12/01/2007

The seven-member jury of the 57th Berlin Film Festival, which was announced yesterday, has a truly international flavour and features several cinema greats.

The first of these is jury president, US scriptwriter Paul Schrader, who directed American Gigolo and scripted several Scorsese films, including Taxi Driver and The Last Temptation of Christ, the latter which starred another member of the jury, Willem Dafoe.

Asia will be represented by Nansun Shi (Hong Kong), producer of Infernal Affairs, which also inspired Scorsese’s latest title. The work of Palestinian actress Hiam Abbass has also been very much in the news, with roles in 2004’s The Syrian Bride, Steven Spielberg’s Munich and European-backed film Paradise Now [+see also:
trailer
film profile]. Gael García Bernal is in vogue as well and, despite the fact that he is Mexican, the actor will be representing Europe, having appeared in films by Almodóvar and Michel Gondry.

Other European jury members include Molly Malene Stensgård and Mario Adorf, the Swiss actor who, as festival organisers highlighted, is very familiar with German cinema, having starred in over 120 films for cinema and television and working with such cult directors as Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum and The Lost Honour of Katharina Blum) and Fassbinder (Lola).

Danish film editor Stensgård also holds a very special place in European cinema, as a regular partner on Lars von Trier’s films (The Idiots and Manderlay [+see also:
trailer
film profile]).

(Translated from French)