German Film @ Canada - Goethe-Institut

72 films from 29 countries (out of 14,200 entries), with nearly half directed by women, makes up this year's largely virtual Sundance Film Festival 2021 that runs 28 January to 3 February 2021. 50 Shorts, 4 Indie Series, 14 New Frontier Projects to Debut on Feature-Rich Digital Platform & Satellite Screens Nationwide complement this year's edition, for which you won't have to pack your skis.

Ronny Trocker's German-Italian-Danish feature HUMAN FACTORS (DER MENSCHLICHE FAKTOR), developed through the Torino Film Lab, is part of the World Cinema Dramatic Competition. Continue reading "German Films @ Sundance 2021" »

I remember sitting in the TIFF 2014 world premiere of Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, willing myself to let go. If you cannot suspend your disbelief and let Petzold take you by the hand, you will struggle to dive into his stories, which is true too for Petzold’s new Berlinale Competition contender Undine (and to a certain degree last year’s Transit, a relationship precursor to his latest). If you surrender to his curious storytelling, you are in for an intimately romantic and quietly humorous treat with Undine (trailer). Continue reading "Berlinale 2020: UNDINE #review" »

I remember sitting in the TIFF 2014 world premiere of Christian Petzold’s Phoenix, willing myself to let go. If you cannot suspend your disbelief and let Petzold take you by the hand, you will struggle to dive into his stories, which is true too for Petzold’s new Berlinale Competition contender Undine (and to a certain degree last year’s Transit, a relationship precursor to his latest). If you surrender to his curious storytelling, you are in for an intimately romantic and quietly humorous treat with Undine (trailer). Continue reading "Berlinale 2020: UNDINE #review" »

An ongoing series of mini profiles on the blog German Film @ Canada on the movers and shakers that make the Berlinale one of the most important events in the international film calendar: the filmmakers, programmers, curators, industry promoters and fans, from rookies to veterans.

Name & role: Mark Peranson, Berlinale head programmer.

This is my 1st Berlinale as head programmer but my 16th at the festival, which I have attended at a jury member (in 2004 on the FIPRESCI jury), a critic (for Toronto's Cinema Scope), a programmer (for the Vancouver and Locarno film festivals), a filmmaker (La última película, which I made together with Raya Martin, screened in Forum Expanded in 2013), and as kind of an actor (in Hong Sangsoo’s On the Beach at Night Alone, which played in Competition in 2017)…I also previously moderated discussions for the Forum. So, I think I have a good handle on what goes on at the festival, even if it’s the first year that I’m behind the scenes full-time, officially since July 2019.

Berlinale AD Carlo Chatrian announced a new structure when he put together his programming team – smaller, all freelancers focused on curation not administration, “a group of discoverers”. How was the first round of collaboration in the selection committee?
Continue reading "Berlinale People: Mark Peranson, Berlinale" »