The Berlin Film Festival opened Thursday night in a hopeful mood, with attendees braving the cold and rain as torrential rain battered the city.
Stars who walked the red carpet with umbrellas and raincoats included Sean Baker, Bella Ramsey, Karim Aynous, Neil Patrick Harris, Radu Jude, Daniel Brühl and Lars Eidinger. Mr Baker was on hand to present this year’s honorary Golden Bear to Oscar winner Michelle Yeoh, who stars in the film Sandiwala, her latest project with fashion house Self Portrait.
Arriving on stage, Baker praised the Berlinale as “a festival that has always championed bold voices, risk-takers and artists who refuse to fit into a single box.”
“That’s why tonight’s winners are almost perfect,” he added. “Michelle Yeoh is a once-in-a-generation screen presence, someone who not only appears in movies, but redefines the temperature in the room.”
While accepting the award, Yeo told Baker he looked forward to working together again. “There’s just no sex scenes,” she laughed. Yeo also noted that Berlin has always championed bold artists, adding that Berlin welcomed her when she was a young artist. “Part of me is still a young girl who was proud of her parents. My father is no longer here to see this moment, but I still carry my father’s discipline, his steadfastness, his belief that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing well. And if he could see me here tonight holding this golden bear, I’m sure he would smile.”Yoh received a standing ovation from the moved crowd at her speech.
However, noticeably missing from the opening ceremony was an emphasis on politics and current events. Unlike last year, when Tilda Swinton gave a fiery speech denouncing mass murder and President Trump’s plan to turn Gaza into a Riviera, this year’s ceremony focused on the art of filmmaking. The only major political grandstanding on the red carpet was when a group of festival-goers held placards with an anti-fascist quote from Hannah Arendt, and actors Banafsheh Ulmazdi, Jasmin Tabatabai, Feline Roggan and author Dusen Tekkar held placards reading “Liberate Iran.” At the actual ceremony, the mood remained upbeat, with Yeo only hinting about a “divided world” in her speech.
The competition jury, led by German director Wim Wenders, was also reluctant to discuss politics at a press conference earlier in the day. Director Wenders responded, “When you make a political film, you enter the field of politics, so you have to avoid getting involved in politics.” “But we are the counterweight to politics, we are the opponents of politics. We have to do the people’s job, not the politicians’ job.”
Festival chief Tricia Tuttle, who is in her second year at the helm of the Berlinale, also focused on independent filmmaking during her time on stage. Appearing alongside film program co-directors Jacqueline Lyanga and Michael Stutz, she said she felt the industry was in “really great shape” as she introduced this year’s festival lineup.
“It’s really thriving and it’s great to see so many filmmakers making such diverse and beautiful work in this venue and in this venue all year long,” Tuttle said, adding, “Obviously as an industry we have work to do in terms of infrastructure, but I’m also very, very encouraged by the resilience of the industry.”
This year’s opening film is “No Good Men” by renowned Afghan director Sharbanu Sadat. The romantic comedy follows a camerawoman at a Kabul television station who becomes entangled with the station’s star male journalist just before the city falls to the Taliban in 2021. Speaking about making the film, which will be the first Afghan film to feature on-screen kissing, Sadat told Variety: “My film is not an agenda film. I didn’t set out to include it for any particular reason. But it’s interesting because Afghan society is very conservative. So when something is not allowed, there is more demand for that film.”
While this issue’s lineup doesn’t have the star power double whammy of Timothée Chalamet and Jacob Elordi like last year, it does include some high-profile premieres, including the European premiere of Charli Other notable films include Cornel Mundruzo’s latest Oscar nominee “At the Sea,” which touts Amy Adams’ fearless performance, and Sundance classics “Josephine” and the international production of “The Weight.”
