Teddy Award at Berlinale: Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings)

Teddy Award at Berlinale: Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings)

Faraz Shariat, the director of this year’s Teddy Award winner (the official queer award), focuses on “post-migrant experiences and stories about immigrant families. His debut feature film evolved from his autobiographical documentaries exploring his family history and from his work as a translator for refugees.” So the openly gay Parvis, based in a city in…

More Competition at Berlinale: Rizi, Todos Os Mortos, Undine, and Volevo Nascondermi

More Competition at Berlinale: Rizi, Todos Os Mortos, Undine, and Volevo Nascondermi

Modern art painter Antonio Ligabue is the main topic of Italian director Giorgio Diritti‘s Berlinale entry “Volevo Nascondermi (Hidden Away)”. The young Toni, both physically and mentally ill, is adopted by a couple in Switzerland, but later sent back to Italy. There, in poverty and with no real work to do, he focusses on his…

Berlinale Competition: Favolacce, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, El Prófugo, Le Sel Des Larmes, And More

Berlinale Competition: Favolacce, Never Rarely Sometimes Always, El Prófugo, Le Sel Des Larmes, And More

Summer in the suburbs of Rome. Families gather together for dinner, go to the beach, or just do nothing at all. Everything seems a bit dismal for the children who are not at all respected by their parents. Some of them have to show all their A grades in their certificates. As if that warrants…

Berlinale Competition: A Cow, a Cat, and some Huskys

Berlinale Competition: A Cow, a Cat, and some Huskys

Kelly Reichardt‘s new movie, “First Cow”, my favorite in this year’s competition so far, is a Western told in a new fashion. Oregon, early 19th century, trappers are flooding the continent and the way she describes the development of the friendship of Cookie (brilliantly played by John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee), is like a…

The American Sector

The American Sector

Documentary directors Courtney Stephens and Pacho Velez have created a 70-minute piece of collecting parts of the original Berlin Wall, put up all over the United States. Many of them can be found in museums, some of them in parks and gated communities, a handful of them were auctioned off by private individuals for their…

70th Berlinale off to a Great Start

70th Berlinale off to a Great Start

There is this special scene in Philippe Falardeau‘s “My Salinger Year”, which opened the 70th Berlinale last night, where literary agent Margaret (played by the hilariously witty Sigourney Weaver) shows her level-headed, almost tender side instead of her otherwise cold and rigorous manner. It’s where she tells aspiring writer Joanna (Margaret Qualley in her next…