My Berlin Film Festival predictions were, as they are every year, wildly off. It’s such a hard fest to predict. I'm nevertheless intrigued by this year’s selection, which seems tightly curated and filled with less starry names. There are a total of 18 films in competition.
Of course, there’s a new Hong Sang-soo, but not in competition! He was in competition the last three years in a row. They probably don't want to give the impression that a spot is reserved for him every year? It’s a weird downgrade for Hong, considering his previous film won the Berlin grand prix.
There are five German directors in competition. France doesn’t have too many. Many big titles are probably holding off for Cannes. Three competition titles are not world premieres: films by Celine Song, Rolf de Heer and Makoto Shinkai.
Meanwhile, rumors that Kaurismaki, Puiu, Serebrennikov, Breillat, Wang Bing, and Lav Diaz, would show up here were unfounded. No Ari Aster, which means it will lack a festival run, as it didn’t appear in the SXSW lineup either.
The big names from this year’s competition lineup include Schanelec, Petzold, Philibert and Garrel.
As previously announced, the festival will open with the world premiere of Rebecca Miller’s romantic comedy, “She Came To Me,” starring Peter Dinklage and Anne Hathaway. Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans” will close the festival.
The 2023 Berlinale will run in-person from February 16-23, while the European Film Market will take place in-person from February 16-22.
Competition
20,000 Species Of Bees (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
Afire (Christian Petzold)
Bad Living (Joao Canijo)
BlackBerry (Matt Johnson)
Disco Boy (Giacomo Abbruzzese)
Ingeborg Bachmann (Margarethe Von Trotta)
Limbo (Ivan Sen)
Manodrome (John Trengove)
Music (Angela Schanelec)
On The Adamant (Nicolas Philibert)
Past Lives (Celine Song)
Someday We’ll Tell Each Other (Emily Atef)
Suzume (Makoto Shinkai)
Till The End Of The Night (Christoph Hochhäusler)
The Plough (Philippe Garrel)
The Shadowless Tower (Zhang Lu)
The Survival Of Kindness (Rolf de Heer)
Totem (Lila Avilés)
It gives me no pleasure to report that this is one of the worst films of Schrader’s career. Wooden acting, Jack Huston and Sofia Boutella are badly miscast, the script is dull, the photography is flat; nothing works.