Wim Wenders and his Berlinale Competition jurors spoke of the difference between filmmaking and politics at the opening press conference for the festival’s 76th edition.
“If we make movies that are dedicatedly political, we enter the field of politics,” said jury president Wenders, in response to one of several questions about the political dimension of the festival. “But we are the counterweight to politics. We are the opposite of politics. We have to do the work of people, and not the work of politicians.”
A journalist asked for the jurors’ responses to the German government’s ties to Israel, including financial connections, and whether they supported what the question termed “this selective treatment of human rights”, given that the festival has expressed solidarity with the people of Iran and Ukraine.
“Asking us this question is a little bit unfair,” said Polish producer Ewa Puszczynska, who has made titles including Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War and Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone Of Interest. “We use the term ‘change the world’. We are trying to talk to people, every single viewer, to make them think. But we cannot be responsible for what their decision would be.
“Would it be to support Israel, or support Palestine? We can talk about Senegal and all the other wars. You pointed out the biggest. But there are many other wars where genocide is committed, and we do not talk about that.”
“Speaking for myself – I go to elections, I vote using my right as a citizen of Poland, as a citizen of Europe, of the world. I go to marches, I support causes which I think I should support. But all of us here may have other things and take other decisions.
“It’s about empathy, about trying to understand,” said Puszczynska.
Widely regarded as among the most overtly political of the major film festivals, the Berlinale has dealt with significant political issues in recent years, including criticism of its reaction to the speech from No Other Land directors Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham at the 2024 awards ceremony, and the invitation and then disinvitation of five politicians from the right-wing German political party AfD.
Speaking to Screen before this year’s event, festival director Tricia Tuttle – who hosted today’s press conference – said the festival “took the sting out of the conversation” with Arab filmmakers through extensive conversation, allowing the filmmakers to trust the Berlinale as “a platform that values free speech”.
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The conference opened with each juror describing what gets them excited when they watch cinema.
This year’s jurors include US director Reinaldo Marcus Green, whose credits include Oscar-winning feature King Richard for Warner Bros, and Netflix series Top Boy.
Responding to a question from Screen about Netflix’s potential takeover of Warner Bros Discovery, Green recalled how King Richard was a day-and-date release in 2021.
“More people saw it online than they did in the theatres. It wasn’t the way I had designed the movie to be seen, but more people saw it that way than ever before,” said Green.
“As a filmmaker, we want the opportunity to have as many eyeballs as you can to see a film. I have an 11-year-old and a seven-year-old, and they have a different experience [from him] wanting to watch movies. We have to adapt to the times.
“The quality of the work shouldn’t change, regardless of the format,” said the filmmaker. “It’s up to us to uphold that quality. For young filmmakers, there are more opportunities now than ever before, and that’s a great thing.
“I’m nostalgic for certain things, but always got to keep an open mind. Who knows what exhibition is going to look like in the future?”
The jury also includes Indian filmmaker and archivist Shivendra Singh Sungarpur, who described how he runs a 1000-seat cinema in Mumbai on free admission “because cinema to me is like a temple.”
“I’m amazed that you let people in for free,” responded Wenders. “We should start that!”
The festival gets underway this evening with the world premiere of Shahrbanoo Sadat’s No Good Men as a Special Gala, and runs until February 22.
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