François Ozon at the opening of a shortened edition

After a 2021 edition entirely online, the organizers of the Berlin International Film Festival had to resolve once once more to adapt the organization to the current epidemic situation. If the 72^e The edition will take place in part face-to-face, it will be considerably shortened and the screenings organized in rooms whose size will be limited to 50%.

→ READ. Berlinale 2021, a closed-door competition

“We want to make the Berlinale possible and send a strong signal to the film industry and culture in general”, explained the new federal minister of culture, Claudia Roth. “We need cinema, we need culture. We will do so with all the necessary precautions given the current dynamism of the epidemic. “

50% gauges

In order to take into account the recent binding measures taken by the German government to deal with the pandemic, the organizers had to completely rethink this edition to avoid a second digital edition. Beyond the requirements for wearing a mask, vaccination and testing, the festival will therefore be focused exclusively on the official selection and reduced to five days instead of ten usually. Other events like the Film Market will take place entirely online.

In addition, only the opening ceremony on February 10 will take place in the huge hall of the Palais des Festivals. The films in competition will then be screened, in the presence of the public and the press, in the various cinemas in Berlin, the size of which will be reduced to 50%. The awards ceremony will be held on the evening of February 16 and that of the Golden Lion of Honor, awarded this year to Frenchwoman Isabelle Huppert, will take place the day before in small groups.

François Ozon in the spotlight

It is another Frenchman who will have the honors of this 72^e editing. François Ozon’s latest film, Peter von Kant, will be screened in the official selection during the opening ceremony. This is, according to the organizers of a “Free adaptation” from the film by German director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant and D’“A cinematographic tour de force through the concept of lockdown », of confinement.

“For the opening, we looked for a film that might bring lightness and momentum in our gloomy daily life”, continues the direction of the festival. By giving the role of Petra to a man, the director “Pays homage not only to the original film but to Fassbinder himself and in so doing, indulges with his usual irony in a very personal and mischievous self-portrait.” The film brings together Isabelle Adjani, Denis Ménochet, and German actress Hanna Schygulla, former muse of Fassbinder.

This is the sixth time that François Ozon has competed in Berlin. There he received the jury prize in 2019 for Thanks to God, and the cast of Eight women a collective performance award in 2001. “It is a great pleasure and an honor to come back to Berlin, to which I associate only good memories, twenty-two years following the premiere of Water drops on burning stones, also adapted from Rainer Werner Fassbinder ”, reacted François Ozon, quoted in the press release of the Berlinale.

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