Mike Leigh, president of the jury: "Hollywood’s domination is dwindling"
- The 62nd edition of the Berlinale opened today with the traditional press conference with its jury, this year presided by British director Mike Leigh
With a 40-year career behind him, British director Mike Leigh fervently defends Europe when it comes to cinema. As head of the jury at this 62nd edition of the Berlinale, he confirmed this during the festival’s opening press conference.
“Hollywood’s inevitable domination is dwindling and this is great news for European directors, including me,” he said. “I congratulate myself for heading this jury, because, to me, festivals like Cannes and Berlin have contributed to to establishing our cinema’s influence and to countering the wave of films from Hollywood. This problem does not only threaten Europe. Try to be a European director, or in fact one anywhere in the world, and you cannot look at your work from a competitive point of view because of this domination.”
French film director François Ozon also intervened on the topic: “I think that the market is always dominated by American productions. In Europe, we have all the opportunities to see American films, but what of our films for an American audience? They don’t even know that they exist!”
The presence of Cineuropa at the Berlinale this year has also grown to reflect the great affluence of European productions to be screened at the festival. Our team in Berlin has been reinforced to cover a competition that counts no less than 14 European co-productions among the 18 candidates to the Golden Bear (news). Besides these films in the spotlight, among which is opening film Farewell, My Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Benoît Jacquot
film profile] by Benoît Jacquot, our journalists will also report from the festival’s parallel sections (Forum, Panorama, Generation 14Plus, German Cinema…) and from special screenings, such as that of The Spark of Life, the last film by Spanish director Alex de la Iglesia. Overall, we will cover 40 films, in addition to sales and announcements at the European Film Market.
Finally, Cineuropa will once again partner with European Film Promotion to cover the Shooting Stars 2012, ten talented actors who will all express themselves in front of our camera.
From February 9 to 19, 2012, Cineuropa will be on Berlin time.
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