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Berlin Film Festival unveils 2011 line-up
Dec 15, 2010, 10:54 GMT
Berlin - Films from Turkey, Israel, Britain, Germany, France and the US are to form part of the main competition line-up for next year's Berlin Film Festival, organizers announced Wednesday.
The movies unveiled include the directorial debut by British actor Ralph Fiennes of Coriolanus, an adaption of William Shakespeare's play.
Fiennes also plays the title role in the film, which is to have its world premiere at the Berlinale. In addition, the movie stars Gerard Butler, Vanessa Redgrave, Brian Cox and James Nesbitt. German filmmaker Wim Wenders also returns to the Berlinale with Pina, a tribute to Germany's modern dance legend Pina Bausch, who died last year.
Wenders' 3D dance movie with Bausch's Tanztheater Wuppertal follows his hit Buena Vista Social Club about musical life in Cuba. The film will also screen as a world premiere.
Considered one of the world's top film festivals, the Berlinale opens on February 10 with a remake of the 1960's western classic True Grit by American directors Joel and Ethan Coen.
The Berlinale has so far unveiled eight of the movies to be screened in its main showcase competition.
Altogether a total of more than 20 movies are expected to be presented in the competition for the festival's top honours.
As part of the Berlin Film Festival's co-operation with the Sundance Film Festival, the Berlinale will also screen The Future, a German-US co-production from American director Miranda July.
'In 2011 we'll once again be cooperating closely with the Sundance Film Festival not only at the European Film Market but also in the official programme,' says Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick.
The European Film Market is the Berlinale's movie business arm. America's leading independent movie festival, the Sundance Film Festival is to be held at the end of next month.
July also wrote and stars in The Future, which tells the story of how a couple's life changes dramatically after they decide to adopt a stray cat.
It also stars Hamish Linklater and David Warshofsky. Her previous films include Me and You and Everyone We Know. The Future is to screen as an international premiere in Berlin.
The competition also includes from the US the directorial debut from actress-turned-filmmaker Victoria Mahoney. Her movie Yelling To The Sky stars Zoe Kravitz, who is the daughter of American singer-songwriter Lenny Kravitz.
Mahoney's movie also features Gabourey Sidibe, who was nominated for an Oscar for her role as an sexually-abused and illiterate 16-year-old in Precious.
Yelling To The Sky tells the story of a seventeen year old, who is left to fend for herself after her family falls apart. The Berlinale screening will be Yelling To The Sky's world premiere.
Among the other films included in the race for the Berlinale's coveted Golden Bear will be Bizim Buyuk Caresizligimiz (Our Grand Despair) from Turkish director Seyfi Teoman.
Teoman's movie tells the story of two men in their late thirties, who have been close friends since high school but whose world is thrown off course by a woman.
The movie is to be screened as a World premiere in Berlin. Teoman's previous film was Tatil Kitabi (Summer Book).
Israeli director and actor Jonathan Sagall's drama Lipstikka is also to have its world premiere at next year's Berlinale.
The film, which stars Clara Khoury, Nataly Attiya, Moran Rosenblatt and Ziv Weiner is about two women, who meet again and go back through their lives to a life-changing event which occurred when they were teenagers in Jerusalem. Sagall previously directed Urban Feel.
Stuttgart-born Andres Veiel's Wer wenn nicht wir (If not us, who?) has also been selected for the race for the Golden Bear.
The critically acclaimed documentary filmmaker's new feature movie stars leading German actors August Diehl, Lena Lauzemis and Alexander Fehling.
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