70th Berlin International Film Festival

February 20 – March 1, 2020

“With its dual leadership and a stronger focus on diversity of content, the Berlinale is better positioned to keep its contemporary edge than the festivals in Cannes and Venice.”
Andreas Busche, “Der Tagesspiegel”, February 20, 2020

2020 was a year of transitions that brought many new things, yet also strongly drew on the traditions of the festival. The new leadership duo, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, smoothly implemented the change at the top and introduced innovations in their first year without compromising the festival’s identity. “I think the desire for a revolution or a radical reform was more the wish of the German press. When we were both named as the new festival heads, we quickly and firmly made it clear that the Berlinale is a well-positioned festival and does not require any drastic changes,” explained Carlo Chatrian in an interview with “Deutschlandfunk Kultur” radio (February 15, 2020). And, like their predecessor Dieter Kosslick, they were confronted in their first year with a world outside the festival that would never be the same again. When Kosslick took office in 2001, it was September 11 that was to change politics and society for decades to come; in 2020, it was a virus whose effects were starting to shape global events like no other phenomenon.

Irons’ wish remained unfulfilled: the opening night was overshadowed by an incident that occurred far from the events surrounding the festival in Berlin. At the latter, everything was ready: rather than the usual first film in the Competition, the 70th Berlinale opened with My Salinger Year by Philippe Falardeau, screening as part of Berlinale Special. Margaret Qualley and Sigourney Weaver stepped out onto the packed Red Carpet, the autograph and selfie hunters were in full attendance. But, on the previous day, a German man had killed ten people in Hanau due to racist motives. An incident that fuelled anxious discussions about an increasingly violent right-wing extremist tendency in Germany. And so, the Opening Ceremony of the 70th Berlinale began with a minute’s silence for the victims. And another shadow was already looming: the threat of the coronavirus which, in the following weeks, would bring economic and social life to an almost complete standstill across the globe, was drawing ever nearer. Some market participants from China, where the virus had originated, cancelled their attendance and yet the danger was still too undefined, which fortunately meant that the festival could go ahead to completion as planned.

The First Chatrian Competition

And so the 70th Berlinale took its course in 2020 for the time being and people began to focus on what the festival was actually about: the works in the programme. Carlo Chatrian had set out with a clear curatorial vision: for him, it was solely the artistic quality of the individual films that counted, with an emphasis on their formal characteristics rather than content, their subject matter. Accordingly, identifying a central theme for the programme was of secondary importance, though the Artistic Director did approach an overarching atmosphere: “It is quite difficult to reduce the diversity of a programme like this to a common denominator and to identify a specific theme. But it is a fact that films are seismographs of reality. And our reality is at present not exactly enlightening.” That is why so many of the films have such a [dark and serious] tone. (“MDR KULTUR”, February 19, 2020)

The central focus should not be on the festival organisers and their accomplishments but on the works and their makers. Chatrian emphasised this in modest tones: “I’m not particularly interested in imposing my vision. I’m more interested in expanding my vision and my take on films. In that respect, films are essential and even more so are my conversations with programmers. These exchanges open new perspectives and allow me to better shape the multifaceted festival I have been asked to run.” (“Sight and Sound”, March 2, 2020) The Artistic Director as primus inter pares, a part of the team, governed by curiosity and the intention to learn from every film.

The greatest attention was naturally paid to the first edition of the Competition put together by Chatrian and his new selection committee. Here, too, the festival opted for continuity with many directors from previous years - Christian Petzold, Hong Sangsoo, Sally Potter, Benoît Delépine and Gustave Kervern – being invited again in 2020.

The assessments of the 2020 Competition ranged from pure elation (“After years of backlash, the Berlin International Film Festival has new leadership - and a unique case study in curatorial recovery,” Erik Kohn, “Indiewire”, February 29, 2020) to rather more cautious notes, such as those detected by Christiane Peitz in view of the response by the international press (“Der Tagesspiegel”, March 3, 2020). And structural problems remained under the new leadership, such as the date of the Oscars which, having been brought forward in 2020, forced the management to move the festival so it ended in March. In addition, there was widespread concern among journalists regarding global cinema production as a whole: “In the age of streaming and a decaying cinema industry, the diet of films from which festivals such as the Berlinale feed will shrink rather than grow [...]: the volume of interesting films of a quality they have been used to for decades simply seems no longer to exist.” (Andreas Borcholte and Hannah Pilarczyk, “Der Spiegel”, March 1, 2020)

A Well-Deserved Winner

On the evening of the Award Ceremony, everyone was united regarding the decision about the Golden Bear. The Iranian entry Sheytan vojud nadarad by Mohammad Rasoulof had received a standing ovation at its premiere the previous evening and, on the following day, it was already clear which film would win the 70th Berlinale’s main prize. Following Nader and Simin, A Separation (2011) and Taxi (2015), Rasoulof’s Sheytan vojud nadarad marked the third time in a decade that the festival honoured a film from Iran with the Golden Bear. The presentation of the award was also reminiscent of the evening when Taxi won: like Panahi, Rasoulof had been banned from leaving his country by the Iranian regime and so his daughter Baran Rasoulof, who also stars in the film, accepted the award on his behalf along with the producers. Though the director himself did actually make an appearance later in the evening when, during the award winners’ press conference, his daughter quickly called him by video chat. The Berlinale protested with great concern when, a week after the festival, an arrest order was issued against Rasoulof. The director had been sentenced some time previously but, until then, had been spared from prison.

Audiences and critics alike were also convinced by the decisions for the other awards. Eliza Hittman’s highly acclaimed Never Rarely Sometimes Always won the Special Jury Prize while Hong Sangsoo was honoured as Best Director. The award for Best Actress went to Paula Beer for her role in Christian Petzold’s Undine; Elio Germano won Best Actor for his performance as the artist Antonio Ligabue in Volevo nascondermi by Giorgio Diritti. A second Silver Bear went to Italy for a film in which Elio Germano also played the lead, with the D’Innocenzo brothers winning the Best Screenplay award for Favolacce.

The only contentious decision was the award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution, yet this was not about the quality of the work by German cinematographer Jürgen Jürges but due to the on-set conditions of the film for which he won the prize. “In 2011, a reporter for GQ magazine travels to the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. There, he visits a film set, or something that a film set had become: a parallel world in which people have been living and working for years.” (Viktoria Morasch, “taz”, February 22, 2020) The mammoth three-year project DAU was in part financed with money from the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg but also with the support of a Russian oligarch.

Encounters

The new section initiated by Rissenbeek and Chatrian, Encounters, was consistently well received, even if some commentators were concerned that the new series was not easy enough to distinguish from the Forum. Mainstays of the Forum, such as Heinz Emigholz, now had their new works presented in Encounters. But apart from the critical voices, there were also many who were looking forward to the new border demarcations and transgressions: “Perhaps the interplay between Encounters [...] and the Forum actually presents a productive challenge from which the entire festival can profit. The first few days certainly point in this direction.” (Bert Rebhandl, “FAZ”, February 16, 2020) Positive and even euphoric responses dominated: the section was called a “wild journey of discovery” (Andreas Borcholte and Hannah Pilarczyk, “Der Spiegel”, March 1, 2020) and “a big plus” (Tim Caspar Boehme, “taz”, March 2, 2020). Films like Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda and Sandra Wollner’s The Trouble With Being Born were celebrated enthusiastically. Chatrian could also feel vindicated in his selection by the fact that, in addition to the section’s own prizes, the GWFF Best First Feature Award also went to an Encounters film: Los conductos by Camilo Restrepo. Across the board, the films were easily able to meet the section’s goal of screening idiosyncratic, aesthetically courageous works that could be regarded as the avant-garde of cinema.

The 70th Anniversary

A special series on the occasion of the festival’s 70th edition was also curated by Chatrian: he invited seven filmmakers who had already screened a film at the Berlinale to each in turn invite another guest to participate in a conversation at the Akademie der Künste. A film by one of the filmmakers was screened before the talk, one by the other afterwards. “On Transmission” featured Ang Lee, Olivier Assayas, Claire Denis and many other greats. In addition, the anniversary edition was heralded by a special countdown in the run-up to the festival. In cooperation with various partner institutions, an exhibition, a concert and other events could be enjoyed across Berlin. The new festival management deliberately set out to establish a close collaboration with the city.

Personnel Changes in the Sections

It was not only the festival leadership that was new: there was also a lot of movement within the sections. And here, too, continuity was favoured over a harsh break. In Panorama, Michael Stütz took over sole leadership as his colleague, Páz Lazaro, joined Chatrian’s selection committee. The section’s programme was no less powerful and combative than in previous years: “In times like these, we cannot rest on our laurels,” said Stütz (“Der Tagesspiegel”, February 20, 2020). A main focus traditionally – and now more than ever – lay on LGBTQI* cinema whose fascinating diversity Stütz was adept at showcasing. The reduction in the number of films requested of Panorama by the new management was well received: “Panorama especially benefited from streamlining, presenting a revitalised selection.” (Jessica Kiang, “Sight and Sound”, March 4, 2020)

The Perspektive Deutsches Kino also underwent a reduction in 2020 – from twelve films to eight. Here too, the stronger focus was positively received: “A quality offensive from which the series is clearly benefitting.” (Gunda Bartels, “Der Tagesspiegel”, February 20, 2020) And, with its move to the Kino International, the section could now celebrate its premieres in worthy surroundings.

Julia Fidel, long-serving associate of Generation and Panorama, became head of Berlinale Series. On the occasion of her inaugural festival, she particularly thanked her predecessor Solmaz Azizi who founded the section in 2015 and then systematically expanded it. Fidel was ambitious in her first year’s programme: “I wanted to make sure we are showing a very versatile picture of what is happening in the TV world [...]. I didn’t want to stick to the genres we’re used to seeing. We tried to get the message out that we wanted to go beyond crime series and costume dramas.” (“Screendaily”, February 18, 2020) With Sex, a series was screened for the first time whose episodes did not conform to the now conventional 50-60 minutes length but instead ran at just under 15 minutes each. Fidel programmed the series by Amalie Næsby Fick in its entirety, screening every episode. The new head was able to draw on vast resources because the past few years have seen an ever greater diversification and growing courage to fill specific niches in the international series landscape, as she emphasised in an interview with “Blickpunkt Film” (February 21, 2020).

In addition to the film statistics, the Berlinale has published the ratio of female directors in the Berlinale programme every year since 2004: Download, PDF (1.4 MB)

The gender evaluation has developed increasingly in the last years: Download, PDF (2.0 MB)