Tricia Tuttle, former festival director of the BFI London Film Festival (LFF), has been named as the new director of the Berlin International Film Festival from the 2025 edition.
Tuttle will start in the new role on April 1 2024 and will have sole charge of the Berlinale. She will replace co-directors Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek who are stepping down after the 74th edition of the festival in February 2024.
She led the LFF for five editions, stepping down after the 2022 festival. She is currently head of directing fiction at the UK’s National Film and TV School.
Tuttle was recommended as Berlinale director by a selection committee made up of Oscar winner Edward Berger, actress Sara Fazilat, managing director of the German Film Academy Anne Leppin, producer Roman Paul, head of the senate chancellery Berlin Florian Graf and minister of state for culture and the media Claudia Roth.
Her appointment was approved by the board of supervisors of Berlinale parent body Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH (KBB), chaired by Roth.
Roth said: “Tricia Tuttle brings 25 years of film and film festival experience with her. Under her leadership, the BFI London Film Festival has not only seen an increase in audience numbers, but has also gained in international profile and significance. She has developed creative strategies to meet the challenges of digitalisation and made the festival more colourful, diverse and accessible.
”Above all, she has convinced us with her clear ideas on the artistic perspectives of the Berlinale, a modern, team-orientated festival management, sustainable support for young talent and contemporary sponsorship models. I am extremely pleased that we were able to win Tricia Tuttle for the directorship of the Berlinale. She is the right choice to lead it into a successful future.
“I am convinced that Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian will organise the transition well with her. I am also looking forward to supporting them now in making the upcoming Berlinale 2024 a brilliant success.”
Tuttle said: “I have attended the Berlinale for many years as a professional and have really come to appreciate it very much. The Berlinale is a leader amongst A-list film festivals - welcoming and inclusive, and brimming with a breath-taking diversity of films. It’s a festival that shows cinema as a most vibrant, often magical artform, one which can transform how we see the world and how we understand each other. What an immense thrill and privilege it is to have this opportunity to lead this important Festival. I look forward to a very successful Berlinale in 2024, and to joining the team afterwards.”
In August, the Berlinale announced it was returning to a single director model. A week later, artistic director Chatrian announced his departure, saying that the “conditions for me to continue as artistic director no longer exist.” Executive director Rissenbeek had previously announced in May she would step down after the 2024 festival.
The next edition of the Berlinale runs from February 15 to 25, 2024.
No comments yet