Columbia Filmmakers Head to 2023 Berlin Film Festival
The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival will take place February 16–26, 2023. Created for the Berlin public in 1951, the Berlinale has developed into a place of intercultural exchange and a platform for the critical cinematic exploration of social issues, and is one of the largest public film festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from around the globe each year.
Alumna Dea Kulumbegashvili ’18 will join Greek actor Angeliki Papoulia (Dogtooth) and Italian festival programmer and academic Paolo Moretti on the festival’s Encounters Program Jury. The Encounters Program aims to foster aesthetically and structurally daring works from independent, innovative filmmakers. Its goal is to support new perspectives in cinema and to give more room to diverse narrative and documentary forms in the official selection. This year’s program comprises 16 films, all in the running for Best Film, Best Director and the Special Jury Award.
From Fish to Moon, written and directed by Kevin Contento ’18, is among the 20 films selected to screen in the 2023 Berlinale Shorts Program. Contento’s film, for which he also served as cinematographer and editor, takes its name from a common expression in medieval Persian verse, meaning "from the depths to the heights." From Fish to Moon centers Jean Voltairea, an employee at a grocery store in Pahokee, Florida, where those who work arrive early and stay all day, roaming the aisles. The documentary short previously screened at the 2022 New Orleans Film Festival. “Even difficult topics are broached with a refreshing lightness of touch without sacrificing any of their seriousness. It’s exciting to see what kinds of artistic tools the filmmakers are using to communicate their stories and ideas,” said Anna Henckel-Donnersmarck, section head of Berlinale Shorts.
Playing in the Berlinale Spotlight is Stay Awake, written and directed by alumnus Jamie Sisley ’15 and produced by alumnus, Adjunct Associate Professor, and Senior Production Advisor Shrihari Sathe '09. In Stay Awake, brothers Derek and Ethan have (not for the first time) spent the night in the car full of worry. They have driven the old familiar places to finally pick up their drug-addicted mother from the street. Despite their addiction, the three share a kind of everyday life together. Against the backdrop of the opioid crisis and abusive prescription practices in the US, Sisley tells of the individual impact of a societal tragedy and takes a look at a complicated web of relationships that is as unsparing as it is tender. Stay Awake was the winner of the Generation Cinema Vision 14plus competition. The jury called Stay Awake “a strong and at the same time complex portrait of two young men who are discovering who they are.”
Participating in the Talent Project Market section of the Berlinale Co-Production Market is Cost of Living, to be directed by Moara Passoni ’20. The festival's Co-Production Market is a five-day event which brings together 600 select international producers, sales agents, distributors as well as broadcasting and funding representatives who are actively working in international co-productions. New feature and drama series projects are presented and can find co-production and financing partners at the market. Cost of Living, co-written by Passoni and Assistant Professor Christina Lazzaridi ’98, is set in 1978 Brazil and shares the true story of Ana Santo, a working class mother struggling to put food on the table for her daughter. During the film, Ana blossoms into a sensual leader, and shakes the Brazilian military regime to its core. The project is currently in development and is scheduled to enter production in 2024.
Learn more about the 2023 Berlin Film Festival here.