Our Story
Berlinale Talents is the Berlin International Film Festival’s talent development programme for the world’s top 250 emerging filmmakers and series creators.
Next edition: February 13-18, 2021. Details at www.berlinale-talents.de
Questions? Email us: [email protected]
Bemerkungen
Any followers based in Austria, make sure to check out "Soldat Ahmet" the debut from director Jannis Lenz (BT 2021), in cinemas now!
Selected for Visions du Réel last year, the film revolves around Ahmet, the dutiful son of Turkish immigrants, a tough boxer and hardworking soldier dedicated to "serving Austria". But the more he tries to fulfill the expectations of every role, the more he feels the need to break out of the stereotypes imposed on him.
"I am a very eclectic listener and a very eclectic composer", Spanish film composer Alberto Torres Malalengua tells DW Culture. His experiences being bullied as a teenager encouraged his passion, as he would spend time in his room both studying Bach and listening to Nirvana, "I felt like music was a passport to another life". The music he creates ranges from rock to electro beats, Flamenco to classical tunes allowing him to compose for a broad spectrum of stories. Alberto's many compositions include the score for “Mama”, a film about Mama Zawadi, a worker at the Lwiro Chimpanzee Sanctuary in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The film won the Goya 2022 for Best Short Documentary.
SXSW kicks off today and we're sending our best to all involved! The festival runs until 19 March where the Closing Night Headliner will be FX’s Atlanta Season 3 Premiere starring non other than our recent guest Zazie Beetz! The lineup also includes "What We Leave Behind - Lo que dejamos atrás" directed by Iliana Sosa (BT 2018) and edited and co-produced by Isidore Bethel (BT 2018).
In Dieu Hao Do’s work, forgotten histories and silenced perspectives take centre stage, "I really believe it is important to preserve different perspectives of history, of storytelling and to empower people who have not been heard for a long time." The Chinese-German artist, filmmaker and film activist takes draws on his own family history. He was born in Germany after his parents fled Vietnam, part of a Chinese minority persecuted by the Communist regime after the fall of Saigon. From these roots grow his themes of home, place in the world, historical dialogue and the life of the Asian diaspora in Germany.
Our Talent Press were just as hard at work this year as any other, despite the physical distance. Their body of insightful reviews and essays culminated in the collective work "On the Future of Festival Coverage: An Assemblage", an original and thought-provoking piece where the Talents were given carte blanche to reflect on the future of their craft. The result is an assemblage of projects, from a handwritten letter to a TikTok video and more, with candid takes on what this year's digital Berlinale Talents amounted to for them.
The group also had the immense fortune of chatting with some leading figures in the field and directors who unveiled their latest projects at the Berlinale. Brazilian directors including Gustavo Vinagre ("Tres Tigres Tristes"), Joana Pimenta and Adirley Queirós ("Dry Ground Burning") opened up about their Forum entries and Brazil's indie film scene. Jöns Jönsson and Johannes Louis ("Axiom"'s director and DOP) shared their creative process, giving the Talents a chance to discuss their visual references and influences too. And a panel with Forum's Cristina Nord and Jacqueline Nsiah offered a behind-the-scenes look at how one of the Berlinale's leading sections.
We are still reeling from the 20th edition of Berlinale Talents and recovery has now transformed into reliving the highlights of some of our public sessions!
From model making for “The French Dispatch” with Adam Stockhausen, Simon Weisse and the team from his atelier, to our Insta Live Q&A with Hollywood actor Zazie Beetz (Joker), our all-female cinematography session including Oscar-nominated alumna Ari Wegner, and the grand finale with Golden Bear winner and Talents alumna Carla Simón, what a celebration of twenty years of Berlinale Talents!
Don’t forget you can still watch all our public sessions and see all our photo highlights on our website:
www.berlinale-talents.de
Cameroonian born Ellie Foumbi moved to New York when she was very young, an experience which richly influenced the themes in her work; race, identity, trying to find your place, outsiders, generational trauma in African-American families. Starting out as an actress, she became frustrated with the lack of roles for her, so decided to tell her own stories. "Once I started writing and directing, it was the most natural thing in the world to me", she tells DW Culture .
Looking for some quality viewing? Then head to MUBI where you can catch three shorts from Talents alumna and Short Form Station mentor Akosua Adoma Owusu!
"Ghanaian-American filmmaker Akosua Adoma Owusu’s electrifying trilogy on Black hair culture weaves together multiple source materials and distinct narratives to unpick the tangled knots of capitalism, race, Western beauty ideals, and colonialism."
"As a filmmaker I am interested in social justice, women's empowerment, the female experience", Indian filmmaker Payal Sethi tells DW Culture. Coming from a long line of female storytellers, she has been on a journey to find her own style, often focusing on women who rebel against the circumstances forced on them. She feels that Indian alternative cinema must be nurtured and allowed to flourish in order to preserve the art in film, so uses local, less-represented dialects in her work. Payal was selected as this year's Talent recipient of the Kompagnon fellowship, providing funding and mentoring for her work.
