Berlinale Competition: Karim Aïnouz, Kornél Mundruczó, Lance Hammer — and Some Cannes Rejects

The Berlin International Film Festival has announced the titles selected for the Competition of its 76th edition, running from February 12–22. This marks the festival’s second edition under the artistic direction of Tricia Tuttle. A total of twenty-two films will compete for the Golden and Silver Bears in the Competition section.

The Competition includes a directorial debut, an animated film (Yoshitoshi Shinomiya’s “A New Dawn”), a documentary, and several titles that were previously passed over by Cannes and Venice.

Karim Aïnouz, a Cannes regular and winner of the Un Certain Regard Prize for “The Invisible Life of Eurídice Gusmão,” has been a fixture on the Croisette in recent years, but his “Rosebush Pruning” was rejected last year. The film is a remake of Bertolucci’s “Fists in the Pocket” and stars Elle Fanning and Pamela Anderson.

Meanwhile, Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, whose debut “Michael” screened in Competition at Cannes, arrives in Berlin with “Rose,” a 17th-century-set tale exploring paranoia in a Protestant village, starring Sandra Hüller.

Other titles that were submitted to Cannes last year but will now make their debut at the Berlinale include Angela Schanelec’s “My Wife Cries,” İlker Çatak’s “Yellow Letters,” Alain Gomis’ “Dao,” Warwick Thornton’s “Wolfram,” and Mahamat-Saleh Haroun’s “Soumsoum.”

The festival will also host the long-delayed premiere of Kornél Mundruczó’s “At the Sea,” starring Amy Adams as a woman recently out of rehab. Among the most intriguing selections is the return of Lance Hammer (“Ballast”) with “Queen at Sea,” a family drama centered on dementia and headlined by Juliette Binoche.

Finally, as is often the case, one or two Sundance titles have crossed over into the Berlin Competition. In past years, films such as “Never Rarely Sometimes Always,” “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You,” “A Different Man,” and “Past Lives” made the jump.

This year, that slot goes to one of the buzziest films from Sundance: Beth de Araújo’s “Josephine,” starring Channing Tatum and Gemma Chan as parents grappling with the trauma their eight-year-old child experiences after witnessing a horrifying incident.

Competition

Rosebush Pruning – Karim Aïnouz
Salvation – Emin Alper
Nightborn – Hanna Bergholm
Dust – Anke Blondé
In a Whisper – Leyla Bouzid
Yellow Letters – İlker Çatak
We Are All Strangers – Anthony Chen
The Loneliest Man in Town – Covi/Frimmel
Josephine – Beth de Araújo
Nina Roza – Genevieve Dulude-de Celles
Flies – Fernando Eimbcke
YO Love Is a Rebellious Bird – Anna Fitch, Banker White
Everybody Digs Bill Evans – Grant Gee
Dao – Alain Gomis
Queen at Sea – Lance Hammer
Soumsoum – Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
At the Sea – Kornél Mundruczó
My Wife Cries – Angela Schanelec
Rose – Markus Schleinzer
A New Dawn – Yoshitoshi Shinomiya
Wolfram – Warwick Thornton
Home Stories – Eva Trobisch

Below, and in order are first-look images of “Dao,” “Rosebush Pruning,” “At the Sea,” “Queen at Sea,” and “Rose.”