from berlinale

61st Berlinale: World Cinema in the Panorama

After visiting Asia, North and South America as well as many European countries to view and select films, 24 works – that is just under half of the 50 films to be presented in the Panorama section – are now certain. They provide lively insight into the creations of world cinema during the so-called post-crisis era. What’s more, they reveal that documentary film continues to be strong in 2011: documentaries again make up about a third of the programme.

From the start, the Panorama’s mission has been to discover films for the upcoming art-house season and to provide the market with inspiration. To date the selection includes names like José Padilha (who won the Golden Bear in 2009 for Tropa de elite), Lee Tamahori (Once Were Warriors) and Macedonian director Milcho Manchevski, as well as promising newcomers like Marie Kreutzer (Austria), Jan Schomburg (Germany) and Michaël R. Roskam (Belgium). Returning to the Panorama with new works are documentary filmmakers Elfi Mikesch, Lynn Hershman Leeson, Cyril Tuschi and Rosa von Praunheim. All the films in the Panorama are screening as either world or European premieres.

The QUEER TEDDY AWARD, which evolved out of the Panorama and may be awarded to films from any section of the Berlinale, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. And during the Berlinale, more than 20,000 moviegoers will again participate in the Panorama Audience Award, which will be presented on February 20, 2011.

So far the following films have been confirmed for the Main Programme, Panorama Special and Panorama Dokumente:…more