One year after winning the historic Golden Bear for Alcarràs, Carla Simón returns to the Berlinale as a member of the official section jury that will be chaired by the American actress Kristen Stewart. A total of 19 films are competing for the precious award, including 20,000 species of bees, by Estibaliz Urresola, the only Spanish representative in the competition in a 73rd edition that will also feature a lot of national talent distributed among a great linguistic richness in the different sections.
If Urresola mixes Spanish, Basque and a bit of French in her first feature film, a drama about child transsexuality that marks the first time that a state filmmaker has competed in the Official Section with her first film, Carla Subirana combines Galician and Catalan in Sica, his debut feature, which takes part in Generation. And Matria, Álvaro Gago’s film directing debut, also opts for Galician in Panorama.
The three films have a Catalan co-production together with the documentary Anga, by Helin Çelik, in Forum, and the short film La herida luminosa, by Christian Avilés, which is competing in Berlinale Shorts. Lois Patiño competes in Encounters with Samsara, a documentary that reflects on death from the perspective of Buddhist religiosity, the same section in which the philosopher Paul B. Preciado will present Orlando, a political biographie, in which he approaches his experience as a trans person
Until February 26, the Berlinale will celebrate the diversity of a cinema with a strong independent accent and will turn politically towards Ukraine and Iranian filmmakers. Sean Penn will attend the German capital to present his documentary Superpower, with the leading role of the Ukrainian president Zelenski. A total of nine titles from Iran will participate in the first festival of the European circuit of the year, which celebrates the release of director Jafar Panahi after seven months in prison.
According to the co-director of the Berlinale, Carlo Chatrian, when presenting the program, the festival aims to be a “window on the world”, with several films in competition focused on childhood, such as the aforementioned 20,000 species of bees, or Totem, from the Mexican Lila Aviles. There will be a lot of German cinema, with the new works of Christian Petzold -who returns to the festival of which he is a regular with Roter Himmel- or the veteran Margarethe von Trotta, who directs Vicky Krieps in the role of the Austrian writer Ingeborg Bachmann.
Today the festival raises the curtain with the opening comedy out of competition She came to me, directed by Rebecca Miller and Anne Hathaway, Marisa Tomei and Peter Dinklage in the cast.
The red carpet will once again shine with the parade of various stars: from Steven Spielberg, the brand new Golden Bear of Honor, to whom a retrospective will be dedicated, to Helen Mirren, who gets into the skin of Golda Meir, the first woman in occupying the position of prime minister of Israel, in Golda; tennis player Boris Becker, star of the documentary Boom! Boom! The world vs. Boris Becker, or John Malkovich, who embodies the famous philosopher Seneca and his relationship with Nero under the orders of the German director Robert Schwentke.
