La Berlinale à Paris

The Berlinale is one of the most important international film festivals, like Cannes and Venice. Created in Berlin at the beginning of the Cold War, the festival quickly became one of the few places where Western and Soviet cultures and films could meet. This unique situation made it an event primarily for the public, an open window for all on the worlds in front of them, when other festivals concentrated on their professional dimension. Political and social issues were strongly represented from the very beginning and have remained central with the reunification of Germany and the city, as well as through the cosmopolitanism and openness to all cultures and avant-gardes of which Berlin has become an emblem.

This special edition in Paris will bring together 25 previews, new releases and award-winning films from the Berlinale 2022. It will plunge, with them, into the vibrant heart of international film creation in the early 2020s, as a festival of the scale and commitment of the Berlinale can grasp it after two years of major disruption and mutation caused by the COVID pandemic. 

The programme, curated by the Centre Pompidou, will offer a transversal view of all the festival's sections with their specificities: Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Berlinale Special, Berlinale Shorts, Generation, and Forum. 
Productions from all over the world, a focus on the German and German-speaking scenes, meetings focusing on Ukrainian films, an evening devoted to the Teddy Awards (prizes for the best queer films awarded since 1987): all the screenings will be accompanied by the filmmakers, their collaborators, the festival's artistic director Carlo Chatrian, various members of the Berlinale and the team of the Cinémas du Centre Pompidou.

The Bears, which distinguish the films in the international competition, will be widely present with, among others, Alcarràs by Carla Simon (Golden Bear for Best Film, Spain-Italy), Both Sides of the Blade by Claire Denis (Silver Bear for Best Director, France), The Novelist's Film by Hong Sang-soo (Silver Bear/Grand Jury Prize, South Korea) or Rabiye Kurnaz vs George W. Bush by Andreas Dresen (Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance and Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, Germany). Other films in the competition will be screened alongside them, including One Year, One Night by Isaki Lacuesta (Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Spain-France) and That Kind of Summer by Denis Côté (Canada).

Among the discoveries of the Encounters section, created by Carlo Chatrian in 2020 and dedicated to the daring achievements of independent and innovative filmmakers, will be the unveiling of See You Friday, Robinson by Mitra Farahani (Encounters Special Jury Award, France-Switzerland-Iran-Lebanon), Coma by Bertrand Bonello (FIPRESCI prize Encounters, France), Father's Day by Kivu Ruhorahoza (Rwanda), Small, Slow but Steady by Shô Miyake (Japan-France) and Unrest by Cyril Schäublin (Encounters Award for Best Director, Switzerland, produced with the support of FIDLab). 

From Panorama, a section that likes to focus on unconventional subjects, will come Bettina by Lutz Pehnert (FIPRESCI prize Panorama, Germany), Klondike by Maryna Er Gorbach (Ukraine-Turkey), Nelly & Nadine by Magnus Gertten (Teddy Jury Award, Sweden-Belgium-Norway). 
Boney Piles by Taras Tomenko (Ukraine) will be the flagship of the films made by children and teenagers in the Generation section.   

The Berlinale Special, which includes the out-of-competition sessions, will be represented by North Terminal by Lucrecia Martel (Argentina) and Incredible but True by Quentin Dupieux (France). 
In the Berlinale Shorts, Exalted Mars by Jean-Sébastien Chauvin (Teddy Award for Short Film, France), Memories from the Eastern Front by Radu Jude and Adrian Cioflâncă (Romania), The Sower of Stars by Lois Patiño (Spain) will testify to the originality and freedom of short forms.   
The independent section of the Forum will shine, among others, with Poet by Darezhan Omirbayev (Kazakhstan). 

Audiences are invited to rediscover the spirit of openness of one of the greatest international film festivals, which is rooted in the city of Berlin, its history between East and West and its cosmopolitanism, and to share its curiosity for the infinite forms that cinema invents, at the Centre Pompidou.

“We are happy and proud that this year’s edition has caught the interest of the prestigious Centre Pompidou. It is the first time that Berlin Film Festival will be presented extensively in Paris. The program conceived by Sylvie Pras and her team will offer a comprehensive understanding of the Berlinale universe and its sections and will give audiences in Paris the opportunity to discover and enjoy some great films”, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, directors of the Berlinale.