14/12/2010

Like a Christmas tree, the 61st Berlin Film Festival (February 10-20, 2011) is being decked out with events revealed little by little in order to fuel excitement.

The opening film has already been announced: the Coen brothers’ forthcoming title True Grit, their remake of the 1969 western of the same name starring John Wayne. This time around, the sheriff is played by Jeff Bridges, who starred in The Big Lebowski, in competition at Berlin in 1998.

True Grit, which also features Matt Damon, will screen out of competition on February 10 at the Berlinale Palast in international avant-premiere. Paramount will release the film in German theatres on February 24.

The opening ceremony will be led by presenter Anke Engelke, accompanied of course by the festival’s renowned director Dieter Kosslick, Culture Minister Bernd Neumann, Berlin mayor Klaus Wowereit and jury president Isabella Rossellini. Engelke will also host the awards ceremony.

While the rest of the members who will flank Rossellini in the jury have not yet been disclosed, Kosslick has invited Iranian director Jafar Panahi, whose recent few months of imprisonment by his country’s authorities provoked indignation from the entire film industry.

Further homage will be paid to the harbinger of the commedia all’Italiana, Mario Monicelli, following the shock of his recent suicide (see news). The Berlinale, which over the years awarded him three Silve Bears for Best Director, will screen one of his films.

As the Zoo Palast Cinema is under renovation (it will reopen at the end of 2012), the avant-premieres in the youth section Generation will all be presented at the House of World Cultures (HKW) and those in Panorama Special will be spread between the Friedrichstadtpalast (which for the last two years has successfully hosted the Berlinale Special gala screenings) and Kino International.

(Translated from French)