FW: Berlin - The Competition

[Stephen Cremin]

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The Berlin International Film Festival informs

BERLIN: STARS, NAMES AND PREMIERES IN COMPETITION
 
With 16 world premieres, the main competition program of the 
51st Berlin International Film Festival is now complete. 24 feature 
films and 11 short films will compete for the prestigious Golden 
and Silver Bears, awarded by a jury of nine members chaired by 
the American producer Bill Mechanic.
 
With the increasing number of co-production or international 
distribution deals, the legal nationality of films has become 
less relevant to the critical observer than the cultural origin 
that inspired its making. Particularly active in such deals are 
the USA, France, Italy and Japan. Following is a complete list 
of all films selected, in the order of their cultural and main 
geographical origin:
 
>From Asia, will be competing:

BEIJING BICYCLES by Wang Xiao-shuai (PR of China) 
with Zhou Xun, Cui Lin and Li Bin.

BETELNUT BEAUTY by Ling Chin-sen (Taiwan, China) 
with Chang Chen, Sinje, and Leon Dai.

CHLOE by Go Riju (Japan) 
with Masatoshi Nagase, Shinya Tsukamoto and Rie Tomosaka - an 
adaptation of Boris Vian novel "L'Ecume des Jours"

INUGAMI by Masato Harada (Japan) 
with Yuki Amami, Atsuro Watabe and Kazuhiro Yamaji.

JOINT SECURITY AREA (JSA) by Park Chan-Wook (South Korea) 
with Song Kang-ho, Lee Byung-heon, Lee Young-ae and Kim Tae-woo.
 

South America and Africa are present, each with one film:

LA CIENAGA by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina) 
with Graciela Borges, Mercedes Mor?n and Martin Adjemian.

LITTLE SENEGAL by Rachid Bouchareb (Algeria/Senegal) 
with Sotigui Kouyate, Roschdy Zem and Sharon Hope.
 

European cinema will offer a strong participation in this year's 
program. 

>From France:

A MA SOEUR by Catherine Breillat 
with Anais Reboux, Roxane Mesquida, Librero de Rienzo and Arsin?e 
Khanjian.

FELIX ET LOLA by Patrice Leconte 
with Charlotte Gainsbourg, Philippe Torreton and Alain Bashung.

INTIMACY by Patrice Ch?reau 
with Mark Rylance, Kerry Fox, Timothy Spall, Marianne Faithfull 
and Phillipe Calvario, entirely shot in England.
 
>From Italy:

LE FATE IGNORANTI by Ferzan Ozpetek 
with Margherita Buy, Stefano Accorsi, Serra Yilmaz and Andrea 
Renzi.

MALENA by Giuseppe Tornatore with Monica Bellucci, Giuseppe Sulfaro 
and Luciano Federico.
 
>From Great Britain and Ireland:

CHOCOLAT by Lasse Hallstr?m 
with Johnny Depp, Juliette Binoche, Alfred Molina, Judi Dench 
and Lena Olin.

THE CLAIM by Michael Winterbottom 
with Peter Mullan, Wes Bentley, Nastassja Kinski and Milla Jovovich.

THE TAILOR OF PANAMA by John Boorman 
with Pierce Brosnan, Geoffrey Rush, Jamie Lee Curtis, Brendan 
Gleeson and Catherine McCormack.

WIT by Mike Nichols 
with Emma Thompson, Christopher Lloyd, Eileen Atkins and Harold 
Pinter.
 
>From Denmark, Poland and Spain, each with one film:

ITALIAN FOR BEGINNERS by Lone Scherfig 
with Anders W. Berthelsen, Anette St?velb?k and Peter Gantzler 
- a new Dogma film, the first directed by a woman.

YOU'RE THE ONE (UNA HISTORIA DE ENTONCES) by Jos? Luis Garci 
with Lydia Bosch, Julia G. Caba, Juan Diego and Ana Fernandez.

WEISER by Wojciech Marczewski 
with Marek Kondrat, Juliane K?hler, Krystyna Janda and Zbigniew 
Zamachowski.
 
And finally, German cinema will present:

ENEMY AT THE GATES by Jean-Jacques Annaud 
with among others Joseph Fiennes, Jude Law, Rachel Weisz, Ed 
Harris, Bob Hoskins, Matthias Habich, Eva Mattes and Sophie Rois. 
This film will open the festival on February 7 (out of competition).

MY SWEET HOME by Filippos Tsitos 
with Harvey Friedman, Nadja Uhl, Mario Mentrup and Monika Hansen. 
A low budget co-production with Greece.
 

America will present four films in competition, coming mostly 
from independent production companies:

BAMBOOZLED by Spike Lee 
with Damon Wayans, Savion Glover and Jada Pinkett-Smith.

FINDING FORRESTER by Gus Van Sant 
with Sean Connery, F. Murray Abraham, Robert Brown and Anna Paquin.

THE PLEDGE by Sean Penn 
with Jack Nicholson, Sam Shepard, Robin Wright Penn, Benicio 
del Toro, Mickey Rourke, Harry Dean Stanton and Helen Mirren.

TRAFFIC by Steven Soderbergh 
with Michael Douglas, Don Cheadle, Catherine Zeta-Jones and Benicio 
del Toro.
 
Two further American films will be screened out of competition:

HANNIBAL by Ridley Scott 
with Anthony Hopkins, Julianne Moore, Ray Liotta and Gary Oldman.

QUILLS by Philip Kaufman 
with Geoffrey Rush, Kate Winslet, Joaquin Phoenix, and Michael 
Caine.
 

The competition program will also include 11 short films. To 
be noted among them the short films by Anja Breien (Norway), 
Wong Kar-wei (Hong Kong), Peter Kern (Germany), all three known 
as feature film directors.
 
The program will also include as a further attraction, out of 
competition, the world premiere of two documentaries: 

STANLEY KUBRICK - A LIFE IN PICTURES by Jan Harlan 
- a three part documentary made by Kubrick's brother in law and 
his long time executive producer, screened in Berlin in video, 
and including never before seen footage of Kubrick's family life 
and work with a commentary spoken by Tom Cruise.

SUPER 8 STORIES by Emir Kusturica 
- a semi-documentary on his renown music band.
 
Highlights will also be the Tributes to Fritz Lang, Kirk Douglas 
and Stanley Kubrick with the screenings of:

PATHS OF GLORY by Stanley Kubrick (1957) 
- As a tribute to Kirk Douglas, with Kirk Douglas, Ralph Meker, 
Adolphe Menjou and George MacReady.

METROPOLIS by Fritz Lang (1927) 
with Heinrich George, Alfred Abel, Gustav Fr?hlich and Brigitte 
Helm. The screening will be accompanied by a new music score 
composed by Bernd Schultheis and played by the Berlin Radio-Symphonic 
orchestra conducted by Frank Strobel.
and, as closing night of the festival on February 18, the 70mm 
restored print of:

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY by Stanley Kubrick (1968) 
with Keir Dullea, Gary Lockwood and Wiiliam Sylvester.
 

The Festival will take place from February 7 to 18 in its new 
location at Potsdamer Platz. Many stars are expected to be present 
in Berlin on the occasion of the screening of their films together 
with the film directors. Some 14'000 guests from over a 100 countries 
are expected to attend the event that will be, for the last time, 
directed by Moritz de Hadeln.
 

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Source: Berlin International Film Festival
Forwarded by FIPRESCI