Berlinale Talents 2020: Public Programme and Talents Footprints Jury

There are questions better answered together. Berlinale Talents dedicates nearly 100 events, of which 33 are public, to the personal, professional and societal issues of today, offering its audience more space for exchange than ever before. Keeping with this year’s theme “Collectives”, over 150 filmmakers, activists and artists from various branches of the film industry and society are meeting with 255 Talents invited from over 80 countries, as well as with the cinema-loving Berlin public.

In a public Talents Table Talk, Cate Blanchett, Karim Aïnouz, Algerian activist Nardjes and Talents Alumna Maryam Zaree discuss senses of belonging that go beyond the national narratives. Icelandic musician Hildur Guðnadóttir, internationally acclaimed for her breath taking compositions (Joker, Chernobyl), will also come to HAU Hebbel am Ufer for a talk about her open sound spaces. Kleber Mendonça Filho, member of the 2020 International Jury, shares his cinematic investigations into social inequality and marginalisation in contemporary Brazil. Chinese master director Jia Zhang-Ke, renowned for his seismographic intuition for change, draws connections between his work as a socially engaged festival organiser and movie theatre founder and the palpable shift underway in his country. And the creative team of the extensive DAU project comes to explore the possibilities and limits of the collective in conversation with the audience.

Fridays for Future, ruangrupa, or the Jünglinge – representatives from art and film collectives as well as community-based movements from over ten countries populate the events. In the political context of the Arab world, with a deep self-insight of shared authorship in Indigenous cinema, or as a young generation of queer and post-migrant filmmakers: the conditions for mindful, effective and equal cooperation must constantly be negotiated and are openly presented as such to Talents and the public in “collective gatherings”.

The Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme, enabled by co-partner Mastercard, is successfully underway: about 50 Talents and Alumni from 36 countries have sent in extensive proposals for self-initiated social organisations, festivals and educational projects.

For this year’s jury, which includes director and photographer Wim Wenders, Mastercard Europe’s Senior Vice President Marketing and Communication Jeannette Liendo, and Chilean distributor, producer and Talents alumna Dominga Ortúzar, selecting the three fellows was no easy task: “We found the many global submissions both inspired and inspiring. The depth and diversity of the creative content shared, shows us just how profound an effect cinema can have on shining a light on issues and stories that can otherwise go un-shared. Through their projects and initiatives, socially-engaged filmmakers are working precisely where art and cinema have the greatest impact: namely, in having a sustainable and inclusive effect on society.”

The three Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme fellows will be announced on February 23.

Jia Zhang-Ke – Master director and seismograph for change shares his outlook on communal filmmaking in a new “age of amateur cinema”.

Hildur Guðnadóttir - The recent Golden Globe and Emmy Award winning composer (Joker, Chernobyl) on shared intuitions in her music.

Robert Bosch Stiftung Film Prize: Award ceremony with the nominees and winners of the Film Prize for German-Arabic cooperation.

Karim Aïnouz, Cate Blanchett, Nardjes, Maryam Zaree – “Heimat” sought or taken? A Talent Table Talk with artists about what belonging means today. Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Maren Ade, Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach – The Berliner “Komplizen” on their successful partnership in the interplay between directing and producing.

Helen Mirren – The Honorary Golden Bear recipient and Berlinale Homage honoured actress in conversation with MoMA’s Chief Curator of Film Rajendra Roy. In cooperation with Deutsche Kinemathek Museum für Film und Fernsehen.

Ilya Khrzhanovsky, Jekaterina Oertel, Ilya Permyakov – Collective forces on a large scale. The creative team of the DAU project (Competition 2020) debates with the audience. Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Susan Korda – “Good editing is like good sex.” The editor demystifies the editing process, laying bare its two-way dialogue with the film material.

Filipa César, Didi Cheeka, Tamer El Said, Stefanie Schulte Strathaus – Using film heritage from Nigeria, Egypt and Guinea-Bissau, artists face the responsibility of collective memory. Supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

Heba Y. Amin, Sergei Gepshtein, Itamar Kubovy – To whom do our life stories belong? Imagined campfire rounds with experts and artists on authorship and control.

Josephine Decker, Sturla Brandth Grøvlen – A live workshop on the space-expanding collaboration between the US indie-director from Shirley (Encounters 2020) and her cinematographer.

Kleber Mendonça Filho – The award-winning director’s and critic’s perspective on exclusion as an issue in his own work and in contemporary Brazil.

Jean-Louis Rodrigue, Kristof Konrad – The Berlinale Talents Hollywood coaches engage in a spontaneous collective acting workshop with 200 Berliners.

Caleb Deschanel – From Terrence Malick’s graduation film (1969) to the virtual shoot for The Lion King (2019). The renowned cinematographer talks about his endless appetite for new things.

ruangrupa – The Indonesian collective in charge of documenta 15 (Kassel 2022) practices “hanging out” with the Berliners as an artistic principle of research.

Victor Kossakovsky – The Russian master of screen-poems like Aquarela and Gunda (Encounters 2020) expands our understanding of what is documentary film.

Niki Lindroth von Bahr, Jay Clarke - The storyboard artist from Isle of Dogs and the Swedish stop-motion artist turn snails, dogs and other film creatures into stars.

Simon Weisse – Berlin’s most famous model maker for Wes Anderson and Steven Spielberg films opens his prop room and raises questions about sustainability.

Ronja Salmi, Julia Penner, Sandra Stöckmann – Wicked? LOL! Authors of teenage-oriented series on YouTube and Instagram find the right words. (Druck, Karma). Supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Agat Films & Cie – Ex Nihilo and pong Film – Producer teams with longstanding successes discuss working collectively between ideal and ever-changing realities.

Tusi Tamasese, Anne Lajla Utsi, Zoe Leigh Hopkins – Creatives reflect on the role of the director and the shared principles behind Indigenous filmmaking.

Mohamad El-Hadidi, Nadir Bouhmouch, Viola Shafik – The protest movements in the Arab world and their political roots in film collectives.

Catalina Marín Duarte, Berni Goldblat, Butheina Kazim, Dominga Sotomayor - Talk & Tables with film activists from Chile, Burkina Faso and the United Arab Emirates on how they developed their community cinemas into spaces that embrace artistic freedom.

Roshanak Behesht Nedjad, Nils Bökamp – Where can European film start-ups find their entrepreneurial leeway in the turbulent times of streaming? Supported by Creative Europe - MEDIA and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

Fatma Çolakoğlu, Djamila Grandits, Claire Diao, María Berríos – Art on the crossroads between the global North and South. A collective “carte blanche” session with four critical film curators.

Robin Klengel, Kevin B. Lee, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf – Game hackers and video essayists on the power dynamics of the web and emergency exits that lead out of the online collective.

Fridays for Future, Little Sun Foundation, DW Akademie and others – Open workshop on sustainable, participatory communication for social movements and initiatives. Supported by the German Federal Foreign Office.

Jünglinge, 13 Little Pictures – Hildesheim (Futur Drei) meets Singapore (I Dream of Singapore, both Panorama 2020): Queer collectives commit themselves to increase diversity in film.

Five public film screenings at the HAU1:

From February 22 to 27, films that are part of the official Berlinale programme and have been realised by former Berlinale Talents participants are shown as repetition screenings.

Announcement of the Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme fellows at the Dine & Shine Dinner. Enabled by Mastercard.

Talents Circles: Master Your Ideas - Wim Wenders provides insights into his career. Invited guests and the three Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement programme fellows explore how ideas become reality in the Talents Circles. Enabled by Mastercard.

Please note that access for press-accreditation holders is only possible with a ticket or registration for the non-public events. The complete Berlinale Talents programme will be available online on February 11. Tickets to public talks and film screenings can be purchased starting February 17 on berlinale.de or at the festival box offices.

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Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, and is supported by the Minister of State for Culture and the Media, Robert Bosch Stiftung, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, Creative Europe - MEDIA Programme of the European Union, the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Federal Film Board, Mastercard and ARRI.