News

In ihrem ersten Jahr als Leiterin der Sektion „Televisionen“ beim Filmfest Hamburg hat sich Bettina Schoeller Bouju viel Prominenz eingeladen, darunter David Schalkos Projekt „Warum ich?“ oder Sonja Heiss‘ „Deadlines“. Matthias Glasners Serienprojekt „Informant“ wird als Special Presentation in der Elbphilharmonie gezeigt.

Charly Hübner in „Warum ich?“ (Credit: Superfilm Filmproductions GmbH)

Die neue Leiterin der Filmfest-Hamburg-Sektion „Televisionen“, Bettina Schoeller Bouju, hat ihr erstes Programm vorgelegt. Die Reihe eröffnet mit Lars Beckers neuestem Film „Die Polizistin und die Sprache des Todes“. Unter den zwölf kuratierten Fernsehfilmen und TV-Serien plus die außer Konkurrenz gezeigten Werke befinden sich aber auch Matthias Glasners Serienprojekt „Informant – Angst über der Stadt“ mit Jürgen Vogel in der Hauptrolle (als Special Presentation in der Elbphilharmonie), David Schalkos neuestes Projekt „Warum ich?“ mit Charly Hübner und die dritte „Deadlines“-Staffel, bei der Sonja Heiss Regie führte.

„Die ausgewählten Filme und Serien bieten ein breites Spektrum all dessen, was Fernsehen heute sein kann.

UK’s Odeon Cinemas Expands Family Offer

In a bid to bolster its draw for families, the UK’s Odeon Cinemas is expanding the scope of its “adults pay kids prices” deal. The scheme will see admits for one adult and one child from as little as £10 for an Odeon Cinema and £15 for an Odeon Luxe throughout 2024. The AMC-owned chain says it’s making the investment into its family offerings as data has shown that affordability and convenience are the biggest concerns for families when considering activities, particularly over the summer holidays. With the opening weekend of Inside Out 2 marking Odeon’s busiest since National Cinema Day last September, turnstiles have been on fire. The UK gross for IO2 through Sunday stands at $40.2M while such titles with family appeal on deck include Despicable Me 4 on July 12 and Harold and the Purple Crayon on August 2. Later in the year,...

Beim schon traditionellen Pressefrühstück, zu dem Prime Video im Rahmen des Filmfest München einlädt, haben Christoph Schneider, Country Director Prime Video Deutschland, und Philip Pratt, Leiter Deutsche Originals bei Amazon MGM Studios für Prime Video einen Ausblick auf kommende Highlights gegeben. Im Fokus standen vor allem „Perfekt verpasst“ mit dem Dreamteam Anke Engelke und Bastian Pastewka und „Dinner Club“ mit dem Schweizer Starkoch Andreas Caminada.

Dr. Christoph Schneider & Philip Pratt (Credit: privat)

Ins Münchner Literaturhaus lud Prime Video zum schon traditionellen Pressefrühstück im Rahmen des Filmfest München. Christoph Schneider, Country Director Prime Video Deutschland, und Philip Pratt, Leiter Deutsche Originals bei Amazon MGM Studios für Prime Video gaben nicht nur einen Überblick über das vielversprechende Angebot der nächsten Monate, sondern hatten auch Bewegtbild dabei, und zahlreiche Kreative und Stars der präsentierten Produktionen. Dazu zählten Anke Engelke und Bastian Pastewka (sowie Fritzi Haberlandt), die heute Abend Premiere mit „Perfekt verpasst“ auf...

Die deutsche Prime-Video-Serie „Dinner for Five“ geht der Vorgeschichte des legendären Silvester-Sketch um Miss Sophie und ihrem Butler James auf den Grund. Der Cast quillt über vor Stars.

V.l.: Moritz Bleibtreu, Frederick Lau, Alicia von Rittberg, Jacob Matschenz, Kostja Ullmann und Christoph Schechinger (Credit: Prime Video/Frédéric Batier)

Zum schon etwas zurückliegenden Drehstart der neuen Prime-Video-Serie „Dinner for Five“ (At), welche die Vorgeschichte zum Silvester-Kultsketch „Dinner for One“ erzählt, ist der prominente Cast der Runde bekannt gegeben worden. UFA Fiction produziert, Tommy Wosch ist Showrunner.

Neben Alicia von Rittberg als Miss Sophie und Kostja Ullmann als Butler James sind der aktuell noch in der Prime-Video-Serie „Viktor Bringt’s“ zu sehende Moritz Bleibtreu als Mr. Pommeroy, Frederick Lau als Mr. Winterbottom, Jacob Matschenz als Sir Toby sowie Christoph Schechinger als Admiral von Schneider am Start. Zudem werden weitere prominente Gastauftritte versprochen.

Jetzt heißt es Bühne frei für die bisher unerzählte,...

Spanish Horror

Two of Spain’s highest-profile upcoming horror titles got release dates and trailers today, David Casademunt’s “El páramo” (formerly “La bestia”) at Netflix and Amazon Prime Video’s horror anthology “Historias para no dormir.”

“El páramo” is the highly anticipated feature debut of award-winning short filmmaker Casademunt, and boasts a small yet star-filled cast including Inma Cuesta (“The Bride”), Roberto Álamo (“The Skin I Live In”) and Asier Flores (“Pain and Glory”). The film is set in an isolated cabin where a family of three are visited by a terrible monster which threatens the ties that bind them. It will world premiere on Oct. 11 at the Sitges Film Festival and hit Netflix worldwide on Jan. 26, 2022. Rodar y Rodar produces.

Amazon Prime Video and Spanish broadcaster Rtve’s reboot of Chicho Ibáñez Serrador’s legendary Spanish horror anthology series “Historias para no dormir” will hit the streaming platform on Nov.

Undine (Paula Beer) is a freelance urban development expert who regularly lectures on Berlin’s architecture and its relationship to that city’s troubled past. She also has a secret: She’s the Undine of European myth, a mermaid–water spirit whose own trouble necessarily involves facilitating the death of any man who betrays her love. In “Undine,” the latest from acclaimed German director Christian Petzold, that gendered myth and Berlin’s historical collective trauma become inextricably linked in mutual heartbreak.

We meet Undine as she confronts one of those men, Johannes (Jacob Matschenz). He’s breaking up with her and would like a clean exit. Tearfully, she informs him that he has to die in a very sorry-i-don’t-make-the-rules manner. He walks away, never having bought into her story. But before Undine can carry out her mythology-bound task, Christoph (Franz Rogowski) walks into the picture, flirting.

He’s an industrial diver,...

Paula Beer as “Undine” in Christian Petzold’s Undine. An IFC Films Release. Courtesy of IFC Films.

A strange, suspenseful tale of love, betrayal and tragedy, Undine is a re-imagining of a fairy-tale myth, set in modern Berlin. Director/writer Christian Petzold reunites the stars of his film Transit, Paula Beers and Franz Rogowski, for this tale of mystery and romance, which allows Undine to capitalize on the remarkable chemistry between the two actors in that earlier film. Undine is a haunting tale with a mysterious aura and a touch of magical realism, beautifully constructed and shot, with gripping, heartbreaking performances.

Mystery, romance and myth mix in Christian Petzold’s Undine, inspired by the fairy-tale of the undine, or ondine. an always-female water spirit that lives forest lakes. Like many fairy tales, love and death are intertwined in the various tales of the undine, a supernatural creature who can gain...

"An enigmatic and hypnotic modern fairy tale." IFC Films has released a new official US trailer for the German indie romance film titled Undine, from filmmaker Christian Petzold. This originally premiered at last year's Berlin Film Festival, also where Paula Beer won the Silver Bear for Best Actress in this film. Beer stars as the titular Undine (based on the Undine myth), who works as a historian lecturing on Berlin's urban development. But when the man she loves leaves her... the ancient myth catches up with her. She must kill the man who betrays her and return to the water, but she also falls in love with him. Also with Franz Rogowski as her new lover, with Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz, Anne Ratte-Polle, and Rafael Stachowiak. It's a very sweet film about love, I wrote a little review of it. Here's the official US trailer (+ poster) for Christian Petzold's Undine,...

Money can buy outside help, opportunity and material possessions, but not happiness in “My Wonderful Wanda,” a punchy satire from Swiss auteur Bettina Oberli (“Late Bloomers”). Taking a wry but empathetic approach to the phenomenon of care migration, Oberli and her co-writer Cooky Ziesche focus on the changing relationship between one privileged Swiss family and their financially fragile Polish home-care worker over nine months. Naturalistically shot and structured as three chapters and an epilogue, it’s an engaging, mostly well-acted tale, full of surprising twists, even if some seem a bit too on the nose. Opening in theaters and virtual cinemas on April 23, this Zeitgeist Films release should segue from international film festival favorite to modest art-house hit.

Attractive, capable, 30-something single mother Wanda arrives in Switzerland on a bus packed with Polish women who work for rich families eager to outsource the mundane tasks of everyday life. Like Wanda,...

Christian Petzold has arguably been Germany’s most consistently impressive filmmaker over the past decade, but he comes up more than a bit wet with Undine, a kind of arty variation on Splash. Paula Beer, who made her mark in the director’s stunningly controlled drama Transit two years ago and in March won the Berlin Film Festival’s best actress award for this film, again dominates the proceedings, this time as a Berlin City Museum lecturer-historian who leads a distinctly peculiar double life that gives off elusive Vertigo vibes and also calls to mind Neil Jordan’s 2009 mermaid tale Ondine. IFC Films is handling the title in the U.S., where it was on the shortlist to be Germany’s submission in the International Feature Oscar race.

“If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you,” Undine tells her dashing but consternated lover Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) at an outdoor café,...

Stars: Natalia Avelon, Matthias Bundschuh, Inka Friedrich, Lisa-Marie Koroll, Heiner Lauterbach, Junis Marlon, Jacob Matschenz, Andreas Pietschmann, Lisa Maria Potthoff, Marie-Lou Sellem | Written by Hans G. Raeth, Felix Starck | Directed by Marc Rothemund

Here in Germany, we headed back into what has been described as a “soft” lockdown on Monday. But before this, as it was my wedding anniversary, and as we had a babysitter for the first time since baby number 2 was delivered by the stork, we decided to get down our local cinema, while we could. My wife and I (and 4 other people) saw the German language film Es ist zu deinem Besten (It is For Your Own Good) and it was rather fun.

I appreciate this is going to be rather niche, given this is an English language site, but as I physically went to the cinema I feel this needs to be celebrated, given what is going on in the world.

Coverage from the 56th annual Chicago Film Festival

by Nick Taylor

Undine opens immediately after the titular character (Paula Beer) has been told by her boyfriend Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) that he’s leaving her for another woman. Seated at an outdoor café, Beer’s expression remains piquant and internalized as Johannes explains himself, half listening to him talk and half deciding how to respond. When she makes up her mind, she informs Johannes they’re still in love, and if he’s not at the café when she gets back from work in half an hour she’ll kill him. He’s not there, obviously. But after hearing an unexpected figure call out her name, she meets a man named Christoph (Franz Rogowski). The two are instantly captivated by each other, and their meet-cute is so strange, heartfelt, and semi-chaotic I’d hate to spoil it. It might be the best scene in the film.

Passion River Films and 8 Above are teaming on the U.S. release of The Disrupted, the feature documentary debut of Sarah Colt, the Emmy-winning director of PBS’ American Experience docs about Walt Disney and Henry Ford, as well as The Polio Crusade and the Native American series We Shall Remain.

The Disrupted, a look at rising income inequality in the U.S. that follows a farmer, a factory worker and an Uber driver, is now set to hit 20 virtual cinemas on September 25, followed by a digital bow October 13.

“No matter what race, ethnicity, sex, or creed you come from, the subjects from The Disrupted represent all of us who have ever needed to make our own living in America,” Passion River’s Mat Levy said. “There has never been a more crucial and timely film about the compound struggles we are all facing to achieve the ‘American Dream.’ We are...

In today’s Global Bulletin, the Zurich festival opens with “My Wonderful Wanda,” Philip Garrel, Tsai Ming-liang and Hong Sang-soo are contenders at San Sebastian, a new talent agency launches with “The Crown” actor Emma Corrin, WaZabi picks up Toronto title “Beans,” and the U.K. celebrates returning to cinemas.

Bettina Oberli’s “My Wonderful Wanda” will open the 16th Zurich film festival on Sept. 24, the first time the event is opening with a film by a female director.

The film was supposed to bow at Tribeca, until the coronavirus pandemic forced its postponement to 2021. Consequently, it will have its world premiere at Zurich.

“My Wonderful Wanda” tells the story of Polish-born Wanda who looks after patriarch and post-stroke patient Josef at his lakeside family villa. The work is poorly paid, but Wanda needs the money to support her own family back in Poland. As a live-in caregiver, she gains...

Bettina Oberli’s film would have played at Tribeca, which was cancelled in April.

The Zurich Film Festival is to open with the world premiere of Bettina Oberli’s My Wonderful Wanda, marking the first time a female-directed feature has opened the event.

The Swiss tragi-comedy was originally set to debut at Tribeca in April but those plans were abandoned when the festival was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic and has subsequently been cancelled.

It will now open the 16th Zff, which is pressing ahead as a physical event and due to run September 24 to October 4.

The film centres on Wanda,...

My Wonderful Wanda The Match Box Reviewed for Shockya.com & BigAppleReviews.net linked from Rotten Tomatoes by: Harvey Karten Director: Bettina Oberli Screenwriter: Cooky Ziesche, Bettina Oberli Cast: Agnieszka Grochowska, Marthe Keller, Birgit Minichmayr, Jacob Matschenz, André Jung, Anatole Taubman Screened at: Critics’ link, NYC, 4/15/20 Opens: Tbd at Tribeca Film Festival in […]

The post My Wonderful Wanda Movie Review appeared first on Shockya.com.

In the last decade, Christian Petzold has emerged as Germany’s preeminent working filmmaker, rooting the country’s national strife in intimate stories that span its historical identity: With “Phoenix” (which depicts the immediate psychological turmoil in the aftermath of WWII), “Barbara” (the paranoia of East Germany in the Cold War), and “Transit” (the lingering fears of a return to fascism), Petzold has churned out an astute trilogy of thrillers steeped in German fixations.

His latest, “Undine,” will disappoint fans because it reduces those potent themes to a shallower romantic ghost story that never goes quite as deep as its predecessors. However, Petzold remains a master of capturing frantic characters doomed by dark obsessions, and .

That starts with its taut opening scene, as the stern title character tells off her partner Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) as he reveals his relationship to another woman. Petzold frames the scene as a tight showdown between two stone-faced people,...

Christian Petzold’s “Undine” begins with a breakup. Framed tightly on the face of lead actor Paula Beer, we absorb the news as she does. But this is no ordinary separation, and as jilted lovers go, Undine’s far from typical. Her name betrays what sets her apart, although in the vast realm of mythological entities, undines are hardly the well-understood creatures that Petzold’s revisionist contemporary fable assumes. As a result, this overripe romantic tragedy — which represented the Berlin School in competition at the Berlin Film Festival — won’t have the same impact abroad as the three critical darlings that preceded it, “Barbara,” “Phoenix” and “Transit.”

“If you leave me, I’ll have to kill you,” Undine tells Johannes (Jacob Matschenz), who has beckoned her to their usual café, across the street from the Berlin City Museum, where she works as a historian. This is the part in water...

Following up a successful work of lucid experimentation like Transit can be a tricky undertaking: does one lean back toward the basics or further up the ante? Christian Petzold shoots for the latter with his latest, a Berlin-based pseudo-supernatural melodrama titled Undine. And that name should prove telling: the myth of the watery nymph that inspired as far-flung old guys as Walt Disney, Andy Warhol, Neil Jordan, and Hans Christian Andersen in their creative endeavors. Ever the intellectual, in his press notes Petzold references the female-centric version of Ingeborg Bachmann as his key inspiration and his story does prove, for the most part, to be told from the eponymous heroine’s angle.

When we first encounter Petzold’s Undine she is decidedly land-based, a historian working as a tour guide for an Urban Development project on Berlin’s famous Museum Island. The setting is immediately enticing–indeed, one of the...

"You said you love me. For ever." The Match Factory has released a promo trailer for German film Undine, the latest from beloved German filmmaker Christian Petzold. Similar to the Colin Farrell film Ondine before it, this is based on the "Undine legend" and myth of the woman who must return to the water. Talented German actress Paula Beer stars as Undine, who works as a historian lecturing on Berlin's urban development. But when the man she loves leaves her, the ancient myth catches up with her. She must kill the man who betrays her and return to the water. Also with Franz Rogowski, Maryam Zaree, Jacob Matschenz, Anne Ratte-Polle, and Rafael Stachowiak. This plays more like a teaser than a full trailer, but I love the look so far. The film premieres at the Berlin Film Festival this month. Here's the first promo trailer for Christian Petzold's Undine, direct...

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Christian Petzold’s “Undine,” which world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Petzold won the Silver Berlin Bear for best director for “Barbara” in 2012.

At the heart of “Undine,” set in modern-day Berlin, lies the Undine myth: a water nymph becomes human when she falls in love with a man. In the film, Undine (played by Paula Beer) is a historian lecturing on Berlin’s urban development. When the man she loves leaves her, the ancient myth about Undine catches up with her: she must kill the man who betrays her and return to the water.

Petzold’s recent films all had explicit historical or political backgrounds, but with “Undine” he has chosen a fairytale as his point of departure. However, the films are more similar than they may seem. Like “Barbara,” “Phoenix” and “Transit,” “Undine” is a story about love.

The Berlinale lineup already includes films from Jia Zhangke, Matías Piñeiro, and more, but now the competition slate has arrived and it’s an incredibly promising selection. Headed by Carlo Chatrian, it includes many of our most-anticipated films of the year with Christian Petzold’s Undine, Hong Sang-soo’s The Woman Who Ran, Tsai Ming-Liang’s Days, Philippe Garrel’s The Salt of Tears, Abel Ferrara’s Siberia, and Caetano Gotardo & Marco Dutra’s All the Dead Ones, plus recent festival favorites: Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow and Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always.

Check out the lineup below and return for our coverage.

Competition

Berlin Alexanderplatz

Germany / Netherlands

by Burhan Qurbani

with Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, Richard Fouofié Djimeli

World premiere

Dau. Natasha

Germany / Ukraine / United Kingdom / Russian Federation

by Ilya Khrzhanovskiy, Jekaterina Oertel

with Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo,...

The Berlin International Film Festival on Wednesday morning revealed the main competition lineup and gala selections for festival’s 70th edition.

The festival, which begins February 20, will screen 18 films in competition, including movies from Sally Potter, Kelly Reichardt, and Eliza Hittman. Six are from female directors.

Among the gala presentations is Pixar’s” Onward.” The Dan Scanlon-helmed urban fantasy includes the voices of Tom Holland, Chris Pratt, Julia-Louis Dreyfus, Octavia Spencer, Mel Rodriguez, Kyle Bornheimer, Lena Waithe, and Ali Wong.

Here is the complete list:

Competition

“Berlin Alexanderplatz” (Germany/Netherlands)

Director: Burhan Qurbani

Cast: Welket Bungué, Jella Haase, Albrecht Schuch, Joachim Król, Annabelle Mandeng, Nils Verkooijen, and Richard Fouofié Djimeli

“Dau. Natasha” (Germany/Ukraine/United Kingdom/Russia)

Directors: Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel

Cast: Natalia Berezhnaya, Olga Shkabarnya, Vladimir Azhippo, Alexei Blinov, and Luc Bigé

“Domangchin yeoja” (“The Woman Who Ran”) (South Korea)

Director: Hong Sangsoo

Cast: Kim Minhee,...

The Berlin International Film Festival has unveiled its 2020 line-up, with 18 films playing in competition from directors such as Abel Ferrara, Sally Potter, Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, Kelly Reichardt and Eliza Hittman.

Abel Ferrara’s Willem Dafoe starrer “Siberia” is a world premiere in competition, as is Sally Potter’s “The Roads Not Taken.”

Among the U.S. films at the Berlinale, Reichardt’s “First Cow” is an international premiere, and so too is Hittman’s “Never Rarely Sometimes Always.”

Pixar’s latest animation, “Onward”, also has its international premiere out of competition in the Special Galas section.

Previous Berlin Silver Bear winner Christian Petzold’s latest, “Undine”, world premieres, while Iranian director Mohammed Rasoulof, who is not allowed to travel outside his home country, world premieres his latest, “There is No Evil.”

Six out of the 18 films in competition are helmed by female directors.

The 70th edition of the festival...

Whether you consider it a 2018 film due to its world premiere at Berlinale or a 2019 film considering its U.S. release this past spring, Christian Petzold’s Transit is, without hesitation, one of the best films of any recent year. Set in the modern day but employing the source material–and a script–that takes place during World War II, it’s an enigmatic, fascinating work (and now available on Blu-ray/DVD/digital).

The director has now embarked on his next film, the fairytale-inspired Undine, and it finds him reteaming with Transit stars Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski, Cineuropa reports. Also starring Jacob Matschenz and Maryam Zaree, see a synopsis below for the film that kicked off production last week.

Named after the water nymph that seduces men in a number of mythological tales, the German director’s new movie will portray Undine (Paula Beer) as a history graduate who...

The movie will portray Undine as a history graduate who works as a guide in modern-day Berlin. Christian Petzold, the director of the modern-day-set World War II thriller Transit – one of the Golden Bear contenders at the 2018 Berlinale – as well as many other critically acclaimed features, began shooting his eagerly awaited new film Undine last week. Transit actors Paula Beer and Franz Rogowski will return to play the lead roles, while Jacob Matschenz and Maryam Zaree are also among the cast. Furthermore, the film is being shot by Petzold’s regular cinematographer, Hans Fromm. Named after the water nymph that seduces men in a number of mythological tales, the German director’s new movie will portray Undine (Paula Beer) as a history graduate who works as a guide in Berlin in the present day. After her partner (Jacob Matschenz) leaves her for another woman, she is cursed and compelled...

Based on the same real-life “honor killing” that inspired fellow German Feo Aladag’s prize-winning 2010 feature “When We Leave,” Sherry Hormann’s “A Regular Woman” takes a compelling new approach to the contentious 2005 case that shocked Germany: By allowing the murdered woman — a 23-year-old German of Turkish-Kurdish ancestry shot point blank by her youngest brother — to narrate the action both before and after her death, the director (“Desert Flower”) restores the victim’s voice. Further fest screenings and niche arthouse play should follow the film’s Tribeca world premiere.

From a family of strict Sunni Muslims and the oldest daughter of nine siblings, Hatun “Aynur” Sürücü was forced to leave her Kreuzberg school in 1998, age 16, and marry a cousin in Istanbul. In her voiceover, which outlines the expectations assigned to a dutiful daughter, Aynur calls it “a change of owner,” as control over her person shifts from father to husband.

Joining the titles already announced—including films by Alain Resnais and Dominik Graf—the following films complete the lineup for the 2014 Berlin International Film Festival's Competition section.

Bai Ri Yan Huo (Black Coal, Thin Ice)

People’s Republic of China

By Yinan Diao (Night Train, Uniform)

With Fan Liao, Lun Mei Gwei, Xuebing Wang

World premiere

Boyhood

USA

By Richard Linklater (Before Midnight, Me & Orson Welles)

With Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater

International premiere

Chiisai Ouchi (The Little House)

Japan

By Yoji Yamada (Tokyo Family, About Her Brother)

With Takako Matsu, Haru Kuroki, Hidetaka Yoshioka, Satoshi Tsumabuki, Chieko Baisho

International premiere

Historia del miedo (History of Fear)

Argentina / Uruguay / Germany / France

By Benjamin Naishtat - feature debut

With Jonathan Da Rosa, Claudia Cantero, Mirella Pascual, Cesar Bordon, Tatiana Gimenez

World premiere

Jack

Germany

By Edward Berger

With Ivo Pietzcker, Georg Arms, Luise Heyer, Vincent Redetzki, Jacob Matschenz,...

Richard Linklater’s Boyhood to compete for the Golden Bear; Beauty and the Beast, starring Vincent Cassel and Léa Seydoux, to play out of competition.

The 64th Berlin International Film Festival (Feb 6-16) has added 15 titles to its Competition programme, completing the line-up of 23 films - of which 20 will vye for the Golden Bear and Silver Bears.

The programme includes 18 world premieres and three feature debuts.

The line-up includes the international premiere of Boyhood, from Before Midnight director Richard Linklater. The film, which will premiere at Sundance, was shot over short periods from 2002 to 2013 and covers 12 years in the life of a family, featuring Mason and his sister Samantha. Patricia Arquette, Ethan Hawke, Ellar Coltrane, Lorelei Linklater star.

World premieres include In Order of Disappearance, directed by Hans Petter Moland, which stars Stellan Skarsgård as a snow plough driver whose son’s sudden death puts him in the middle of a drug war between theNorwegian mafia and the...

Following up the initial announcement of titles, the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival revealed it will open with the period drama Les Adieux à la reine (Farewell My Queen) today. From director Benoît Jacquot, the drama stars Inglourious Basterds lead Diane Kruger, as well as Léa Seydoux who broke-out in Midnight in Paris and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol this year. Based on, Chantal Thomas’ novel we have the first stills of the film (from Lumiere via The Playlist) that follows the “first few days of the French Revolution from the perspective of the servants at Versailles.”

Kruger, who plays Marie Antoinette here, has only appeared in one big film following her post-Basterds role with Unknown, but I look forward to her future work, especially with this film. I thought Seydoux was great as an action villain in Ghotocol and excited to see her career rise. Check out the stills below,...

The Berlinale's announced today that 20 films are now lined up for its Panorama program. All in all, around 50 titles will make up the main program, Panorama Special and Panorama Dokumente.

10+10 by Hou Hsiao-hsien, Wang Toon, Wu Nien-Jen, Sylvia Chang, Chen Guo-Fu, Wei Te-Sheng, Chung Meng-Hung, Chang Tso-Chi, Arvin Chen, Yang Ya-Che and others, Taiwan — see a full report from the Taipei Film Commission: "Funded by the Golden Horse Film Festival and the Republic of China Centenary Foundation, 10+10 [is] a movie comprised of 20 short films by 10 renowned and 10 emerging Taiwanese filmmakers."

Death For Sale by Faouzi Bensaïdi, France

With Fehd Benchemsi, Fouad Labiad, Mouhcine Malzi, Imane Elmechrafi, Faouzi Bensaïdi

Die Wand (The Wall) by Julian Roman Pölsler, Austria/Germany

With Martina Gedeck — Synopsis from The Match Factory: "(1.) The wall is a highly unusual exploration of solitude and survival. (2.) It is the story of a woman who is separated from the...

Beats Being Dead (Dreileben – Etwas Besseres als den Tod)

Written by Christian Petzold

Directed by Christian Petzold

Germany, 2011

Part of a triptych of films all revolving around a similar incident, Christian Petzold’s Beats Being Dead not only begins the loose Dreileben trilogy, but also picks up where the director left off with his own work.

Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) is studying to be a doctor while working as a nurse at an isolated clinic. Quiet and tentative, Johannes is infatuated when he runs into Ana (Luna Mijovic), a temperamental, impetuous maid. As their fledgling romance blossoms, a dangerous killer escapes from the mental ward of the hospital. In their sparsely populated area and against a backdrop of pervasive police sirens, Johannes and Ana navigate newfound feelings.

As with 2008’s Jerichow, director Petzold tells a tightly contained narrative that exudes more sexual tension than pure sexuality. A member of the “Berlin...

★★★★☆ Conceived from an extended email discussion on the current state of German cinema, the Dreileben trilogy brings together three of the nations finest filmmakers - Christian Petzold, Dominik Graf and Christoph Hochhäusler - each bringing their own unique style of storytelling to the individual chapters. The 'Dreileben' of the title is a small fictional German town, surrounded by dense forest, where a number of events transpire after the escape of a convicted child molester from a secure hospital, highlighted in Dreileben 1: Beats Being Dead (2011).

Petzold's contribution to the trilogy is a sharply-shot, well-paced character drama as young hospital intern Johannes (Jacob Matschenz) falls for enigmatic Bosnian immigrant Ana (Luna Mijovic), whom he meets at a petrol station (moments before being punched in the face by her biker boyfriend). Their early relationship is tentative yet tender, with Ana eventually moving out from her mother's flat and in with her new lover.

The 49th New York Film Festival has announced their Masterworks and Special Anniversary screenings that will show between the festival’s seventeen days, September 30th – October 16th. The Masterworks program and the festival’s additional programming will provide audiences with exciting opportunities to explore new film-making styles and storytelling events. To learn more about the Masterworks and Anniversary films, please check out below for full synopsis and details.

Masterworks And Special Anniversary Screenings

Masterworks: The Gold Rush

Chaplin’s personal favorite among his own films, The Gold Rush (1925), is a beautifully constructed comic fable of fate and perseverance, set in the icy wastes of the Alaskan gold fields. Re-released by Chaplin in 1942 in a recut version missing some scenes, and with added narration and musical score, The Gold Rush will be presented in a new restoration of the original, silent 1925 version. In this frequently terrifying and always unpredictable universe of...