With Wang Quan’an’s Bai lu yuan (White Deer
Plain) from the People’s Republic of China, the Competition of the 62nd
Berlin International Film Festival is now complete. 18 films will be vying
for the Golden and Silver Bears in the Berlinale Palast. A total of 23 films
will be showing in the Competition programme. There will also be two special
screenings in the Berlinale Palast.
Bai lu yuan (White Deer Plain)
People’s Republic of China
by Wang Quan'an
with Zhang Fengyi, Zhang Yuqi, Wu Gang
World premiere
Starting signal for the new Berlinale initiative Berlinale Residency
The Berlinale is expanding its portfolio with an additional initiative and
extending a four-month invitation to six filmmakers and their new projects
to the creative metropolis of Berlin in autumn 2012. The new international
fellowship programme, Berlinale Residency, will help filmmakers to complete
their scripts successfully, as well as to develop the audience potential of
the films together with their producers in a “Script to Market” seminar.
Working in close contact with individually selected mentors from the Nipkow
Programm and international market experts, the filmmakers can take a
decisive step toward placing their next film project on the way to a
successful theatrical release. Directors who have already celebrated a
feature film success at a renowned international film festival can apply for
the four-month Berlinale Residency.
“The Berlinale Residency is a logical progression of the previous Berlinale
initiatives,” explains Festival Director Dieter Kosslick. “The fellowship
serves as a follow-up project for filmmakers who already had a feature in
the official programme of the festival, who were selected with projects in
the Berlinale Co-Production Market or Berlinale Talent Campus, or who were
supported through the World Cinema Fund. However, we are also looking
forward to receiving other filmmakers from around the world, whom the
programme will entice to Berlin.”
Kirsten Niehuus, Managing Director of film funding at the Medienboard
Berlin-Brandenburg said: “We were particularly impressed that the Berlinale
Residency not only practises traditional story development, but also works
on the projects in close relationship to the market and with corresponding
experts from the industry. Audience orientation and effective analysis are
more important today than ever before.”
The first call for entries for the Berlinale Residency, which will begin in
September 2012, starts at the opening of the Berlinale on February 9, 2012
online at www.berlinale-residency.de.
The six selected projects (feature and documentary films and cross-media
projects) will be worked on from September to December. Afterwards, they
will be presented, in order to find additional partners for financing and -
where appropriate - co-production. On offer as initial presentation
platforms are the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the Guadalajara
International Film Festival, which takes place in March and along with its
affiliated Film Market is a partner of the Berlinale Residency. Depending on
the project, further presentations at co-production markets in Buenos Aires,
Durban or Sarajevo are being considered.
The Berlinale Residency is an initiative of the Berlin International Film
Festival, a division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH,
the Nipkow Programm and the Guadalajara International Film Festival, in
co-operation with the MEDIA Mundus Programme of the European Union and the
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.
Retrospective “The Red Dream Factory”: Events, Silent Film Musicians and a
Publication
The Retrospective “The Red Dream Factory” is the outcome of years of
systematic research. It will present 44 films in 32 screenings - including
rarities of whose condition little was known until recently. New prints of
some of the films are being made available for the Retrospective by several
archives: the German Federal Archives/Film Archives Department, the Deutsche
Kinemathek, the Austrian Film Museum and the Russian State Documentary Film
and Photo Archive in Krasnogorsk. In cooperation with the Deutsche
Kinemathek, the Austrian Film Museum will be presenting a new restoration of
Fyodor Otsep’s adaptation of the Tolstoy drama Zhivoy trup (The Living
Corpse, 1929) that is based on six different versions.
Internationally renowned musicians will be providing accompaniment for the
many silent films in the Retrospective programme. Dutch silent film pianist
and composer Maud Nelissen and British accompanist Stephen Horne have
performed at previous Retrospectives. Canadian Gabriel Thibaudeau, who is in
great demand as a composer, conductor and pianist, will be accompanying
silent films at the Berlinale for the first time. Eunice Martins is well
known to Berliners as the resident pianist of the Arsenal cinema, and to
international audiences from many festivals.
The Retrospective film programme will be
supplemented by a series of events at the Deutsche Kinemathek. This year’s
theme will open with a talk moderated by Rainer Rother, head of the
Retrospective, with curators Günter Agde and Alexander Schwarz. Alexander
Schwarz will also be presenting his new documentary Die rote Traumfabrik,
before it premieres on television, with Nina Goslar, who is responsible for
the film at ARTE. Adelheid Heftberger, curator of the Vertov Collection of
the Austrian Film Museum, will speak about the eventful history of Dziga
Vertov’s only work for the “Red Dream Factory”, the often re-cut film Tri
Pesni O Lenine (Three Songs of Lenin). Two special events have been
organized to give insight into the work of the Deutsche Kinemathek and are
related to Studio Babelsberg’s 100th anniversary. For the complete programme
of events go to: www.berlinale.de.
The extensive publication “Die rote Traumfabrik. Meschrabpom-Film und
Prometheus 1921-1936”, which Bertz + Fischer are publishing for the
Berlinale, provides further material about the Retrospective. As the first
monograph in German about this legendary German-Russian cinematic
experiment, the book, edited by Günter Agde and Alexander Schwarz, compiles
essays by Russian and German authors on the history and aesthetics of the
films. These essays are supplemented by historical documents, previously
unpublished photos, contemporary avant-garde film posters, and a complete
filmography.
Berlinale Camera for Ray Dolby
Since 1986, the Berlin International Film Festival has presented the
Berlinale Camera to film personalities or institutions to which it feels
particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks.
At the 62nd Berlin International Film Festival, Ray Dolby will be awarded
the Berlinale Camera in recognition of his work as one of the most important
engineers and inventors in the film industry.
Ray Dolby revolutionised sound in cinemas and contributed greatly to making
films the amazing acoustic experience we know today. By installing multiple
loudspeakers and applying multi-channel technology, Dolby surround sound
introduced viewers to the feeling of being fully immersed in the moment. Ray
Dolby’s first surround sound technology, Dolby Stereo introduced in 1975,
was quickly adopted by movie theatres worldwide, as films like Star Wars
(1977; directed by George Lucas) and Close Encounters of the Third Kind
(1977; directed by Steven Spielberg) were released in the new Dolby sound
format. Dolby Digital surround sound followed, which also later became the
standard for home cinema audio with the introduction of DVD. Ray Dolby
founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965 based on a simple idea that came to him
as a way of solving the issues around the hissing sound on audio tape. This
was the birth of Dolby A-type noise reduction for the professional recording
market, followed three years later by Dolby B-type noise reduction for
consumer products. In the 1970s, Ray Dolby turned the company’s attention to
cinema, transforming the entertainment experience for ever. In 1989 his work
in the field was recognised with an Oscar for his contributions to the film
industry; and in 2003, an Emmy Lifetime Achievement Award. Ray Dolby served
as a member of Dolby’s Board of Directors from 1965 until his retirement
from the Board in 2011, although he remains Director Emeritus, while his son
David Dolby has been involved in the management of Dolby Laboratories for a
number of years, and since 2011 has been a member of the Board of Directors.
The Berlinale will present Ray Dolby with the Berlinale Camera on February
16, 2012.
Since 2004, the Berlinale Camera has been sponsored by the Düsseldorf-based
goldsmith Georg Hornemann. The trophy was redesigned for the Berlinale in
2008. Modelled on a real camera, it now has 128 components. From swivel head
to tripod it has been crafted and assembled with great artistry, and many of
its silver and titanium parts are movable.
Crossmedia Distribution in Focus: European Film Market to host industry
panel with Film- und Medienstiftung NRW
“Distribution in a Crossmedia World” will be the title of a new panel
discussion presented by the European Film Market together with Film- und
Medienstiftung NRW and in collaboration with the trade magazine
Blickpunkt:Film. On Monday 13 February 2012 at 16:30 in the Gropius Mirror
Restaurant (across from the Martin-Gropius-Bau), international industry
experts will discuss innovations and current developments in digital
distribution.
The Danish film producer Peter Aalbæck Jensen (Zentropa, i.e. Melancholia),
YouTube Content Creators Manager Christoph Poropatits (Ireland) and the
media lawyer Dr. Christoph Wagner (Hogan Lovells International, LLP, Berlin)
will shed light on the current crossmedia landscape and debate new
perspectives on the distribution of film and moving image content. Marek
Walton, co-founder of The Mustard Corporation (UK) and international expert
and consultant in crossmedia storytelling, will chair the event.
New digital platforms are bringing radical
changes to the distribution and consumption of film. Ongoing digitalization
is changing not only the production end of the spectrum, but also the
distribution channels, consumer patterns and marketing opportunities of film
and media content. Alongside cinema and television, new web platforms are
increasingly taking hold, offering films on PCs, tablets, smartphones and
soon also on Internet TV. These new digital distribution channels are paving
the way for a fundamental shift in the film market and the opportunities for
crossmedia distribution. For distributors, content owners and consumers they
offer optimistic prospects but also bring with them certain risks.
What consequences will these developments have for producers and
distributors? What is changing legally with regard to the exploitation of
rights and marketing? How are these new platforms developing and with what
strategies do they reach out to their customers?
Entrance to the Crossmedia Debate is free for registered EFM participants
and accredited Festival guests and/or at advance registration to
kongress@filmstiftung.de |