The 74th Berlin Film Festival will take place from 15 to 25 February. This will be the last edition directed by Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek (before the arrival of Tricia Tuttle next March), and it is an exceptional edition for French cinema, which will be represented by a record six feature films in Competition, by film directors Abderrahmane Sissako, Mati Diop, Olivier Assayas, Bruno Dumont, Claire Burger, and Meryam Joobeur. And a record 11 French documentaries in all selections!
While Bruno Dumont returns to Berlin with The Empire ten years after presenting Camille Claudel 1915 in Competition, it's a first, in this section, for Olivier Assayas (Suspended Time), Mati Diop (Dahomey), Claire Burger (Langue Etrangère), and Abderrahmane Sissako (Black Tea), as well as for Meryam Joobeur, whose Who Do I Belong To, a majority-French co-production, is a debut feature. All six filmmakers, three men and three women, will be representing the multiplicity of genres and viewpoints of French cinema at one of the world's most important film festivals.
The latest films by André Téchiné (My New Friends), Jérémy Clapin (whose Meanwhile on Earth is his first live action film after I Lost My Body), and Myriam El Hajj will be presented in the Panorama strand, while more than 20 other majority-French coproductions have been selected in the festival's other strands. We draw attention in particular to At Averroes & Rosa Parks, the second part of a trilogy initiated by Nicolas Philibert with On the Adamant, which received the Golden Bear at the Berlinale 2023.
Many filmmakers and cast members will attend the festival, including Christine Angot, André Téchiné, Isabelle Huppert, Hafsia Herzi, Nahuel Pérez Biscayart, Bruno Dumont, Lyna Khoudri, Anamaria Vartolomei, Jérémy Clapin, Megan Northam, Abderrahmane Sissako, Nina Mélo, Mati Diop, Nicolas Philibert, Claire Burger, Nina Hoss, Vincent Macaigne, Micha Lescot, Nora Hamzawi and Olivier Assayas, already confirmed. A cocktail reception in honour of French cinema at the Berlinale will be held at the Ambassade de France on February 19, in the presence of the film teams. To mark the occasion, the Ambassador will present the insignia of Arts and Letters to Leila Hamid, the CEO of distribution company X-Verleih, and to Martin Kochendörfer, a member of X-Verleih's management board.
Ahead of the festival, Unifrance will organize press screenings, as it does every year, of some of the French titles presented at this year's festival, for international journalists based in Paris.
Finally, Unifrance is supporting director Aïssa Diaby's participation in the EFM Fiction Toolbox programme.
Suzy Bemba at the European Shooting Stars
Suzy Bemba (seen in Comecoming and the series The Paris Opéra and Everything Is Fine) will represent France at this year's European Shooting Stars. The actress, one of Unifrance's 10 to Watch 2024, will be one of ten young talents introduced to the international press, industry, and public as part of an exclusive four-day program (February 16-19) organized by the EFP during the Berlinale, one of the highlights of which will be the European Shooting Stars awards ceremony on February 19, 2024 at the Berlinale Palast.
On the market front
Numerous French sales agents will also be making the trip to the EFM. A total of 16 French international sales companies will be hosted at the Unifrance stand:
- The Bureau Sales
- Le Pacte
- WTFilms
- Les Films du Losange
- France tv distribution
- Loco Films
- Luxbox
- Pyramide International
- Mediawan
- Urban Sales
- Reservoir Docs
- Coproduction Office
- MPM Premium
- Artedis
- Alfama Films Production
- Other Angle Pictures
Unifrance will host a cocktail reception on the opening of the EFM on Friday February 16 at the Gropius Dome, where French and foreign professionals will be able to discuss their current projects in a convivial atmosphere.
The talents of Unifrance's 10 to Watch 2024 will take center stage at Unifrance's stand at the EFM, with a display dedicated to them. Screen International will also focus on the initiative as part of their Berlinale daily editions.
The French films presented at the 74th Berlinale
Competition
- Black Tea by Abderrahmane Sissako
- Dahomey by Mati Diop
- Suspended Time by Olivier Assayas
- The Empire by Bruno Dumont
- Langue Etrangère by Claire Burger
- Who Do I Belong To by Meryam Joobeur
- Architecton by Victor Kossakovsky (minority-French co-production)
- My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam, Behtash Sanaeeha (co-production shares not specified)
- Pepe by Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias (co-production shares not specified)
- Shambhala by Min Bahadur Bham (co-production shares not specified)
Panorama
- My New Friends by André Téchiné
- Meanwhile on Earth by Jérémy Clapin
- Diaries from Lebanon by Myriam El Hajj
- I Saw Three Black Lights by Santiago Lozano Álvarez (co-production shares not specified)
- Brief History of a Family by Jianjie Lin (co-production shares not specified)
- Crossing by Levan Akin (minority-French co-production)
- Cu Li Never Cries by Phạm Ngọc Lân (co-production shares not specified)
- Faruk by Aslı Özge (co-production shares not specified)
Forum
- L'Homme-vertige by Malaury Eloi-Paisley
- The True Chronicles of the Blida Joinville Psychiatric Hospital in the Last Century, when Dr Frantz Fanon Was Head of the Fifth Ward between 1953 and 1956 by Abdenour Zahzah (co-production shares not specified)
- Oasis of Now by Chee Sum Chia (co-production shares not specified)
- The Nights Still Smell of Gunpowder by Inadelso Cossa (co-production shares not specified)
- Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych (co-production shares not specified)
Forum Special
- Mother and Daughter, or the Night Is Never Complete by Lana Gogoberidze (co-production shares not specified)
Generation
- The Great Phuket by Yaonan Liu
- Maydegol by Sarvnaz Alambeigi (co-production shares not specified)
- Who by Fire by Philippe Lesage (minority-French co-production)
- Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story de Luck Razanajaona (co-production shares not specified)
- Elbow by Aslı Özarslan (minority-French co-production)
- My Summer with Irene by Carlo Sironi (minority-French co-production)
Berlinale Special
- Some Rain Must Fall by Qiu Yang (co-production shares not specified)
- Cidade ; Campo by Juliana Rojas (co-production shares not specified)
- Treasure by Julia Von Heinz (minority-French co-production)
- At Averroes & Rosa Parks by Nicolas Philibert
- Shikun by Amos Gitaï (co-production shares not specified)
Encounters
- A Family by Christine Angot
- Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell (co-production shares not specified)
Berlinale Classics
- The Sacrifice by Andrei Tarkovski (minority-French co-production)
- Fast, Fast by Carlos Saura (minority-French co-production)
- Batalla en el cielo by Carlos Reygadas (minority-French co-production)
- The Wayward cloud by Tsai Ming-Liang (minority-French co-production)
Short film - Competition
- The Moon Also Rises by Yuyan Wang
- We Will Not Be the Last of Our Kind by Mili Pecherer
- Bye Bye Turtle by Selin Öksüzoğlu
- Lick a Wound by Nathan Ghali
Short film - Generation Competition
Short film - Forum Expanded
->> The full programe of the 74th Berlinale
can be found on the festival's website.
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