BFI London Film Festival.
Oscar-winner Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave, Black Panther) is president of the International Jury for the 2024 Berlinale, responsible for handing out this year’s Gold and Silver Bear awards.
The full lineup for the 74th Berlinale:
COMPETITION
Small Things Like These by Tim Mielants (Opening Night Film)
Another End by Piero Messina
Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky
Black Tea by Abderrahmane Sissako
La Cocina by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Dahomey by Mati Diop
A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg
L’Empire (The Empire) by Bruno Dumont
Gloria! by Margherita Vicario
Hors du temps (Suspended Time) by Olivier Assayas
In Liebe, Eure Hilde (From Hilde With Love) by Andreas Dresen
Keyke mahboobe man (My Favourite Cake) by Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moghaddam
Langue Etrangere by Claire Burger
Me el Ain (Who Do I Belong to) by Meryam Joobeur
Pepe by Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias
Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham
Sterben by Matthias Glasner
Des Teufels Bad (The Devil’s Bath) by Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz
Vogter (Sons) by Gustav Moller
Yeohaengjaui pilyo (A Traveler’s Needs) by Hong Sangsoo
ENCOUNTERS
Arcadia by Yorgos Zois
Cidade; Campo by Juliana Rojas
Demba by Mamadou Dia
Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell
Dormir de olhos abertos (Sleep With Your Eyes Open) by Nele Wohlatz
The Fable by Raam Reddy
Une famille (A Family) by Christine Angot
Favoriten by Ruth Beckermann
Ivo by Eva Trobisch
Khamyazeye bozorg (The Great Yawn) by Aliyar Rasti
Kong fang jian li de nv ren (Some Rain Must Fall) by Qiu Yang
Maos no fogo (Hands in the Fire) by Margarida Gil
Matt and Mara by Kazik Radwanski
Through the Graves the Wind Is Blowing by Travis Wilkerson
Tu me abrasas (You Burn Me) by Matias Pineiro
2024 Berlinale Sidebar Lineups (Previously Announced)
Panorama
Afterwar
by Birgitte Stærmose
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Alle die Du bist (Every You Every Me)
by Michael Fetter Nathansky
Germany / Spain 2024
Panorama | World premiere
All Shall Be Well
by Ray Yeung
Hong Kong, China 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Andrea lässt sich scheiden (Andrea Gets a Divorce)
by Josef Hader
Austria 2024
Panorama | World premiere
À quand l’Afrique? (Which Way Africa?)
by David-Pierre Fila
Republic of the Congo / Angola / Cameroon 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Baldiga – Entsichertes Herz (Baldiga – Unlocked Heart)
by Markus Stein
Germany 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Betânia
by Marcelo Botta
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Between the Temples
by Nathan Silver
Panorama | International premiere
A Bit of a Stranger
by Svitlana Lishchynska
Ukraine 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Crossing
by Levan Akin
Sweden / Denmark / France / Turkey / Georgia 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Cu Li Không Bao Gio Khóc (Cu Li Never Cries)
by Lân Phạm Ngọc
Vietnam / Philippines / France / Singapore / Norway 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Diaries From Lebanon
by Myriam El Hajj
Lebanon / France / Qatar / Saudi Arabia 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Faruk
by Aslı Özge
Germany / Turkey / France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Les gens d’à côté (My New Friends)
by André Téchiné
France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
I Saw the TV Glow
by Jane Schoenbrun
USA 2024
Panorama | International premiere
Janet Planet
by Annie Baker
Panorama | International premiere | Debut film
Ještě nejsem, kým chci být (I’m Not Everything I Want to Be)
by Klára Tasovská
Czechia / Slovakia / Austria 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Jia ting jian shi (Brief History of a Family)
by Lin Jianjie
People’s Republic of China / France / Denmark / Qatar 2024
Panorama | European premiere | Debut film
Memorias de un cuerpo que arde (Memories of a Burning Body)
by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
Costa Rica / Spain 2024
Panorama | World premiere
No Other Land
by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
Palestine / Norway 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
The Outrun
by Nora Fingscheidt
United Kingdom / Germany 2024
Panorama | European premiere
Les Paradis de Diane (Paradises of Diane)
by Carmen Jaquier, Jan Gassmann
Switzerland 2024
Panorama | International premiere
Pendant ce temps sur Terre (Meanwhile on Earth)
by Jérémy Clapin
France 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Sayyareye dozdide shodeye man (My Stolen Planet)
by Farahnaz Sharifi
Germany / Iran 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Sex
by Dag Johan Haugerud
Norway 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Teaches of Peaches
by Philipp Fussenegger, Judy Landkammer
Germany 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form
Tongo Saa (Rising Up at Night)
by Nelson Makengo
Democratic Republic of the Congo / Belgium / Germany / Burkina Faso / Qatar 2024
Panorama Dokumente | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
Verbrannte Erde (Scorched Earth)
by Thomas Arslan
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere
The Visitor
by Bruce LaBruce
United Kingdom 2024
Panorama | World premiere
Yo vi tres luces negras (I Saw Three Black Lights)
by Santiago Lozano Álvarez
Colombia / Mexico / France / Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Debut film
Zeit Verbrechen 1: Dezember
by Mariko Minoguchi
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Zeit Verbrechen 2: Der Panther
by Jan Bonny
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Zeit Verbrechen 3: Deine Brüder
by Helene Hegemann
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Zeit Verbrechen 4: Love by Proxy
by Faraz Shariat
Germany 2024
Panorama | World premiere | Series
Generation
Comme le feu (Who by Fire)
by Philippe Lesage
Canada / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Disco Afrika: une histoire malgache (Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story)
by Luck Razanajaona
France / Madagascar / Germany / Mauritius / South Africa / Qatar 2023
Generation 14plus | European premiere | Debut film
Ellbogen (Elbow)
by Aslı Özarslan | with Melia Kara, Doğa Gürer, Jale Arikan, Haydar Şahin, Orhan Kiliç
Germany / Turkey / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Fox and Hare Save the Forest (Fuchs und Hase retten den Wald)
by Mascha Halberstad
Netherlands / Belgium / Luxembourg 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Animation
Huling Palabas (Fin)
by Ryan Machado
Philippines 2023
Generation 14plus | International premiere | Debut film
It’s Okay!
by Kim Hye-young
South Korea 2023
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Debut film
Last Swim
by Sasha Nathwani
United Kingdom 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Debut film
Maydegol
by Sarvnaz Alambeigi
Iran / Germany / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Documentary Form
Quell’estate con Irène (My Summer with Irène)
by Carlo Sironi
Italy / France 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere
Raíz (Through Rocks and Clouds)
by Franco García Becerra
Peru / Chile 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere
Reinas
by Klaudia Reynicke
Switzerland / Peru / Spain 2024
Generation Kplus | European premiere
Sieger Sein (Winners)
by Soleen Yusef
Germany 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere
Los tonos mayores (The Major Tones)
by Ingrid Pokropek
Argentina / Spain 2023
Generation Kplus | International premiere | Debut film
Xiao Ban Jie (The Great Phuket)
by Liu Yaonan
France / Hong Kong, China / Germany / Belgium 2024
Generation 14plus | World premiere | Debut film
Young Hearts
by Anthony Schatteman
Belgium / Netherlands 2024
Generation Kplus | World premiere | Debut film
Forum
Art Education
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1976
Forum Special
Baroque Statues
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1970
Forum Special
Il cassetto segreto (The Secret Drawer)
by Costanza Quatriglio
Italy / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Chairs
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
Chroniques fidèles survenues au siècle dernier à l’hôpital psychiatrique Blida-Joinville, au temps où le Docteur Frantz Fanon était chef de la cinquième division entre 1953 et 1956 (True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, When Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward Between 1953 and 1956)
by Abdenour Zahzah
Algeria / France 2024
Forum | World premiere
Couples
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1972
Forum Special
Deda-Shvili an rame ar aris arasodes bolomde bneli (Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete)
by Lana Gogoberidze
Georgia / France 2023
Forum Special | International premiere | Documentary Form
Diese Tage in Terezín (Those Days in Terezín)
by Sibylle Schönemann
Germany / Czechia 1997
Forum Special | Documentary Form
Doesarananeun moksori / Yomigaeru Koe (Voices of the Silenced)
by Park Soo-nam, Park Maeui
Japan / South Korea 2023
Forum Special | International premiere | Documentary Form
Encounter
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1970
Forum Special
Gokogu no Neko (The Cats of Gokogu Shrine)
by Kazuhiro Soda
Japan 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Henry Fonda for President
by Alexander Horwath
Austria / Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
La hojarasca (The Undergrowth)
by Macu Machín
Spain 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
Holy Week
by Andrei Cohn
Romania / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere
L’ homme-vertige (L’ homme-vertige: Tales of a City)
by Malaury Eloi Paisley
France 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
The Human Hibernation
by Anna Cornudella
Spain 2024
Forum | World premiere | Debut film
Ihre ergebenste Fräulein (Well Ordered Nature)
by Eva C. Heldmann
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Intercepted
by Oksana Karpovych
Canada / France / Ukraine 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
In the Belly of a Tiger
by Siddartha Jatla
Forum | World premiere
Iris
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
Kaddu Beykat (Letter From My Village)
by Safi Faye
Senegal 1975
Forum Special | Documentary Form
Kottukkaali (The Adamant Girl)
by Vinothraj PS | with Soori Muthuchamy, Anna Ben
India 2024
Forum | World premiere
Maria Lassnig Kantate (The Ballad of Maria Lassnig)
by Maria Lassnig, Hubert Sielecki
Austria 1992
Forum Special
Marijas klusums (Maria’s Silence)
by Dāvis Sīmanis | with Olga Šepicka, Artūrs Skrastiņš, Vilis Daudziņš, Ģirts Ķesteris, Inese Kučinska
Latvia / Lithuania 2024
Forum | World premiere
Mit einem Tiger schlafen (Sleeping With a Tiger)
by Anja Salomonowitz
Austria 2024
Forum | World premiere
As noites ainda cheiram á pôlvora (The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder)
by Inadelso Cossa
Mozambique / Germany / France / Portugal / Netherlands / Norway 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Oasis
by Tamara Uribe, Felipe Morgado
Chile 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film | A film by MAFI Collective
Oasis of Now
by Chee Sum Chia
Malaysia / Singapore / France 2023
Forum | European premiere | Debut film
Palmistry
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1973
Forum Special
Pa-myo (Exhuma)
by Jang Jae-hyun
South Korea 2024
Forum | World premiere
La piel en primavera (Skin in Spring)
by Yennifer Uribe Alzate
Colombia / Chile 2024
Forum | World premiere | Debut film
Reas
by Lola Arias
Argentina / Germany / Switzerland 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Redaktsiya (The Editorial Office)
by Roman Bondarchuk
Ukraine / Germany / Slovakia / Czechia 2024
Forum | World premiere
Reproduktion (Reproduction)
by Katharina Pethke
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Republic
by Jin Jiang
Singapore / People’s Republic of China 2023
Forum | European premiere | Documentary Form
Resonance Spiral
by Marinho de Pina, Filipa César
Portugal / Guinea-Bissau / Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Selfportrait
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1971
Forum Special
Shahid
by Narges Kalhor
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere
Shapes
by Maria Lassnig
Austria / USA 1972
Forum Special
Spuren von Bewegung vor dem Eis (Traces of Movement Before the Ice)
by René Frölke
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Techqua Ikachi, Land – mein Leben (Techqua Ikachi, Land – My Life)
by Anka Schmid, James Danaqyumptewa, Agnes Barmettler
Federal Republic of Germany (historical) / Switzerland 1989
Forum Special
Der unsichtbare Zoo (The Invisible Zoo)
by Romuald Karmakar
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form
Was hast du gestern geträumt, Parajanov? (What Did You Dream Last Night, Parajanov?)
by Faraz Fesharaki
Germany 2024
Forum | World premiere | Documentary Form | Debut film
The Wrong Movie
by Keren Cytter
USA / Belgium 2024
Forum | World premiere
Yoake no subete (All the Long Nights)
by Shô Miyake
Japan 2024
Forum | International premiere
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