A total of 25 films selected for competitive programme.
The Berlinale (Feb 11-21) has unveiled the 25 short films from 21 countries that will compete for the Golden and Silver Bear, a nomination for the European Film Awards and, for the second consecutive year, the Audi Short Film Award worth € 20,000.
The short film jury is comprised of the curator and director of the Sharjah Biennial in the UAE, Sheikha Hoor Al-Qasimi; Greek curator and writer Katerina Gregos; and Israeli filmmaker Avi Mograbi.
Among others, the competition will include films from Gabriel Abrantes, Pimpaka Towira, Réka Bucsi, Christoph Girardet and Matthias Müller, and Siegfried A. Fruhauf.
Ben Russell, who won plaudits at festivals around the world with A Spell To Ward Off The Darkness, will present He Who Eats Children, described as “a speculative portrait of a Dutchman living in the Surinamese jungle fixing canoe motors, accused of eating the locals’ children”.
Also among the line-up is a new documentary by Mahdi Fleifel, A Man Returned, in which after three years in Greece, the protagonist returns to a Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon and, unperturbed by drugs or acts of war, commences preparations for his wedding.
After winning the Golden Bear for Best Short Film in 2014, collaborative duo Jonathan Vinel and Caroline Poggi have created a new cinematic look for their film Notre Héritage by combining pornographic archive pictures by Pierre Woodman with computer game aesthetics, casting the old story of a son’s search for his father in a fresh light.
In Balada de um Batráquio, director Leonor Teles finds a way to enter stores in Portugal where shops display clay frogs to keep Romani out.
Renowned German experimental film duo Matthias Müller and Christoph Girardet will present their latest film in competition, personne, about the individual’s search for itself, as reflected in European and US narrative cinema.
In Reluctantly Queer by Akosua Adoma Owusu, the film’s protagonist writes a letter to his mother in Ghana.
Los murmullos by Mexico’s Rubén Gámez, from 1976, will play out of competition.
Berlinale Shorts 2016
Another City, Pham Ngoc Lan, Vietnam, 25’ (WP)
Bai Niao (White Bird), Wu Linfeng, People’s Republic of China, 30’ (WP)
Balada de um Batráquio (Batrachian’s Ballad), Leonor Teles, Portugal, 11’ (WP)
El Buzo (The Diver), Esteban Arrangoiz, Mexico, 16’ (IP)
Das águas que passam (Running Waters), Diego Zon, Brazil, 23’ (WP)
Estate (Summer),Ronny Trocker, France / Belgium, 7’ (WP)
Freud und Friends (Freud and Friends), Gabriel Abrantes, Portugal, 23’ (EP)
He Who Eats Children, Ben Russell, USA, 25’ (WP)
Hopptornet (Ten Meter Tower), Axel Danielson & Maximilien Van Aertryck, Sweden, 17’ (IP)
In the Soldier’s Head,Christine Rebet, USA / France, 4’ (WP)
Jin zhi xia mao (Anchorage Prohibited), Chiang Wei Liang, Taiwan, 16’ (IP)
Kaputt (Broken – The Women’s Prison at Hoheneck), Volker Schlecht & Alexander Lahl, Germany, 7’ (WP)
Love,Réka Bucsi, France / Hungary, 14’ (WP)
A Man Returned, Mahdi Fleifel, United Kingdom / Netherlands / Denmark, 30’ (IP)
Moms On Fire, Joanna Rytel, Sweden, 12’ (IP)
Los murmullos (Murmurings), Rubén Gámez, Mexico, 25’ – Out of competition
Notre Héritage (Our Legacy), Jonathan Vinel in collaboration with Caroline Poggi, France, 24’ (WP)
Oustaz, Bentley Brown, Chad, 21’ (WP)
personne, Christoph Girardet & Matthias Müller, Germany, 15’ (WP)
Prelude to the General, Pimpaka Towira, Thailand, 11’ (WP)
Reluctantly Queer, Akosua Adoma Owusu, Ghana / USA, 8’ (WP)
Six Cents in the Pocket, Ricky D’Ambrose, USA, 14’ (IP)
Tsomet Haruhot (Winds Junction), Rotem Murat, Israel, 22’ (IP)
Die Unzugänglichkeit der griechischen Antike und ihre Folgen (The Inaccessibility of Ancient Greece and Its Impact), Gerrit Frohne-Brinkmann & Paul Spengemann, Germany, 13’ (WP)
Vintage Print, Siegfried A. Fruhauf, Austria, 13’ (IP)
Vita Lakamaya,Akihito Izuhara, Japan, 8’ (WP)
No comments yet