Feb 01, 2024
More Than Words Can Say: Lupita Nyong'o, Martin Scorsese, Ira Sachs, Tsai Ming-liang, Mati Diop, Abderrahmane Sissako, Peaches and Many More Guests at Berlinale Talents

With this year’s theme of "Common Tongues - Speaking Out in the Language of Cinema", Berlinale Talents sets an example for diversity in filmmaking, tolerance and unity among all those who love cinema and who together with everyone stand for open exchange and freedom in art. The programme consisting of 14 major public talks and countless other events for the 202 invited Talents spans the usual wide range of cinematic disciplines and cultures and invites - in keeping with this year's focus on language and understanding - to enter into conversation with internationally renowned guests and among each other.

People are invited to come together, listen to each other and to collectively remember rather than to forget. In “Speaking Out: Film as a Culture of Memory”, Berlinale directors Mati Diop (Dahomey, Competition), Cece Mlay and Agnes Lisa Wegner (The Empty Grave, Berlinale Special) debate how long-silenced colonial crimes in Africa can be filmically brought to light and most importantly, by using the words of those affected. The documentary directors Oksana Karpovych and Roman Bondarchuk, who have been invited to Forum, together with the co-curator of Kyiv Critics' Week, Daria Badior, will discuss the documenting of voices, and how, as creatives, to avoid losing your own in times of war in “Collecting Voices: Ukrainian Cinema Confronting the Unspeakable”.

Martin Scorsese, awarded with this year's Honorary Golden Bear, is welcomed to Berlinale Talents’ by Joanna Hogg, who will be talking to the acclaimed director about his life’s work. Constantly exploring and relentlessly searching for the diversity of humanity also distinguishes director Tsai Ming-liang (Abiding Nowhere, Berlinale Special). “Alternative Narratives: Art as Articulated by Tsai Ming-liang”, will be about his films, VR experiences and installations. This talk and the in-depth discussion with Abderrahmane Sissako (Black Tea, Competition), one of the world's most renowned filmmakers from sub-Saharan Africa, will not be held in English and instead will be translated live in the auditorium for a greater linguistic diversity.

Audiences who want to delve deeper into the world of stories - whether true or fictional – can this year appreciate around 70 Berlinale films made with the involvement of Talents alumni. Many are invited to Berlinale Talents as guests, such as alumnae Nora Fingscheidt (The Outrun, Panorama), Nele Wohlatz (Sleep With Your Eyes Open, Encounters) and Meryam Joobeur (Who Do I Belong To, Competition), who will explore how they give their characters life in their writing process in “Words of Mouth: A Film Character's Journey in Writing”. Prominent representatives of the US-independent cinema will shed light on role development with actors: the director brothers Nathan and David Zellner (Sasquatch Sunset, Berlinale Special) with a humorous lecture on the language of the Big Foot („Bros in the Woods: Learning to Talk with the Zellners“); Ira Sachs (Passages, Jury member for Generation) and Eliza Hittman (Never Rarely Sometimes Always, Jury member for the GWFF Award) from very personal perspectives about their work as directors in sensitive moments in “I Hear You: For a Language of Trust on Set”.

When it comes to body language and awareness, Peaches' 20-year stage career speaks for itself. The artist and her costume and hair designer Charlie Le Mindu will be exploring body, clothing and everything in between in “Body Languages: Peaches, Hair and Her Costumes”. And the “Teddy Talents Talks: What's Seen but not Said”, which are developing into a successful format of the queer Berlinale, will once again be visionary, this time with the participation of performance artist Bishop Black, among many others.

This year's President of the International Jury, Lupita Nyong'o, belongs to the culturally most influential women in Africa and is also one of the most renowned actors in the world. For the Berlinale Talents audience, she and her colleagues will swap their cinema seats for the big stage for “Common Tongues: The International Jury”. And in an open Q&A with the participation of the Talents audience, this year's Berlinale Shorts jurors Ilker Çatak (Academy nominated with The Teacher’s Lounge (Das Lehrerzimmer)), Xabier Erkizia and Jennifer Reeder will try to prove that talking about film - and even the best stories on the screen itself - often begins with a question.

Berlinale Talents represents all disciplines in film and welcomes the best of each to the numerous closed workshops for the Talents, including this year, for example, cinematographer Rui Poças, filmmaker, poet and Talents alumnus Khavn De La Cruz, and - for 15 years in a row - acting coach and movement director Jean-Louis Rodrigue from Los Angeles. Open to the public, Berlinale Talents welcomes the creative crew of internationally renowned production designer Adam Stockhausen, a short drive away from the current shooting preparation for Wes Anderson in Babelsberg: With a focus on, so to speak, setting a comma in the visual film language, set designer, film graphic designers and model builder will delve into the smallest details that make their award-winning work for Anderson's films so great.

Overview of all events open to the public
(in alphabetical order)

The programme with all times and venues will be available from February 6 on the Berlinale Talents website and the Berlinale website. Tickets are available just like regular film tickets.

Alternative Narratives: Art as Articulated by Tsai Ming-liang
with Tsai Ming-liang

Body Languages: Peaches, Hair and Her Costumes
with Charlie Le Mindu, Peaches

Bros in the Woods: Learning to Talk with the Zellners
with David Zellner, Nathan Zellner

Cinema in Translation: Understanding Beyond Barriers
with Abderrahmane Sissako

Collecting Voices: Ukrainian Cinema Confronting the Unspeakable
with Daria Badior, Roman Bondarchuk, Oksana Karpovych

Common Tongues: The International Jury
with Lupita Nyong'o und weiteren Mitgliedern der Internationalen Jury der Berlinale

Honorary Golden Bear: In Conversation with Martin Scorsese
with Martin Scorsese, Joanna Hogg

I Hear You: For a Language of Trust on Set
with Eliza Hittman, Ira Sachs

Not to Miss: The Small Details of Big Film Design
with Erica Dorn, Lucile Gauvain, Anna Pinnock, Adam Stockhausen, Simon Weisse

Short on Answers: Calling Film into Question
with Ilker Çatak, Xabier Erkizia, Jennifer Reeder

Speaking Out: Film as a Culture of Memory
with Mati Diop, Cece Mlay, Agnes Lisa Wegner

Teddy Talents Talks: What’s Seen But Not Said
with Levan Akin, Bishop Black, Philipp Fussenegger, Vic Carmen Sonne

Words of Mouth: A Film Character's Journey in Writing
with Nora Fingscheidt, Meryam Joobeur, Nele Wohlatz

One further public event will be announced on February 6.

Berlinale Talents is a Berlinale Pro* initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a division of Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, and is supported by the Minister of State for Culture and Media, Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, German Federal Film Board, Mastercard and ARRI.

Press Office
February 1, 2024