Are you ready? It’s time for the Berlinale (16-26.02.2023) where the city welcomes stars of the silver screen like International Jury President Kristen Stewart onto the red carpet (or will it be green in the name of climate activism?). Many of us will be at the computer at 10 in the morning to get tickets for one of the 18 Competition films (including 15 world premieres like “Roter Himmel” by Christian Petzold), Encounters, Retrospectives (films about growing up, with the theme: “Young at Heart – Coming of Age at the Movies”), Generation 14plus, Berlinale Shorts, Panorama and more. This time, films from all genres will compete for the Competition Bears: animation (“Suzume” by Makoto Shinkai), documentary (“Sur l’Adamant” by Nicolas Philibert, about a floating outpatient clinic for psychiatric patients in Paris), feature (“Disco Boy” starring Franz Rogowski and Morr N’Diaye, about the French Foreign Legion and a village in the Niger Delta), comedy, drama (“The Survival of Kindness” by Rolf de Heer, in which a woman fights for her existence in the desert) and period pieces.

The big venues like the Berlinale Palast at Potsdamer Platz and the Friedrichstadtpalast can get busy. To avoid the crowds, head to one of the six art-house cinemas in the Berlinale Goes Kiez series (Feb. 18-24), including the Blauer Stern cinema in Pankow, Il Kino in Neukölln and the fsk cinema in Kreuzberg. Alternatively, check out the Berlinale specials at the Gropius Passagen (“Sun and Concrete,” a crime film by David Wnendt set in Neukölln), or make a trip to the Plötzensee prison. With “You must be joking: Humour in serious times” the Berlinale Talents will welcome 204 young filmmakers from 68 countries for an extensive program of panels, discussions and films; you too can be part of one of the events at HAU (Hebbel am Ufer). As with all Berlinale events, make sure to plan and get tickets ahead of time. Or, if you don’t suffer from FOMO, you can just wait until a friend calls to surprise you with one of those tickets, bought especially for you at 10am…

Text: Nike Wilhelms / Credit: ESCAC Films, HSLU – Morgane Frund, BA Video & Triptych Pictures

Berlinale – 73rd Berlin International Film Festival (16–26.02.2023)

Advance ticket sales start on 13.02.2023 at 10h online and are available three days before the respective screenings. The complete program and more information about the festival can be found here.

@berlinale

What awaits us after the end of the world? Tomorrow evening (03.02.2023) the exhibition DIS – Everything But the World opens at the Schinkel Pavillon. Under the direction of Nina Pohl, the art venue has become known for great opening parties, exceptional contemporary programming and intricate, yet always impressive, exhibition design. And this time, too, it does not disappoint, succeeding in embedding art within a distinctive venue. Amid Prussianesque glass architecture is the exhibition: a genre- and format-bending science fiction documentary about humankind – a species completely alienated from a world of flawed linear thinking, small-minded approaches to progress and repeated exploitation. The video installation is the brainchild of the collaborative New York-based project DIS, founded by Lauren Boyle, Solomon Chase, Marco Roso, and David Toro, who drew attention in 2016 for their curation of an outstanding Berlin Biennial.

The collective has gone on to attract international attention for its interdisciplinary, collaborative approach across various platforms including DIS Magazine, DIS images, streaming platform DISart and merchandise platform DISown (which sells Angela Merkel & Condoleezza Rice Silk Scarves by Anna Sophie Berger). It is, in short, the perfect rabbit hole to get lost in as you slump down on the mattresses which Schinkel Pavillon has provided for your comfort.

Text: Hilka Dirks / Stills: DIS

Schinkel Pavillon, Oberwallstr.32, 10117 Berlin–Mitte; map

DIS — Everything but the World, 03–26.02.2023, Thu & Fri 14–19h, Sat & Sun 11–19h, Opening: 03.02.2023 from 18h.

@schinkelpavillon