The Berlin Film Festival: Why Still It Matters for Hollywood

The Berlin Film Festival: Why Still It Matters for Hollywood By Scott Roxborough Feb 7, 2012 Photo by Berlin Worldwide Film Festival It can be the elements. It can be the frigid Berlin winter that inspires experts to repeat exactly the same bitter litany every year concerning the Berlinale, that you will find no stars, not good films, no new ideas.Several wags known as 2011's fest "the worst Berlinale ever." Really? A festival that incorporated Wim Wenders' groundbreaking three dimensional documentary "Pina," J.C. Chandor's furious financial drama "Margin Call" and the astounding Iranian film "A Separation" -- which selected up Oscar nominations on Jan. 24?Once the 62nd Berlinale opens February. 9, expect the experts to become just as disgruntled. And merely as wrong. Berlin's broad, eclectic buying process causes it to be harder to choose which game titles would be the large outbreaks, but because of the festival's history, you will see some. A mix portion of possible standouts includes china imperial epic "Whitened Deer Plain" from Golden Bear champion Wang Quan'an ("Tuya's Marriage") "Home for that Weekend," a shattered-family drama in the always excellent German helmer Hendes-Christian Schmid ("Requiem") and Billy Bob Thornton's sixties period drama "Jayne Mansfield's Vehicle," featuring John Hurt, Kevin Sausage, Robert Duvall and Thornton themself.Not one of them, however, will probably go back home using the Golden Bear. Berlin juries reserve the very best prize for politically flavored cinema, so a betting guy would put his chips on Brillante Mendoza's "Taken" (about people from other countries kidnapped by Filipino terrorists), Benedek Fliegauf's gypsy-focused thriller "Only the Wind" or Kim Nguyen's "Rebelle," which follows Komona, a 14-year-old soldier in Africa who's expecting a young child.There will not considerably studio muscle on show in Berlin this season -- Warner Bros.' "Very Noisy & Incredibly Close," directed by Stephen Daldry, and Jason Reitman's "Youthful Adult" from Vital would be the only studio game titles screening, neither of these in competition. But Berlin never continues to be a studio launchpad and, because the Oscar nominations gone to live in mid-The month of january in 2004, the studios' prestige films are beginning earlier around, to the advantage of the autumn fests and hindrance of Berlin. "Moneyball" bowed in Toronto, "The Descendants" in Telluride and "Hugo" inside a surprise screening in the NY Film Festival. A more compact studio presence means less stars, so Berlin has needed to get creative to ensure sufficient red-colored-carpet wattage. Because the only public festival of Europe's large three (Cannes and Venice are industry-only), Berlin needs its stars.Festival director Dieter Kosslick has had to brushing the indie ranks for more compact features, frequently directorial debuts, with large-title casts. Which means this year, Berlin has got the world premiere of "Bel Ami," a period piece from first-timers Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod that counts Taylor Lautner, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas among its A-list talent James Marsh's Sundance entry "Shadow Dancer" with Clive Owen and Gillian Anderson and Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," featuring Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Antonio Banderas. Julia Roberts will attend a unique screening of her directorial debut, "Within the Land of Bloodstream and Honey," and Meryl Streep will receive a pre-Oscar Golden Bear in recognition of her life's work.For that industry, however, Berlin's real draw is its market. Again offered out and reserved solid, Berlin's European Film Marketplace is forecasted to become a blockbuster, a minimum of in comparison using the staid and low-volume American Film Market in November.Pre-buys of in-development projects is going to be in which the large cash is, but expect a brisk business in pick-ups of finished films -- particularly the more audience-friendly fare that screens in Berlin's Decades and Panorama sidebars. In Panorama, be careful for "Iron Sky," as well as-over-blown, lengthy- in-development Finnish "Nazis wideInch spoof, and "Cherry," an indie drama featuring Louise Graham like a porno film director and James Franco like a coke-addled lawyer.If this all systems February. 19, the experts likely will say it had been a weak Berlinale and talk in the "amazing" selection going to Cannes. The, meanwhile, will prove to add up its deal memos and prebook Berlin's Grand Hyatt for 2013. The Hollywood Reporter The Berlin Film Festival: Why Still It Matters for Hollywood By Scott Roxborough Feb 7, 2012 PHOTO CREDIT Berlin Worldwide Film Festival It can be the elements. It can be the frigid Berlin winter that inspires experts to repeat exactly the same bitter litany every year concerning the Berlinale, that you will find no stars, not good films, no new ideas.Several wags known as 2011's fest "the worst Berlinale ever." Really? A festival that incorporated Wim Wenders' groundbreaking three dimensional documentary "Pina," J.C. Chandor's furious financial drama "Margin Call" and also the astounding Iranian film "A Separation" -- which acquired Oscar nominations on Jan. 24?Once the 62nd Berlinale opens February. 9, expect the experts to become just like disgruntled. And merely as wrong. Berlin's broad, eclectic buying process causes it to be harder to choose which game titles would be the large outbreaks, but because of the festival's history, you will see some. A mix portion of possible standouts includes china imperial epic "Whitened Deer Plain" from Golden Bear champion Wang Quan'an ("Tuya's Marriage") "Home for that Weekend," a shattered-family drama in the always excellent German helmer Hendes-Christian Schmid ("Requiem") and Billy Bob Thornton's sixties period drama "Jayne Mansfield's Vehicle," featuring John Hurt, Kevin Sausage, Robert Duvall and Thornton themself.Not one of them, however, will probably go back home using the Golden Bear. Berlin juries reserve the very best prize for politically flavored cinema, so a betting guy would put his chips on Brillante Mendoza's "Taken" (about people from other countries kidnapped by Filipino terrorists), Benedek Fliegauf's gypsy-focused thriller "Only the Wind" or Kim Nguyen's "Rebelle," which follows Komona, a 14-year-old soldier in Africa who's expecting a young child.There will not considerably studio muscle on show in Berlin this season -- Warner Bros.' "Very Noisy & Incredibly Close," directed by Stephen Daldry, and Jason Reitman's "Youthful Adult" from Vital would be the only studio game titles screening, neither of these competing. But Berlin never continues to be a studio launchpad and, because the Oscar nominations gone to live in mid-The month of january in 2004, the studios' prestige films are beginning earlier around, to the advantage of the autumn fests and hindrance of Berlin. "Moneyball" bowed in Toronto, "The Descendants" in Telluride and "Hugo" inside a surprise screening in the NY Film Festival. A more compact studio presence means less stars, so Berlin has needed to get creative to make sure sufficient red-colored-carpet wattage. Because the only public festival of Europe's large three (Cannes and Venice are industry-only), Berlin needs its stars.Festival director Dieter Kosslick has had to brushing the indie ranks for more compact features, frequently directorial debuts, with large-title casts. Which means this year, Berlin has got the world premiere of "Bel Ami," a period of time piece from first-timers Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod that counts Taylor Lautner, Christina Ricci, Uma Thurman and Kristin Scott Thomas among its A-list talent James Marsh's Sundance entry "Shadow Dancer" with Clive Owen and Gillian Anderson and Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," featuring Ewan McGregor, Michael Fassbender and Antonio Banderas. Julia Roberts will attend a unique screening of her directorial debut, "Within the Land of Bloodstream and Honey," and Meryl Streep will receive a pre-Oscar Golden Bear in recognition of her life's work.For that industry, however, Berlin's real draw is its market. Again offered out and reserved solid, Berlin's European Film Marketplace is forecasted to become a blockbuster, a minimum of in comparison using the staid and low-volume American Film Market in November.Pre-buys of in-development projects is going to be in which the large cash is, but expect a brisk business in pick-ups of finished films -- particularly the more audience-friendly fare that screens in Berlin's Decades and Panorama sidebars. In Panorama, be careful for "Iron Sky," as well as-over-blown, lengthy- in-development Finnish "Nazis wideInch spoof, and "Cherry," an indie drama featuring Louise Graham like a porno film director and James Franco like a coke-addled lawyer.If this all systems February. 19, the experts likely will say it had been an inadequate Berlinale and talk in the "amazing" selection going to Cannes. The, meanwhile, will prove to add up its deal memos and prebook Berlin's Grand Hyatt for 2013. The Hollywood Reporter