09/02/2021 - The Berlin International Film Festival has announced the line-ups for its Forum, Forum Expanded and Shorts sections

The 17-film selection of the Berlinale Forum focuses on works that deal with uncertainties in the world outside by embracing unpredictability in their plots and structures, and by mixing fiction and documentary forms. It gives preference to the fragile over the proven, with more space dedicated to filmmakers at the start of their careers than their more established colleagues.

The European (co-)productions include Uldus Bakhtiozina's Tzarevna Scaling (Russia), Moumouni Sanou's Night Nursery [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] (Burkina Faso/France/Germany) and Alvaro Gurrea's Ancient Soul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álvaro Gurrea
film profile] (Spain).

More established filmmakers also form part of the selection, such as Israeli documentarian Avi Mograbi's The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Avi Mograbi
film profile] (France/ Finland/Israel/Germany), Chris Wright and Stefan Kolbe's Anamnesis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Chris Wright and Stefan Kolbe
film profile] (Germany), and Susana Nobre's Jack's Ride [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Susana Nobre
film profile] (Portugal).

The Forum Expanded is experimenting this year with a selection that consists of four short-film selections, one medium-length film and two feature-length titles (one of them, Seven Years Around the Nile Delta by Egyptian director Sharief Zohairy, clocks in at 331 minutes), with a total of 18 films to be shown in March. Eight installations will also be on display in June.

As for the Berlinale Shorts, the 20 titles from 17 countries feature different formal languages and range from fictional formats to experimental films, animations, hybrid and documentary forms. “Art, and film in particular, allows us to see the world through different eyes. It helps us to experience reality through someone else’s perception, to rethink it and to find our place within it,” says Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, section head of Berlinale Shorts. “At the same time, it requires a sounding board, an audience, so that what is said can find its echo and continue to reverberate.”

As a reminder, the EFM will take place from 1-5 March, whereas the Berlinale Summer Special will unspool later in the year, from 9-20 June.

Below is the full list of films in Forum and Shorts:

Berlinale Forum

From Where They Stood [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Christophe Cognet (France)
Anamnesis [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Chris Wright and Stefan Kolbe
film profile] - Chris Wright, Stefan Kolbe (Germany)
Tzarevna Calling - Uldus Bakhtiozina (Russia)
Ski - Manque La Banca (Argentina/Brazil)
The First 54 Years – An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Avi Mograbi
film profile] – Avi Mograbi (France/ Finland/Israel/Germany)
Night Nursery [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Moumouni Sanou (Burkina Faso/France/Germany)
The Inheritance - Ephraim Asili (USA)
Come Here - Anocha Suwichakornpong (Thailand)
Just a Movement [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Vincent Meessen
film profile] - Vincent Meessen (Belgium/France)
Ancient Soul [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Álvaro Gurrea
film profile] - Alvaro Gurrea (Spain)
Jack's Ride [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Susana Nobre
film profile] - Susana Nobre (Portugal)
What Will Summer Bring - Ignacio Ceroi (Argentina)
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces - Shengze Zhu (USA)
The Good Woman of Sichuan - Sabrina Zhao (Canada)
Ste. Anne - Rhayne Vermette (Canada)
Taming the Garden [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Salomé Jashi
film profile] - Salomé Jashi (Switzerland/Germany/Georgia)
The Luminous View [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile] - Fabrizio Ferraro (Italy/Spain)

Berlinale Shorts

Motorcyclist’s Happiness Won’t Fit Into His Suit - Gabriel Herrera (Mexico)
The Men Who Wait - Truong Minh Quý (France/Indonesia/Singapore)
Blastogenesis X - Conrad Veit, Charlotte Maria Kätzl (Germany)
Your Street - Güzin Kar (Switzerland)
Easter Eggs - Nicolas Keppens (Belgium/France/Netherlands)
Glittering Barbieblood - Ulu Braun (Germany)
International Dawn Chorus Day - John Greyson (Canada)
A Love Song in Spanish - Ana Elena Tejera (France Panama)
A Present Light - Diogo Costa Amarante (Portugal)
More Happiness - Livia Huang (USA)
My Uncle Tudor - Olga Lucovnicova (Belgium/Portugal/Hungary)
One Hundred Steps - Bárbara Wagner, Benjamin de Burca (France/Germany)
One Thousand and One Attempts to Be an Ocean - Wang Yuyan (France)
Rehearsal - Michael Omonua (Nigeria)
Young Hearts - Émilie Vandenameele (France)
Strange Object - Miranda Pennell (UK)
Vadim on a Walk - Sasha Svirsky (Russia)
Window - Edgar Jorge Baralt (USA)
Day Is Done - Zhang Dalei (China)
Zonder Meer - Meltse Van Coillie (Belgium)