Posted by Larry Gleeson
Berlinale Talents: Let’s Get to Work – Public Talks with Adam Stockhausen, Ari Wegner, Zazie Beetz, Isabelle Huppert, Jutta Allmendinger, and Many More!
Berlinale Talents opens its doors for the 20th time to celebrate filmmakers and explore new avenues of creativity with the always-welcome involvement of the cinema-loving public. This anniversary year appropriately sees familiar faces appear throughout the broader festival program: no less than 109 alumni have returned either as directors, actors, producers, or in other labors of cinema, and enhance 65 of the films present at the Berlinale with their talent. Take the example of Carla Simón, the director ofAlcarràs, who partook in Berlinale Talents in 2018 and has collaborated now with fellow alumnae, cinematographer Daniela Cajías (BT 2018), editor Ana Paff (BT 2018), and producer María Zamora (BT 2006) for her film in Competition.
Berlinale Talents encourages the exchange between these generations collectively: 20 outstanding alumni have joined this year as jury members, mentors, and colleagues to shape the selection and program; among them, the successful cinematographers Ari Wegner and Elen Lotman in the Camera Studio, while filmmakers Akosua Adoma Owusu, María Laura Ruggiero, Lemohang Jeremiah Mosese, Jennifer Reeder and producer Bianca Balbuena contribute to the script-development labs.
The Joy of Making – The 2022 Focus
Berlinale Talents proposes a thematically connected curriculum of around 50 talks, workshops, labs, and think-tanks (“Talents Tanks”). Under the umbrella of “Labours of Cinema,” 75 filmmakers, activists, and decision-makers join the 200 Talents and the Berlinale audiences. The nine public talks and workshops with renowned guests will be accessible free of charge via live-stream from the website and on social media, while the talk with French actor Isabelle Huppert, to whom the Berlinale Homage 2022 is dedicated, will go ahead as an in-person event with a live public audience at the HAU Hebbel am Ufer (HAU1).
Berlinale Talents 2022 is putting work front and center. Despite the fundamentally digital nature of the event this year, the program has been designed in a “hands-on” spirit: the opening session will take us to the workbench of The French Dispatch with Wes Anderson’s long-standing production designer Adam Stockhausen and the model-making team around Simon Weisse. Alongside this, the focus on work will uncover often overlooked crafts in an array of disciplines: be it the management of background cast on Babylon Berlin or The Matrix Resurrections or the handiwork of Ari Wegner, the artist behind the cinematography of Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog.
Berlinale Talents is also continuing its clarion call for change in the four areas close to the initiative’s heart (Gender Equality & Diversity; Quality Education & Work; Climate Action; Justice & Understanding) and has invited guests and Talents to help bridge thinking and action across their more than 70 home countries: socially engaged actor Zazie Beetz (Joker) and producer Jonas Weydemann (Systemsprenger) discuss new initiatives for more inclusion and diversity on set and in the film with young activists from the industry. Based on an anonymous internal survey, the financial situation of the 200 Talents will also constitute the focus of a session involving Skadi Loist in conversation with Jutta Allmendinger and Lisa Basten. A closer analysis of the facts will provide the basis for a wider assessment of income, livelihood, and equal opportunities in the cultural sector.
Live and for All – An Overview of the Public Events
The complete program of events is available at www.berlinale-talents.de and www.berlinale.de
It Began as a Holiday – Modelmaking for The French Dispatch – A live workshop with Adam Stockhausen, Simon Weisse, and his model-making colleagues from Wes Anderson’s crew.
Crowd Pleaser: How to Work with Extras – A talk with Julia Fidel, head of Berlinale Series, and casting directors and assistant directors Sarah Dickinson, Laura Mihartescu, and Dennis Becker.
Work Arounds: Solutions for Social Sustainability – Actor Zazie Beetz and producer Jonas Weydemann in conversation with the new fellows of the Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme 2022.
Berlinale Homage: In Conversation with Isabelle Huppert – This year’s recipient of the Honorary Golden Bear in a live talk on stage with Dennis Lim, Director of Film at the Lincoln Centre in New York. (With live audience. Tickets available at www.berlinale.de)
Kill Your Darlings: Editors in Visibility – Editor Susan Korda (One of Us) offers a passionate appeal for the often-hidden art and craft of film editing.
Paid with Passion: Talents and Their Finances – Skadi Loist from the Film University Babelsberg KONRAD WOLF, in conversation with the President of the Berlin Social Science Centre, Jutta Allmendinger, and Lisa Basten, the Divisional Head of Art and Culture at ver.di, and selected Talents from around the globe.
Before Your Inner Eye: Seeing as a Profession – Talents alumna and Australian cinematographer Ari Wegner (Lady Macbeth) offers her insights into the professional ‘Seeing of a Story’ and her detailed process of preparation and production for Jane Campion’s visually striking film, The Power of the Dog.
Working Titles: Labour Portrayed On-Screen – Dorothee Wenner debates with directors from the current Berlinale program about their cinematic confrontations with labor in contexts of social and political upheaval.
Great Work: Meet the Berlinale Winners – Berlinale’s Artistic Director, Carlo Chatrian, leads a surprise round of 2022 Bear-winners and other awarded filmmakers to this digital “after-work” of the Labours of Cinema week.(The publication of the guests involved will take place on the day of the event.)
Talents Footprints: New Projects for More Sustainability in Film
The Talents Footprints – Mastercard Enablement Programme, enabled by Berlinale Talents’ co-partner Mastercard, successfully enters its second round. German-American actor Zazie Beetz (Joker), Jeannette Liendo, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Communication for Mastercard Europe, and producer and alumnus Jonas Weydemann (Systemsprenger) have been appointed to the jury. They will select three fellows from the alumni community who have self-founded social organizations, cultural networks, and educational projects that sustainably and systematically improve gender justice, environmental protection, and inclusion in the film industry. The three fellows will be announced on February 13 during the “Dine & Shine goes Global” event.
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, Creative Europe – MEDIA Programme of the European Union, Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, the German Federal Foreign Office, the German Federal Film Board, Mastercard, and ARRI.
(Press release provided by Berlinale Press Office)
