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International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is allowing audiences topause, rewind and travel back to an era when video shops were at the epicentre of film culture.

The IFFR special Focus programme ’Hold Video In Your Hands’ has premieres of two new documentaries about VHS culture: Alex Ross Perry’s Videoheaven, exploring the role of VHS in US film and TV, and Gyz La Rivière’s Videotheek Marco, a tribute to the once booming Dutch video scene.

The Focus also includes movies set in video stores (Be Kind Rewind); films about video dubbing and piracy (Video Kings); some horror (The Video...

German actor to receive Lifetime Achievement Award.

German actor Armin Mueller-Stahl is to receive a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival (Sept 24-Oct 4).

Following the award ceremony, Mueller-Stahl will present Jim Jarmusch’s Night On Earth at the Arthouse Le Paris cinema on Sept 28.

Mueller-Stahl is one of the few German actors of distinction whose careers have spanned East Germany, West Germany and Hollywood. His most noteworthy films include Lola (1981), Oberst Redl (1985), Momo (1986), Music Box (1989), Night On Earth (1991), Das Geisterhaus (1993) and Shine (1996).

Zff co-directors Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri said: “We are proud to welcome 84-year-old Armin Mueller-Stahl as our guest to this year’s festival. He is, in our opinion, one of the most important German actors of all time. His skills as a polyglot performer oscillating effortlessly between stage and screen, Germany and the USA, have more than earned him this award.”

Raised in the German Democratic Republic (Gdr) and initially trained as a concert...

The Berlin International Film Festival is celebrating its opening today, on February 7, 2013 at 7.30 pm. After a few words of greeting from Minister of State for Cultural and Media Affairs Bernd Neumann and Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, the Festival will be officially opened by Jury President Wong Kar Wai (Hong Kong, China) and Berlinale Director Dieter Kosslick. The International Jury – whose other members are Susanne Bier (Denmark), Andreas Dresen (Germany), Ellen Kuras (USA), Shirin Neshat (Iran), Tim Robbins (USA) and Athina Rachel Tsangari (Greece) – will also be introduced during the gala. Anke Engelke will again host the evening. This year’s music will be provided by Ulrich Tukur & Die Rhythmus Boys. 3sat will be broadcasting the opening live. Ziyi Zhang in Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai Following the gala, Wong Kar Wai’s epic martial-arts drama The Grandmaster will have its international premiere. The director and his leading actors,...

Meredith Brody files Berlin Day Three: In order to maximize movie viewing during a complex festival with many venues and many programs, I utilize one festival strategy: spending the entire day in one venue, the International, a beautiful remnant of Soviet Cold War architecture on the Karl Marx Allee, whose clean Bauhaus façade and mid-century-modern undulating wood slat walls are belied by plush blue velvet curtains and a shocking gold lame undercurtain. 11 a.m.: Spur der Baren, or Trace of the Bears, a documentary by Hans-Christoph Blumenberg and Alfred Holighaus about the 60-year artistic and political history of the Berlinale, from its origins using American funds in a divided and battered city, through the Cold War and the reunification of the country. Archival footage featuring everybody ...