Initial reactions from the German film industry to the appointment of Tricia Tuttle as the first female director of the Berlinale have been overwhelmingly positive.
“I truly welcome a female artistic director of the Berlinale. I think it was time that one of the big festivals has a woman as the leading person. So cheers to that!” said producer Janine Jackowski, co-founder of Komplizen Film whose production of Nadav Lapid’s Synonyms won the Golden Bear in 2019.
This sentiment was shared by Christine Berg, president of the German exhibitors association HDF Kino. “Tricia Tuttle has an outstanding reputation as an expert in the international festival business and, together with the experienced Berlinale team, she will further strengthen this renowned and extraordinarily important festival for Germany,” she said.
Christian Bräuer, wearing all of his three hats as managing director of Berlin’s Yorck-Kino chain of cinemas, chairman of the AG Kino - Gilde arthouse cinemas association and president of CICAE, pointed out the future Berlinale director “knows all sides of the industry including the creative side of production as well as distribution and festivals. She is regarded as a great team player, a very passionate woman with a positive character. That’s what we need at the Berlinale and we are looking forward to working with her.
“I know the arthouse sector in the UK will be sad to lose her,” Bräuer added. “I have heard only very good things from the colleagues at the Watershed [Media Centre in Bristol] where she has been a board member. They are pleased for us and for her.”
“As a German producer with British roots [like most of my industry friends in the UK], I am very excited about Tricia Tuttle coming to Berlin,” said producer Sol Bondy of Berlin-based One Two Films. “Of course, the London Film Festival has a slightly different character than the Berlinale, so I’m sure it will be a challenge – but with her experience in programming films and working in large film institutions, she seems perfectly equipped to do a great job in Berlin.”
Helge Albers, CEO of Moin Filmförderung Hamburg Schleswig-Holstein, saluted what he called “this excellent choice” by the selection committee headed by state mInister for culture and media Claudia Roth. Albers added he was “very curious and hopeful to see where Berlinale is heading under Tricia Tuttle’s lead”.
US-born, UK-based Tuttle is the third non-German speaking director of the Berlinale following UK-born Moritz de Hadeln who was director from 1980 to 2001, and the present artistic director, Italy’s Carlo Chatrian.
No one contacted by Screen today expressed any concern by her (present) lack of German.
”I promise in a year from now I will speak well enough that you can make fun of my accent. That’s a promise,” said Tuttle at today’s press conference in Berlin.
“I am genuinely excited about the ways that the festival can continue to support and nurture German film and German filmmaking talent,” she added. “It feels like a very exciting time for German-language cinema.”
“I love this city”
Tuttle revealed she plans to move to Berlin. “I’m not daunted…It will be enriching creatively. It’s a great city, I love this city,” she said.
Asked whether she could see herself staying in the post past the duration of the five-year contract, she suggested: “I do believe that no cultural leader should stay in a role forever, there needs to be renewal but I am looking forward to five years of figuring how things work and making a difference at the festival at least.”
Although not wishing to commit herself at this point to any statements about the future makeup of the festival programme such as changes to certain sections, Tuttle was prepared to say she sees “the creative and artistic success of the festival inextricably linked with a happy team and making sure that the festival is sustainable and really thriving in every way.
“I see a festival the scale of the Berlinale needing a very broad, very experienced team with lots of different areas of expertise, that’s the only way you can put together a strong programme,” she observed.
On the thorny question of the Berlinale’s finances, state minister Claudia Roth explained that, subject to current negotiations on the federal budget for 2024, her ministry intends to increase its support for the next edition of the Berlinale from the current €10.9m to €12.6m. Some €400,000 had already been allocated and the additional €1.5m is currently under discussion. “Then we would have a good basis for a successful Berlinale,” she declared.
The KBB organisation, which oversees the management of the Berlinale, decided by a unanimous vote today to accept the selection committee’s proposal of Tuttle to head the festival.
Dennis Ruh, director of the Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM), will now step down after the 2024 edition.
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