Berlin Film Festival kicks off
2006-02-10 09:13
Berlin - The annual Berlin International Film Festival opens on Thursday with Snow Cake, a drama starring Sigourney Weaver and Alan Rickman - the first of 19 movies in the hunt for the event's top Golden Bear prize.
The programme for the festival, which runs through until February 19, ranges from Iran to Argentina and includes new movies from United States veterans Sidney Lumet and Robert Altman. Organisers say this year's selection has a gritty feel.
"The films this year are overall very political, very close to reality ... directed toward people's problems, with less fantasy," festival director Dieter Kosslick said last month.
The opening film, a British-Canadian co-production from director Marc Evans, follows the story of a middle-aged English expatriate in Canada, played by Rickman, and his relationship with Weaver's character, the autistic mother of a hitchhiker who is killed when a truck drives into his car.
Lacks in star power, glamour
Weaver and Rickman are among the stars expected at this year's festival, along with George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Vin Diesel, Isabelle Huppert and others.
Coming before the Academy Awards ceremony on March 5, the "Berlinale" traditionally falls short of the Cannes and Venice festivals in terms of glamour and star power. However, organisers pride themselves on making their festival more accessible to the public.
"The Berlinale will continue to take place in February - no matter what date changes there are with the Oscar awards or other events," Kosslick said recently. "February doesn't offer the best weather, but the Berlinale is ideally situated in the international festival calendar."
British actress Charlotte Rampling is to head the eight-member jury that will award the Golden Bear on February 18. Last year's winner was the South African film Carmen in Khayelitsha, directed by Mark Dornford-May.
- AP