Jan 17, 2020
Programme Encounters Completed: Vitality of Cinema in All of Its Forms

In addition to Competition and Berlinale Shorts, the new competitive section Encounters will be introduced in 2020.
Its goal is to support new voices in cinema and to give more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms in the official programme. A three-member jury will choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award.

“As a result of passionate research, the 15 titles chosen for Encounters present the vitality of cinema in all of its forms. Each film presents a different way of interpreting the cinematic story: autobiographical, intimate, political, social, philosophical, epic, surreal. The films take the challenge of shaping a world rather than reproducing it,” comments Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of the Berlinale.

Cristi Puiu’s new work will open this kaleidoscopic gallery. A journey through time and thought, Malmkrog is a major work, a tour de force of words and mise en scène, a fresco that fascinates with precision and inventiveness. The following films are made by already admired directors (Decker, Emigholz, Kossakovsky, Kluge/ Khavn, Piñeiro, Ostrochovský, Restrepo, Sutton, Winter/Edström) and others which the festival has discovered along the way (Singh, Vasconcelos, Waelde, Wollner, Wilczyński).

Funny Face
USA
by Tim Sutton
with Cosmo Jarvis, Dela Meskienyar, Jonny Lee Miller, Victor Garber, Jeremy Bobb, Rhea Pearlman, Dan Hedaya
World premiere

Gunda
Norway / USA
by Victor Kossakovsky
World premiere / Documentary form

Isabella
Argentina
by Matías Piñeiro
with María Villar, Agustina Muñoz, Pablo Sigal, Gabi Saidón
World premiere

Laila aur satt geet (The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs)
India
by Pushpendra Singh
with Navjot Randhawa, Sadakkit Bijran, Shahnawaz Bhat, Ranjit Khajuria, Mohammed Yasin
World premiere

Los Conductos
France / Colombia / Brazil
by Camilo Restrepo
with Luis Felipe Lozano, Fernando Úsaga Higuíta
World premiere / Debut film

Die letzte Stadt (The Last City)
Germany
by Heinz Emigholz
with John Erdman, Jonathan Perel, Young Sun Han, Dorothy Ko, Susanne Sachsse, Laurean Wagner
World premiere

Malmkrog
Romania / Serbia / Switzerland / Sweden / Bosnia / North Macedonia
by Cristi Puiu
with Frédéric Schulz-Richard, Agathe Bosch, Diana Sakalauskaité, Marina Palii, Ugo Broussot, István Téglás
World premiere

A metamorfose dos pássaros (The Metamorphosis of Birds)
Portugal
by Catarina Vasconcelos
World premiere / Documentary form / Debut film

Nackte Tiere (Naked Animals)
Germany
by Melanie Waelde
with Marie Tragousti, Sammy Scheuritzel, Michelangelo Fortuzzi, Luna Schaller, Paul Michael Stiehler
World premiere / Debut film

Orphea
Germany
by Alexander Kluge, Khavn
with Lilith Stangenberg, Ian Madrigal
World premiere

Shirley
USA
by Josephine Decker
with Elisabeth Moss, Michael Stuhlbarg, Odessa Young, Logan Lerman
International premiere

Služobníci (Servants)
Slovakia / Romania / Czech Republic / Ireland
by Ivan Ostrochovský
with Samuel Skyva, Samuel Polakovič, Vlad Ivanov, Vladimír Strnisko
World premiere

The Trouble with Being Born
Austria / Germany
by Sandra Wollner
with Lena Watson, Ingrid Burkhard, Dominik Warta, Jana McKinnon
World premiere

The Works and Days (of Tayoko Shiojiri in the Shiotani Basin)
USA / Sweden / Japan / Hong Kong, China / United Kingdom
by C.W. Winter, Anders Edström
with Tayoko Shiojiri, Hiroharu Shikata, Ryo Kase, Mai Edström
World premiere

Zabij to i wyjedz z tego miasta (Kill It and Leave This Town)
Poland
by Mariusz Wilczyński
with the voices of Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Chyra, Maja Ostaszewska, Małgorzata Kożuchowska
World premiere / Animation / Debut film

Press Office
January 17, 2020