If in 2022, Carla Simón triumphed at the Berlin International Film Festival with her historic Golden Bear for Alcarràs and in 2023 the young Sofía Otero took the Silver Bear for best lead performance for 20,000 species of bees, the tender look to trans childhood directed by the Basque director Estibaliz Urresola, this year the Berlinale has broken its love affair with Spanish cinema. At least in the official section of the competition, which will start the day after Valentine's Day, with rain forecast and protests by the exhibition workers, who demand that the two-headed management formed by Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, who will leave their positions after of this edition, more firmly oppose the war in Gaza.
There will be a minority Spanish presence in other parallel sections, such as in the experimental Forum, with two titles directed by women. On the one hand, the Catalan Anna Cornudella brings her debut film The Human Hibernation to the German capital, a reflection on the human being, his contradiction and his animal condition. And the Canarian Macu Machín will present her debut in the feature film with La Hojarasca, a new feminine look at the rural world and that emptied Spain full of family conflicts and mysteries. In the Panorama section, the second most important of the contest, we find the Catalan production Memories of a body on fire, by Costa Rican Antonella Sudasassi Furnis, a portrait of pleasure and desire through the memory and intimacy of three 65-year-old women. years.
Also participating is Alle die Du bist, a co-production between Germany and Spain directed by Michael Fetter Nathansky. The Swiss-Peruvian director Klaudia Reynicke will compete in Generation Kplus with Inicia films con Reinas, a coming-of-age family film set in Peru in the 90s that received a good reception at the last edition of the Sundance Festival. In Generation 14plus you can see the Catalan short Cura sana, by Lucía G. Romero (Escac), a story about two sisters in a situation of domestic violence.
The Berlinale will pay tribute to Carlos Saura with a new version in 4K resolution of Deprisa, deprisa (1981), a masterpiece of Spanish Quinqui cinema that won the Golden Bear. The Catalan icing is completed by filmmaker Albert Serra as a member of the jury of a section official chaired by Lupita Nyong'o, Oscar for best supporting actress for 12 Years a Slave (2013).
Among the 20 films that will have to be evaluated until the winners' list that will be announced on the 25th, there is a balance between established authors and new voices with the emergence of two debut works - the Italian-Swiss Gloria, by Margherita Vicario, and Mé el Aïn, by Meryam Joobeur. This Thursday will be the turn of the inaugural Small things like these, by Tim Mielants, and with the presence on the red carpet of its protagonist, Cillian Murphy who could have an Oscar next month for Oppenheimer. Rooney Mara will defend his work in the drama La Cocina, by Mexican Alonso Ruizpalacios.
Also seeking the coveted Golden Bear will be the Russian Victor Kossakovsky with the documentary Architecton and the French Bruno Dumont (L'Empire) and Olivier Assayas (Hord du temps). Gael García Bernal and Renate Reinsve appear in Another end, by Italian Piero Messina; The Norwegian Reinsve repeats twice with A different man, a new proposal from the A24 studio with Sebastian Stan in the role of an actor who undergoes a radical surgical intervention.
This 74th edition, which raised controversy due to the invitation to the gala, now withdrawn, to politicians from the far-right AfD party, will feature the long-awaited visit of the maestro Martin Scorsese, who on the 20th will receive a well-deserved honorary Golden Bear for his career. for his art in crafting stories that are both deeply personal and universal.”
In addition to the aforementioned Murphy and Mara, Adam Sandler and Carey Mulligan, stars of Spaceman, a Netflix space adventure that will be screened in the Berlinale Special Gala section, have confirmed their presence on the red carpet. Also Amanda Seyfried, who will come to present Seven veils, by Atom Egoyan; Lena Dunham and Stephen Fry, performers of Treasure, by Julia von Heinz. And a year after participating as president of the jury, Kristen Stewart returns as the protagonist of Love Lies Bleeding, a revenge thriller with Ed Harris as her co-star.
