15/01/2009

After the announcement, in mid-December, of the first 11 titles in official selection (including five out of competition - see news) at the 59th Berlin International Film Festival (February 5-15), the event’s organisers have added 14 films (all presented in world or international avant-première) to the list, which is set to comprise a total of 26 works.

The recently-announced Golden Bear contenders are mainly European, starting with UK director Stephen Frears’ new film, Cheri, starring Michelle Pfeiffer. Also on the line-up are French filmmaker François Ozon’s latest title, Ricky [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile], co-produced by Italy (after the selection in 2007 of his English-language film Angel [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile]); Sweet Rush by Polish master Andrzej Wajda (who last year presented Katyn [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrzej Wajda
interview: Michal Kwiecinski
film profile] out of competition); and Bertrand Tavernier’s French/US co-production In the Electric Mist [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Bertrand Tavernier
film profile], featuring Tommy Lee Jones, John Goodman and Peter Sarsgaard.

Also vying for honours are German/Danish co-production Storm [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by Hans-Christian Schmid (Requiem [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Hans-Christian Schmid
interview: Sandra Hueller
film profile]); Peter Strickland’s debut feature Katalin Varga, co-produced by the UK, Hungary and Romania; Danish director Annette K. Olesen’s Little Soldier [+see also:
trailer
film profile]; Claudia Llosa’s Spanish/Peruvian co-production The Milk of Sorrow; and Adrián Biniez’s German/Uruguayan/Argentinean co-production Gigante.

Further contenders include Asghar Farhadi’s Iranian film About Elly and Mitchell Lichtenstein’s US title Happy Tears.

Out of competition, festival visitors will be able to discover collective film Deutschland 09 (by 13 prominent German directors, including Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Dominik Graf, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner and Dani Levy); Costa-Gavras’ French/Italian/Greek co-production Eden is West [+see also:
trailer
film profile], starring Riccardo Scamarcio and Ulrich Tukur; and George Tillman Jr’s US title Notorious.

(Translated from French)