The Berlinale is back – and this time it’s physical. For the first time since the start of the pandemic, Berlin’s annual film gala is staging a fully in-person program thanks to reduced-capacity screenings and mask mandates. The six-day line up, which kicks off on 10.02.2022 with the premiere of François Ozon’s “Peter von Kant”, features 256 feature films and shorts. To help you navigate the packed program, here are our top picks. As always, the Festival is happening all over the city with the Berlinale Goes Kiez program of smaller screenings. It’s a great opportunity to visit a cinema you may never have been to (BrotfabrikKino in Weißensee or City Kino in Wedding, perhaps?). The Kiez program is being updated daily – see here for the latest. The center of the action is at Potsdamer Platz, where the hottest tickets will be for the Competition films: this year’s favorites include Mikhaël Hers’s “The Passengers of the Night” starring Charlotte Gainsbourg, and the historical drama “Call Jane”, which portrays a married woman’s battle to get an abortion and stars Elizabeth Banks and Sigourney Weaver.
The Berlinale Special Gala returns to the Festival’s biggest venue – the Friedrichstadt-Palast – with a premiere of Isabelle Huppert’s latest film “About Joan”, co-staring Lars Eidinger. Around half of the Special program is made up of documentaries, including “This Much I Know to Be True”, which follows rock legend Nick Cave’s collaboration with composer Warren Ellis. A traditional audience favorite, Panorama is back with an globespanning selection including “Convenience Store”, a surrealist portrayal of modern slavery set in a Moscow supermarket. The first tickets for this year’s festival go on sale Monday 07.02. Make sure you log in at 10h sharp: seats for top picks are set to sell out in minutes.
Text: Benji Haughton / Photos: Timo Müller; Zoo Palast, Jan Bitter; 247films
You can view the full Berlinale program online. Tickets for screenings are available online starting 07.02.2022, 10h. For more information, see the website.
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