News

Turkish drama set to premiere in Un Certain Regard.

Leading German sales firm The Match Factory has acquired international rights to Burning Days, the upcoming feature from Turkish filmmaker Emin Alper that is set to premiere in Un Certain Regard at Cannes.

The Match Factory previously handled Alper’s 2019 Berlinale competition title A Tale Of Three Sisters and his 2015 Venice jury prize winner Frenzy. Burning Days marks the first time Alper has been selected for Cannes and will debut in the Un Certain Regard sidebar next month. The filmmaker was invited to Cannes’ Cinefondation L’Atelier co-production forum with the project...

Both films recorded average scores of 3.3 from the eight critics.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy and Maria Speth’s Mr Bachmann And His Class are the joint winners of Screen’s 2021 Berlin jury grid, with both films scoring averages of 3.3 from the eight critics.

Wheel Of Fortune recorded six threes (good) and two fours (excellent); while Mr Bachmann took one two (average), four threes and three fours.

The winning scores were slightly down on the 3.4 average of Eliza Hittman’s Never Rarely Sometimes Always from 2020, but up on the 3.0 average of winners Synonyms and A Tale Of Three Sisters...

Project will be partially shot in Turkey, with production to start in September 2021.

Levan Akin, the writer/director of Cannes 2019 hit And Then We Danced, is planning his next film, Passage, to be partially shot in Turkey.

Passage is now in development with production to start in September 2021. It will shoot in Istanbul and also in Georgia, which was the setting for And Then We Danced.

Akin is writing the script now and will spend more research time in Turkey. The Swedish Film Institute is supporting development.

Passage is described as “a story about love and longing for a place to belong.

‘Days’, ‘Undine’ come second and third; Abel Ferrara’s ‘Siberia’ last.

Eliza Hittman’s teenage pregnancy drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always has won the Screen Berlin 2020 Competition jury grid, with an average score of 3.4.

It pipped Tsai Ming-liang’s Days by one point, having gained top score fours (excellent) from three critics: Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin, Meduza’s Anton Dolin and The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo. It was the only title to receive solely positive scores of either four or three (good).

Behind the 3.3 score of Days was Christian Petzold’s Undine, with a 3.1 average.

The 3.4 score tops...

‘The Woman Who Ran’, ‘Bad Tales’ score moderately.

Eliza Hittman’s Us drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always has become the runaway leader on Screen’s Berlin 2020 Competition jury grid.

The film achieved 3.4 - 0.3 ahead of the previous leader, Christian Petzold’s Undine.

This is also significantly ahead of the 3.0 for Synonyms and A Tale Of Three Sisters, the tied winners for 2019; and tops the 3.3 of 2018 winner Isle Of Dogs.

Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin, Meduza’s Anton Dolin and The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo each gave it a top-score four (excellent), with the remaining three critics to have scored...

Seven critics are participating in this year’s grid.

Screen has launched its jury grid for the Berlinale 2020 Competition films, with Natalia Meta’s The Intruder and Giorgio Diritti’s Hidden Away both marking average scores.

Participating critics on the grid for this year are:

Helena Lindblad, Dagens Nyheter, Sweden Anton Dolin, Meduza, Russia Katja Nicodemus, Die Zeit, Germany Wang Muyan, The Paper, China Rita Di Santo, The Morning Star, UK Paolo Bertolin, Segnocinema, Italy Screen’s own critic

As in previous years, each critic watches each Competition film and awards a star rating on the following scale: four (excellent...

A combined €314,000 in production and distribution funding has been awarded to 10 international projects.

A combined €314,000 has been awarded to 10 projects in the latest funding round of the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf).

Recipients include Brazilian filmmaker Juliana Rojas’ second feature Cidade; Campo which continues Rojas’ long-standing collaboration with veteran producer Sara Silveira following the award-winning short Um Ramo in 2007.

The Wcf also picked Daughter Of Rage, the feature debut by Nicaraguan filmmaker Laura Baumeister, whose short Ombligo De Agua had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam at the beginning of the year. Daughter Of Rage won...

A combined €314,000 in production and distribution funding has been awarded to ten projects.

A combined €314,000 has been awarded to ten projects in the latest funding round of the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund (Wcf).

Production funding recipients include Brazilian filmmaker Juliana Rojas’ second feature Cidade; Campo which continues her long-standing collaboration with veteran producer Sara Silveira, following the director’s award-winning short Um Ramo in 2007.

The Wcf also picked Daughter Of Rage, the feature debut by Nicaraguan filmmaker Laura Baumeister, whose short Ombligo de agua had its world premiere at the International Film Festival Rotterdam at the beginning of the year.

Watching a film that reminds you so much of your own experiences can be either a pleasure or a torture. “A Tale of Three Sisters” reminded me how similar Greek and Turkish people are, but some “missteps” here and there did not allow me to call it a pleasure, at least not completely. Let us take things from the beginning though.

“A Tale of Three Sisters” is screening at Thessaloniki International Film Festival

The story revolves around three sisters, who find themselves together after many years, under the roof of their father, Sevket, in the mountains of Anatolia. Havva, the youngest, has just returned from the job she had in the city, taking care of a child, after a tragedy that ended up with the kid dead. Nurhan, the middle one, is also dismissed from a similar job in another house, after her temper got the best of her, ending...

Other winners include A Tale of Three Sisters, End of Season, Shooting the Mafia, Lovemobil, Forman vs. Forman and Reza Mirkarimi's Castle of Dreams. The 14th Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival (15-22 September) wrapped last night with a ceremony in the Black Sea city's State Musical Centre. Marko Škop's Karlovy Vary title Let There Be Light picked up the Grand Prix, just two days after winning the same, main award at the Almaty Film Festival. Iran's Reza Mirkarimi received the Best Director gong for Castle of Dreams, as well as the Award of the Georgian Film Critics’ Jury. Emin Alper's A Tale of Three Sisters won both accolades in the acting categories: Best Actress for Ece Yüksel and Best Actor for Kayhan Açikgöz. Finally, the Jury's Special Prize went to Elmar Imanov's Rotterdam title End of Season (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia). In the Documentary Competition, Kim Longinotto's...

Another eight documentaries and 25 short films will screen in the competition sections, and the festival has scheduled master classes by Paul Schrader and Krzysztof Zanussi. The Batumi International Arthouse Film Festival (Biaff) is set to take place for the 14th time from 16-23 September. Biaff is again organising a carefully curated programme consisting of fiction-feature, documentary and short competitions, plus sidebar sections including Georgian Panorama, Masters and Special Screenings. In the Feature Competition, there are ten films: Mark Jenkin's Bait (UK), Veit Helmer's The Bra (Germany/Azerbaijan), Reza Mirkarimi's Castle of Dreams (Iran), Elmar Imanov's End of Season (Germany/Azerbaijan/Georgia), György Pálfi's His Master’s Voice (Canada/Hungary/France/Sweden/USA), Kıvanç Sezer's La Belle Indifference (Turkey), Marko Škop's Let There Be Light (Slovakia/Czech Republic), Jacek Borcuch's Dolce Fine Giornata (Poland), Emin Alper's A Tale of Three Sisters (Turkey/Germany/Netherlands...

Ena Sendijarević’s Bosnian-Dutch drama took best film.

Ena Sendijarević’s Bosnian-Dutch drama Take Me Somewhere Nice won the Sarajevo Film Festival’s top honour, the Heart of Sarajevo prize for best feature film.

The 2019 winners were announced at the closing and awards ceremony last night (August 22). The film – the director’s feature debut - launched in Rotterdam in January, where it received a special mention for the Tiger award.

See below for the full list of winners

It follows a Dutch girl of Bosnian descent who travels to Bosnia to meet her sick father for the first time.

The award comes with a €16,000 prize,...

Other winners include A Tale of Three Sisters, And Then We Danced and When the Persimmons Grew; the Cineuropa Prize went to Rounds. The 25th Sarajevo Film Festival announced its awards last night at a ceremony held in the National Theatre. Ena Sendarijević's Take Me Somewhere Nice triumphed in the Feature Competition, winning the Heart of Sarajevo for Best Film. The Dutch-Bosnian co-production world-premiered in the Tiger Competition at Rotterdam, where it snagged a Special Mention. The Heart of Sarajevo for Best Director went to Turkey's Emin Alper for the Berlinale competition title A Tale of Three Sisters. The film also won the Cicae Award. Bulgaria's Irini Jambonas, from Stephan Komandarev's Rounds, which world-premiered at Sarajevo, received the Best Actress Award, and in addition, the film picked up the Cineuropa Prize. Levan Gelbakhiani, the star of Levan Akin's Cannes Directors' Fortnight entry And Then We Danced, was crowned Best Actor.

“Take Me Somewhere Nice,” Bosnian director Ena Sendijarević’s coming-of-age story about a teen raised in the Netherlands who returns to Bosnia to visit her ailing father, won the top prize at the Sarajevo Film Festival Thursday night, earning the Amsterdam-based helmer the coveted Heart of Sarajevo Award.

The jury heralded the “beautifully photographed, acted, scripted and directed movie,” praising its ability to capture the spirit of modern youth while feeling “timeless.” The Bosnian-born Sendijarević was visibly overwhelmed receiving the award in front of her home audience, dedicating it to a festival that celebrated its 25th edition this year.

In announcing the award winners, jury member and Rotterdam festival director Bero Beyer praised filmmakers that “reached out to our hearts as they were exploring modernity versus tradition, rootedness in history against individuality, and who with their films celebrated not so much the brotherhood of men, but rather the sisterhood of human beings.

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...

It includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory and Little Joe.

The 46 films recommended for nomination for the 2019 European Film Awards have been announced.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

The selection includes Berlin Golden Bear winner Synonyms and Cannes prize winners Les Miserables, Young Ahmed, Pain And Glory, Portrait Of A Lady On Fire and Little Joe.

The films were selected by a committee consisting of the Efa board and experts Giorgio Gosetti (festival programmer), Kathrin Kohlstedde (festival programmer), Paz Lazaro (festival programmer), Mary Nazari (exhibitor), Edvinas...

Rising from the rubble of the Bosnian War to become one of Southeastern Europe’s leading film and TV industry events, the Sarajevo Film Festival has plenty to celebrate as it marks its 25th edition this year.

The festival was established in 1995 during the four-year siege of Sarajevo as part of an effort to help the reconstruction of society and save the cosmopolitan spirit of the city. Today Sarajevo not only plays a vital role for the region’s growing film and TV industries, it is also becoming an increasingly significant conduit to global partners in Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas.

“From the very start, we have been inspired by art and it helped us create new values and break the existing social and cultural barriers,” Sarajevo Film Festival director Mirsad Purivatra says.

Indeed, Unesco is honoring the fest this year for its promotion of “dialogue and tolerance through the arts.

53 films will be competing for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards in the feature, documentary, short and student competitions, and 23 of these will have their world premieres at Sarajevo. The Sarajevo Film Festival has announced the full line-ups of its four competition programmes. A total of 53 pictures will be vying for the Heart of Sarajevo Awards in the Feature Film, Documentary Film, Short Film and Student Film sections. This includes 23 world, four international, 24 regional and two Bosnian premieres. In the Feature Film Competition, there are four world premieres: Cătălin Mitulescu's Heidi (Romania), Stephan Komandarev's Rounds (Bulgaria/Serbia/France), Florenc Papas' Open Door (Albania/Italy/Kosovo/Macedonia) and Ines Tanović's The Son (Bosnia and Herzegovina/Croatia/Romania/Slovenia/Montenegro). The regional premieres include Emin Alper's Berlinale competition entry A Tale of Three Sisters (Turkey/Germany/Netherlands), Levan Akin's Cannes Directors’ Fortnight title And Then We Danced (Georgia/Sweden...

The latest films from Bulgarian director Stephan Komandarev and Romania’s Catalin Mitulescu are among 23 world premieres competing for the Heart of Sarajevo awards at the 25th Sarajevo Film Festival.

Komandarev’s 2017 film “Directions” played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and his 2008 opus, “The World Is Big and Salvation Lurks Around the Corner,” was shortlisted for the Oscars. Whereas “Directions” centered on taxi drivers, the new film, “Rounds,” focuses on police officers.

Also world premiering in Sarajevo is “Heidi,” directed by Mitulescu, whose 2006 pic “The Way I Spent the End of the World” and 2011’s “Loverboy” both played in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard. “Heidi” centers on an elderly policeman who has to persuade a teenage girl to testify in an organized-crime case involving human trafficking.

Joining “Rounds” and “Heidi” in the main competition lineup are two other world premieres. “Open Door,” the debut feature from Albanian director Florenc Papas, is...

Nine films will participate in the feature film competition including ‘Heidi’.

Sarajevo Film Festival has unveiled the line-up for its 25th edition, with nine feature world premieres playing in the two main competitive sections.

Scroll down for the full list of titles

These include Romanian filmmaker Cătălin Mitulescu’s fourth film Heidi in the feature competition, about an ageing police officer tasked with finding two prostitutes who he needs to testify in an organised crime case.

Mitulescu debuted with The Way I Spent The End Of The World which won Dorotheea Petre the best actress prize in Un Certain Regard...

Film Fest Košice loves Asian Movies. They have a whole section dedicated to them, called Eastern Promises, and curated by Kristina Aschenbrennerova (also a contributor of Asian Movie Pulse).

But beside Eastern Promises they also have always a good selection of Asian Titles within the general Programme. Let’s have a look at those titles.

Asian Films in The Programme

International Competition Of Feature Films (Peter Nágel)

(1st-3rd feature films of the director produced after 1 January 2018)

Still Human by Oliver Chan, 2018, Hk

The Day After I`m Gone, by Nimrod Eldar, 2019, Il

A Tale of Three Sisters, by Emin Alper, 2019, Tr-de-nl-gr

A Tale of Three Sisters

International Competition Of Short Films

(Short films (up to 30 minutes) produced after 1 January 201)

Brotherhood by Meryam Joobeur, 2018, CA-tn-qa-se

The Fox by Sadegh Javadi Nikjeh, 2018, Ir

Tungrus by Rishi Chandna, 2018, In

Tungrus

Around The World (Peter Nágel)

Bag of Rice by Kiseye Berendj, 1996, Ir-jp...

Photo courtesy of Pablo Ocqueteau and Berlinale 2019Below you will find our favorite films of the 69th Berlin International Film Festival, as well as an index of our coverage.AwardsFAVORITE Filmsdaniel KASMANHeimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Just Don’t Think I’ll Scream (Frank Beauvais)Fourteen (Dan Sallitt)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Delphine and Carole (Callisto McNulty)Holy Beasts Years of Construction (Heinz Emigholz)Bait (Mark Jenkins)Giovanni Marchini CAMIASynonyms (Nadav Lapid)I Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec)The Plagiarists (Peter Parlow)Just Don't Think I'll Scream (Frank Beauvais)The Blue Flower of Novalis (Gustavo Vinagre & Rodrigo Carneiro)The Portuguese Woman (Rita Azevedo Gomes)The Last to See Them (Sara Summa)Earth (Nikolaus Geyrhalter)Heimat Is a Space in Time (Thomas Heise)Ms Slavic 7 (Sofia Bohdanowicz & Deragh Campbell)Jordan Cronki Was at Home, But... (Angela Schanelec...

Updated with full list of winners: The Berlin Film Festival crowned its winners tonight at a ceremony in the Berlinale Palast. Big winners included Synonyms (Synonymes), which took home the festival’s top prize Golden Bear for Best Film and By the Grace of God, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize. I Was at Home, But won the Best Director accolade, and there was a double hit in the acting categories for the Republic of China’s So Long, My Son, which won Best Actor for Wang Jingchun and Best Actress for Yong Mei. Scroll down for a full list of winners.

Golden Bear Best Film winner Synonyms, a French-German-Israeli co-production, was an early favorite at the festival, launching first-timer actor Tom Mercier in the breakout role of a young Israeli man who tries to reinvent himself in Paris, with the help of a Franco-Israeli dictionary that gives the film its title.

’Synonyms’ took all eight scores with ‘A Tale Of Three Sisters’ receiving six.

Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms and Emin Alper’s A Tale Of Three Sisters have finished top of Screen’s Berlin 2019 Competition jury grid in a tie.

Both films scored a 3.0 average from our critics. Synonyms received all eight scores, whereas A Tale Of Three Sisters missed scores from two critics.

Synonyms centres on a young Israeli man (played by Tom Mercier) who moved to Paris to escape the stressful political situation in his home country. The tale is loosely based on Lapid’s own experiences in the...

Isabel Coixet’s Elisa & Marcela was far less popular with the jury.

Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms has tied for the lead at the top of Screen’s Berlin jury grid, sharing the number one spot with Emin Alper’s A Tale Of Three Sisters.

Lapid’s first film since 2014 festival hit The Kindergarten Teacher scored a 3.0 average, receiving all eight scores (A Tale Of Three Sisters currently has six).

It received no lower than a two (average), with three critics awarding it a top score of four (excellent) – Die Zeit’s Katja Nicodemus, The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo and Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin.

Emin Alper’s film scored well with critics.

Three new titles have landed on Screen’s Berlin Competition jury grid, with Emin Alper’s A Tale Of Three Sisters moving into first position.

The film has an average of 3.0, although it is missing two scores – Nicholas Wennö is still to award while Paolo Bertolin is not reviewing this title due to being credited with ‘Thanks’ on it.

So far it has received four threes (good), bracketed by a two (average) from Film Art’s Anton Dolin and a four (excellent) from Katja Nicodemus of Die Zeit.

A Tale Of Three Sisters...

Political turbulence is making it tough for filmmakers in Turkey with ambitions to make movies that can travel globally. But despite many impediments, Turkish auteurs are still managing to maintain a significant presence on the festival circuit.

The past year has seen auteur Nuri Bilge Ceylan back at Cannes with “The Wild Pear Tree”; newcomer Omar Atay’s “Brothers” bowed to positive reviews at Karlovy Vary; Tolga Karacelik’s “Butterfiles” make a splash at Sundance, where it won the Grand Jury prize; and Mahmout Fazil Coskun’s biting “The Announcement,” about a failed 1963 Turkish army coup, scooped the Special Jury nod in Venice’s Horizons section, among other outings.

Kicking off 2019 with an auspicious start is Emin Alper’s third feature, “A Tale of Three Sisters,” competing for a Berlin Golden Bear. Alper’s politically charged drama “Frenzy,” set in a dystopian Istanbul, won Venice’s Jury Special Prize in...

Variety’s “10 Europeans to Watch” were feted at a party held by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg at Berlin’s Ritz-Carlton Hotel Saturday. Kirsten Niehuus and Helge Jürgens, managing directors of Medienboard, the regional film, TV and digital-media funding body, were the co-hosts for the evening, which attracted 2,000 party-goers.

Pictured above are Henry Chu, Variety‘s international editor (left), with six of the Europeans to Watch – (from left) Belgian director Bas Devos (“Hellhole”), German actress Maria Dragus (“Mary Queen of Scots”), German director Aron Lehmann (“The Most Beautiful Girl in the World”), Austrian actress Valerie Pachner (“The Ground Beneath My Feet”), Dutch director Steven Wouterlood (“My Extraordinary Summer With Tess”), and German actor Fahri Yardim (“Dogs of Berlin”), with Niehuus (right).

Among the guests at the event were producers Martin Moszkowicz (“Resident Evil”) and Stefan Arndt (“Babylon Berlin”), and Tom Schilling, the lead actor in the Oscar nominated German film “Never Look Away,...

Six titles still to take their places.

Denis Coté’s Ghost Town Anthology has landed on Screen’s Berlin Competition jury grid, taking third place with an average of 2.7 with two scores to come.

The film achieved a top score four (excellent) from The Morning Star’s Rita Di Santo, as well as threes (good) from Frankfurter Allgemeine’s Verena Lueken and Segnocinema’s Paolo Bertolin.

The film follows a grieving family who encounter a series of strangers in an isolated town in the wake of a fatal car crash. Robert Naylor, Josée Deschénes and Jean-Michel Anctil lead the cast.

In a small village in the mountains of northeastern Turkey, three peasant sisters uneasily reunite under their father’s rustic roof in Emin Alper’s opaque, oddly theatrical “A Tale of Three Sisters.” Stunningly lensed in widescreen amidst the rocky peaks, the film struggles to excite admiration outside the visuals, forcing the viewer to vainly search for what exactly it was Alper wished to achieve. Bearing no evident connection to Chekhov’s “Three Sisters” apart perhaps from the girls’ desire, like Irina Sergeyevna, to live in town, this ultimately uninteresting drama is undermined by characters of little discernible intelligence whose plight will leave many viewers apathetic, partly due to the way dialogue seems to be artificially recited rather than naturally delivered. Outside a few festivals and Turkish showcases, it’s hard to imagine who’ll buy this “Tale.”

Unlike Alper’s previous feature “Frenzy,” with its clear parallels to the political situation today,...

Setting his tale of family love and rivalry, small ambitions and great cruelties in a postcard-perfect village nestled between snowy mountain peaks, Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters (Kiz Kardesler) is a unique work that deftly blends Chekhov and the Brothers Grimm. Often entrancing and sometimes quite intense, the film has a fairy tale quality that gives the unfolding drama about three dissatisfied young women living with their domineering father a classic, old-fashioned air.

This isn’t necessarily a turn-off for audiences, but the lack of a modern narrative arc hurts: There is no closure as the curtain ...

Setting his tale of family love and rivalry, small ambitions and great cruelties in a postcard-perfect village nestled between snowy mountain peaks, Emin Alper’s A Tale of Three Sisters (Kiz Kardesler) is a unique work that deftly blends Chekhov and the Brothers Grimm. Often entrancing and sometimes quite intense, the film has a fairy tale quality that gives the unfolding drama about three dissatisfied young women living with their domineering father a classic, old-fashioned air.

This isn’t necessarily a turn-off for audiences, but the lack of a modern narrative arc hurts: There is no closure as the curtain ...

Eight titles still to take their places.

Teona Strugar Mitevska’s God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya and Agnieska Holland’s Mr Jones have entered Screen’s Berlin jury grid, with the former achieving the better scores of the two.

God Exists currently sits joint top of the grid alongide Wang Quan’an’s Öndög with a 2.8 average, although God Exists has two scores to come which are likely to separate the films. It achieved a mixture of twos and threes, with Paolo Bertolin of Segnocinema giving it top marks of four (excellent).

The film is a drama about a...

Five new titles, including the latest films from Zhang Yimou and Andre Techine, have joined the official selection of this year’s Berlin Film Festival. Adam McKay’s “Vice” has also been added, but will screen out of competition.

“Vice” has already won a Golden Globe for star Christian Bale’s portrayal of former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and picked up six BAFTA nominations last week, including for Bale, supporting actor Sam Rockwell and supporting actress Amy Adams. The festival screening will mark its German premiere.

The new additions to the main competition lineup include the world premieres of Zhang’s “One Second” and Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms.” Techine’s “Farewell to the Night,” which stars Catherine Deneuve, also receives its world premiere at the Berlinale but will play out of competition. Alan Elliott’s documentary “Amazing Grace,” about Queen of Soul Aretha Franklin, will screen out of competition as well,...

Films by Zhang Yimou and André Téchiné will have world premieres in Berlin.

The final titles for the Berlin International Film Festival Competition and Berlianle Special sections have been announced.

The new competition additions are world premieres of Zhang Yimou’s One Second, André Téchiné’s Farewell To The Night, Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms, the German premiere of Vice, and the European premiere of Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace.

Of the new titles, Farewell To The Night, Alan Elliott’s Amazing Grace and Vice will play out of competition. 17 of the 23 films in the Competition section will be in contention...

Ghost Town AnthologyThe titles for the 69th Berlin International Film Festival are being announced in anticipation of the event running February 7-17, 2019. We will update the program as new films are revealed.COMPETITIONThe Ground Beneath My FeetThe Golden Glove (Faith Akin, Germany/France)By the Grace of GodThe Kindness of StrangersI Was at Home, but A Tale of Three SistersGhost Town Anthology (Denis Côté, Canada)Berlinale SPECIALGully Boy (Zoya Akhtar, India)BrechtWatergate (Charles Ferguson, USA)Panorama 201937 Seconds (Hikari (Mitsuyo Miyazaki), Japan)Dafne (Federico Bondi, Italy)The Day After I'm Gone (Nimrod Eldar, Israel)A Dog Called Money (Seamus Murphy, Ireland/UK)Waiting for the CarnivalChainedFlatland (Jenna Bass, South Africa/Germany/Luxembourg)Greta (Armando Praça, Brazil)Hellhole (Bas Devos, Belgium/Netherlands)Jessica Forever (Caroline Poggi, Jonathan Vinel, France)AcidMid90s (Jonah Hill, USA) Family MembersMonos (Alejandro Landes, Columbia/Argentina/Netherlands/Germany/Denmark/Sweden/Uruguay) O Beautiful Night (Xaver Böhm,...

A Tale of Three Sisters

Turkish director Emin Alper returns with his third feature, A Tale of Three Sisters, a 1980s set period piece. Produced by Nadir Operli (who also produced Alper’s sophomore film Frenzy in 2015 as well as the Jessica Woodsworth and Peter Brosens title The King of the Belgians), the feature stars Kayhan Açikgöz, Cemre Ebuzziya, Helin Kandemir, Müfit Kayacan, and Ece Yüksel. Emre Erkmen lensed the feature. Alper’s 2012 debut Beyond the Hill won an award out of Berlin’s Forum sidebar. His 2015 sophomore film Frenzy competed in Venice and won a Special Jury Prize.…...

German indie powerhouse The Match Factory will handle world sales on two Berlin Film Festival competition titles: German director Fatih Akin’s serial-killer chiller “The Golden Glove” and Turkish director Emin Alper’s family drama “A Tale of Three Sisters.”

Akin, a Hamburg native whose “Head-On” won the Golden Bear in 2004, is returning to the Berlinale with provocative “Glove,” which is based on a bestselling book. It chronicles the true story of Fritz Honka, a physically and psychologically scarred serial killer who murdered four women in Hamburg’s red-light district between 1970 and 1975. Akin has told Variety that the killer, played by rising German actor Jonas Dassler (“Lomo: The Language of Many Others”), used to live a couple of streets from where he grew up.

Honka picked up his victims at a dive bar called Zum Goldenen Handschuh (The Golden Glove in German), where he was a regular. The chiller’s...