(Berlin Luigi Noera with the kind collaboration of Marina fearful- Photos are published courtesy of the Berlinale)
At three weeks of the Berlinale online event, the first anticipations show the great will of Carlo Chatrian's team to move forward despite the difficulties.
In times of pandemic even in the absence of the public, the Berlinale maintains its characteristics as a Festival linked to its Berlin public and therefore, above all, the symbol of the Berlinale could not be missing, albeit in a stylized version, as even real bears are forbidden to travel around Berlin . . .
But it also maintains the peculiar characteristic of the Berlinale of contact with the public to which the second session is intended during the summer with the hope that in the meantime the wave of COVID19 has returned.
Already announced the TV series that will be presented in March, while for the competition you have to wait.
Finally, it was announced that four representatives from Italy were selected for the Berlinale Talents!
As we know, the new format adopted in the pandemic emergency year will take place in two stages:
The 71 ° Berlin International Film Festival will take place with the event for industry professionals and press accredited by 1 al 5 March 2021. Instead from 9 al 20 June 2021, the Berlinale invites the general public to the Summer Special.
Meanwhile, the new poster designed by the Berlin artist Claudia Schramke was presented.
"This year's Berlinale Bear is a typical Berlin character. The cute handmade pattern exudes optimism in these troubled times and spreads a thrill of anticipation for the two phases of the film festival “, Mariette Rissenbeek comments, executive director of the Berlinale, on the symbol of the Berlinale 2021.
The other novelty of this revolutionized edition is that the winners of the previous editions of the Golden Bear will form the international jury of the 71st Berlinale
The members of the international jury will decide the competition prizes, Short Films, Encounters and Generation of the Berlinale and will announce the winners during the event in March. The awards ceremony will take place in the presence of the public in June.
International Jury
During the development of the festival format in 2021, a new concept was also agreed regarding the composition of the International Jury. The directors of the six Golden Bear winning films will decide the competition prizes at the 71st Berlinale and watch the films on the big screen in Berlin. On the other hand, a president of the jury is not planned for this year.
“I am happy and honored that six directors I admire very much have enthusiastically accepted our invitation to take part in this unique edition. They not only express different ways of making uncompromising films and creating bold stories, but they also represent a part of the history of the Berlinale. At this moment it is significant and a great sign of hope that the winners of the Golden Bear find themselves in Berlin watching films in a theater and find a way to support their colleagues ", commented the Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian.
The members of the International Jury 2021 I'm :
Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran) Director of the Golden Bear-winning film There is No Evil, 2020
Nadav Lapid (Israel) Director of the Golden Bear-winning film Synonyms, 2019
Adina Pintilie (Romania) Director of the Golden Bear-winning film Touch Me Not, 2018
Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary) Director of the film winner of the Golden Bear On Body and Soul, 2017
Gianfranco Rosi (Italy) Director of the film that won the Golden Bear Fuocoammare, 2016
Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina) Director of the Grbavica Golden Bear-winning film, 2006
Summer Special
Instead from 9 al 20 June with the Summer Special, the festival offers the Berlinale audience the opportunity to experience a large part of the films in the presence of the directors thanks to numerous film screenings.
“With the Summer Special, we want to create the much desired festival atmosphere for the public. Films from all sections of the Berlinale will be screened in a dozen venues in Berlin ", commented Mariette Rissenbeek, Executive Director of the Berlinale. “As part of the summer special, the 71st Berlinale awards ceremony will also be held.”
As for the selection of films in competition, we have to wait until next week
In fact from 8 to 11 February, the Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and the managers of the other sections of the festival will reveal the selections of the films (the selection of the Berlinale Series has already been announced and we bring you the details below): Retrospective and generation, Berlinale Shorts, Forum and Forum Expanded, Encounters, Panorama and Perspektive Deutsches Kino and finally Concorso and Berlinale Special
For the announcement of 11 February, there will also be a video presentation by the festival management at 11 on the following channels: www.berlinale.de/live, facebook.com/berlinale, youtube.com/berlinale during which Mariette Rissenbeek will once again present the format of this year's festival, while Carlo Chatrian will present the films in competition and the Berlinale Special.
Berlinale Series 2021: Toxic Antiheroes, Utopias of Freedom
In an unusual year, the selection of the Berlinale Series consists of six titles that, with arguments, unconventional and surprising narratives and visual style, make up a mirror of our time. Latin American content premiered at the Berlinale Series with HBO's Argentine production Entre hombres (Amongst Men) e Gilda's last days (The Last Days of Gilda) from Brasil. Furthermore, Philly D.A., a US production by Oscar-nominated duo Josh Penn and Michael Gottwald, is the first documentary series to be invited to the program.
The creators take an unbiased and precise look at their characters and their environments. The collective traumas of the recent past are being rethought, social classes and their significance for individual destinies are questioned. The protagonists often find themselves in a climate of polarization: the absolute need for positioning (politico), localizing in systems of delimitation of values means both hope of change and risk of escalation.
Between men, a four-episode modern classic from director Pablo Fendrik with breathtaking timing, shows the male world of the same name in its most brutal facets; like a game of violence, aversion and power. The homage to the aesthetics of the 90s celebrates and challenges the chosen genre and the world it represents. With his second show at the Berlinale Series, Me and the others (Me and the
Others), David Schalko is playing mind games with us and takes us through the various levels of consciousness of an advertising hipster and his crazy artist family (in the cast of the ensemble: Tom Schilling, Sophie Kings, Martin Wuttke, Lars Eiding, Katharina Schüttler).
It’s a Sin is about an unknown and deadly virus that is spreading around the world. Russell T Davies' touching miniseries about an irresistible group of friends and the beginnings of HIV in London in the 1980s evokes painful connotations in the current situation. 
A Philadelphia D.A. Civil rights activist Larry Krasner has the ambitious goal of nothing less than overturning the legal system, which he blames for the mass convictions of mostly black defendants in Philadelphia. His election as district attorney initially seems unlikely, but it turns into a triumph. The creators Ted Passon, Yoni Brook and Nicole Salazar portray early hits, Krasner's pushbacks and defeats with a passing observation.
Snow angels, a dark socio-criminal studio in shades of dull white comes from Sweden and Denmark from the creator of Mette Heeno (Berlinale Series 2016: Splitting up Together). The complex story of a newborn's disappearance is captivating, multiform and confronts the viewers with their own ideas and images of family and motherhood. The four-part series Gilda's last days by Gustavo Pizzi is
unique in every sense. The hot portrait, physical and lustful of his heroine, interpreted by Karine Teles, it is a declaration of personal freedom within an environment full of threats and censorship.
Obviously, the side section could not be missing Berlinale Talents now in its 16th edition which will take place in March as we anticipate below.
First of all, the manifesto of this edition reminds us of i “Dreams”: Endless Dreams
Möbius strips fold over time and space: in the design of the Berlin graphic designer Christoph Rauscher, playfully intertwined between the letters D, R, E, A, M, S. Despite the new realities, the next edition of Berlinale Talents will still be able to offer an open space where ideas can move freely and mix, day and night all over the world. In fact, we can trace everything back to the motto Keep dreaming! But here are the Topics, the structure and the participants of the Berlinale Talents 2021
Even in the midst of a pandemic, Berlinale Talents creates a space for meetings, networks and exchanges. Placed under the theme “Dreams”, this 19th edition will take place from 1 al 5 March 2021. As the first part of the double Berlinale 2021, 200 chosen talents, as well as a host of guests and audiences are invited to a digital forum that will showcase the infinite possibilities and dream worlds of cinema: an opportunity to start building and sharing a global vision for the cinema of the future. The initiative draws not only on the utopian potential of dreams – crucial for so many of us these days – but it also highlights the many fascinating parallels between the nocturnal movie sets we visit in our sleep and the dream machine that is cinema.
All the world at home
This year, the set designer Uli Hanisch (The Queen’s Gambit, Babylon Berlin) will transform the HAU Hebbel am Ufer theater into a digital set, allowing Berlinale Talents to convert the distance between participants' homes 65 countries and the HAU theater in one “SDream”, or an increased meeting point. “It is just like being in a dream: talents, audience and guests will be in Berlin and elsewhere at the same time. The alleged opposition between “real” e “virtual” is consumed by our optimist “everywhere” for this edition of Berlinale Talents – a programmatic dream journey, which reshapes our vision of a borderless creative world “, in the words of Berlinale Talents directs Christine Tröstrum and Florian Weghorn. The complete program, including events for the film industry, the talks and live-workshops open to the public, will be published in mid-February.
200 selected talents
Not just streaming, sdreaming! With 200 invited participants (gives 65 countries, selected from a pool of over 3.000 candidates), Berlinale Talents is committed to finding new paths for a creative industry in the midst of radical change. The talents bring the basic ingredients for such an enterprise: each with their own strengths and hopes, From 13 disciplines and with about ten years of professional experience behind them. And they all firmly believe in the transformative potential of a community that hasn't waited for a crisis to actively address the challenges and works to “to dream”. For the first time in 2021, the group includes emerging festival curators, innovative VOD platforms and common cinemas that shape the future of the audience experience from Indonesia to Mexico. The 55% of the participants this year define themselves as a woman, a higher value waiting to be replicated throughout the sector, as so many applications have undoubtedly required. And a broader trend: the social commitment of talents goes far beyond their films. As creative entrepreneurs, they are strongly committed to fairer working relationships and equal pay, they are founding film collectives and film associations to strengthen their position and defend indigenous communities, against climate change and for the queer community. But most of all, all the 200 talents are bold daydreamers, whose work you can find out more about www.berlinale-talents.de.
We like to remember that the Berlinale Talents will be present among the 205 cinema professionals – 113 women, 84 men and 8 who preferred not to declare their gender – coming from 65 countries too 3 selected talents from Italy:
Giulia Tagliavia, film composer; has created "Our road", which won the Best Film Award at Biografilm in 2020, e “Samouni Road”, which won the L'Œil d'Or Documentary Award at the Cannes Film Festival 2018 e il Price Lights 2019 as best documentary ; as a pianist he is also part of the PMCE, the contemporary music ensemble resident of the Auditorium Parco della Musica in Rome
Chiara Dainese, who edited the film presented at the Venice selection 2018 "The happiest boy in the world".
Director Enrico Masi; whose documentaries have been screened at CPH: DOX and Cinema du Reel (the experimental documentary “Shelter – Farewell to Eden”) and Venice (“The Golden Temple”, 2012)
The “Italian group” at Berlinale Talents is completed by the Italian-British cinematographer Vincenzo Marranghino, that, among others, He has turned "Los Fantasmas" (IFFR selection 2020).
Together, i 205 talents will participate in a virtual program of 5 days with tailor-made events with internationally renowned experts who will hold workshops and conferences, some of which are open to the public through berlinale-talents.de