New films by Terrence Malick, Chen Kaige and Oskar Roehler are among the first nine titles confirmed for the Berlin Film Festival next February.
Star power accompanying the six world premieres which have been announced should include: Sigourney Weaver, Heath Ledger, George Clooney and Matt Damon among others.
The premieres include Roehler'sadaptation of Michel Houellebecq's controversialbestseller The Elementary Particles,entitled Atomised, with CelluloidDreams as sales agent.
Hans-Christian Schmid's Requiem, a story about an exorcism in West Germany in the 1970s (the same case which inspired the recent Sony Pictures release of The Exorcism of Emily Rose) will be another world premiere, alongside Australian NeilArmfield's Candy, starring Heath Ledger and Abbie Cornish asa young couple involved in drugs.
Rounding out the premieres are Snow Cake, Marc Evans' unusual love story starring Alan Rickman and Sigourney Weaver; Thai directorPen-ek Ratanaruang's psychological thriller Invisible Waves; and Bosnian director JasmilaZbanic's feature debut Grbavica
Meanwhile, Out of Competition screenings areconfirmed for Terrence Malick's The New World,with Colin Farrell; Stephen Gaghan's political thriller Syriana,featuring producer and leading man George Clooney; and Chen Kaige's martial arts adventure The Promise ( aka Master of the Crimson Armor).
Speakingto Screen Daily about the competitionline-up, festival director Dieter Kosslick said: "In the Competition, there are newcomers andpeople who have never been in an international competition before. What will beparticularly strong is the German presence in all of the Berlinale'ssections - the year was very good and we will have as many German films as wecan, although I can't put more than eight German films in the Competition!
"We'll be showing some really good and quite different kinds of German films - that's what pleases me most that we have managed to realise this in my fifthyear [as festival director]."
A diverse programme is also emergingfor Kinderfilmfest, the Berlinale's children's and youthfilm competition. Kinderfilmfest will open with the international premiere of Opal Dream, director Peter Cattaneo's story of agirl whose lively imaginary friends become a real threat to her family in theAustralian outback.
A German contribution to the Kinderfilmfest has already been confirmed with the worldpremiere of Anne Wild's Hansel undGretel. Using poetic images, Wild takes a fresh approach to this Germanfairytale. The Swedish contribution Percy,
Het Paard van Sinterklaas (Winky's Horse)from the
Kinderfilmfest:
Hansel und Gretel (Hansel and Gretel) by Anne Wild, Germany 2005
Het Paard van Sinterklaas (Winky's Horse) by Mischa Kamp, Netherlands 2005
Lapislazuli byWolfgang Murnberger, Austria 2005
Mizu no Hana (WaterFlower) by Kinoshita Yusuke, Japan 2005
Opal Dream byPeter Cattaneo, Britain/Australia 2005
Percy,
14plus:
Fyra Veckor i Juni (Four Weeks in June) by Henry Meyer, Sweden 2005
Het Schnitzel Paradijs(Schnitzel
Lovitor (Catcher) by Farkhot Abdoullayev, Russia 2005
The Aggressives by Jeong Jae-Eun,Republic of Korea 2005
You and Me byMa Li-Wen,
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