Today is the Berlinale highlight par excellence! Martin Scorsese will receive the Honorary Golden Bear in the evening and show his Oscar-winning film The Departed. In the afternoon at 5 pm he will give a press conference at the Hotel Hyatt and talk about his career with the Artistic Director of the Berlinale Carlo Chatrian.
Stars at the festival
Kirsten Stewart, Isabelle Huppert, Cillian Murphy - they have all been there and presented their latest works. We can also look forward to Adam Sandler and Amanda Seyfried in the second half of the festival. And of course, there are also plenty of German stars at the festival, not only to show their films, but also to see the films of others.
So, with a bit of luck, you'll be sitting next to Maria Schrader or Johanna Wokalek in the cinema.
Favourites in the competition
The competition has now entered its second round and the first favourites are being traded. The Iranian entry Keyke mahboobe man (My favourite cake), which has touched the press and audience alike, is very much in favour. Andreas Dresen's resistance drama In Liebe, Eure Hilde is also being touted as a hot candidate for a bear or two. But in the end, as is so often the case, the jury will probably choose a film that surprises everyone. Nobody expected the Golden Bear for Sur L'Adamant last year either.
The audience's favour for the Panorama Award still seems to be open, at least no film has yet been considered a must-see.
Andrea gets divorced
Policewoman Andrea (Birgit Minichmayr) is getting divorced, she has had enough of her stuffy husband and of life in the Austrian provinces, where there are no more prospects. A new life in St. Pölten with a new job with the police awaits her. But after her colleague's birthday party, she accidentally runs over her still-husband on a country road. Andrea tries to cover up the crime, which is attributed to the dry alcoholic Franz. But how long can she keep quiet while her life slowly implodes?
With wonderfully black humour and quiet melancholy, Josef Hader (who plays Franz) tells of life in the provinces, which could just as easily take place in Brandenburg or Kansas. Small details such as the onion as decoration on the crossroads, the wide sky above the empty landscape, the disco where the same songs have been playing for 30 years, are evidence of Hader's precise eye and make the film one of the highlights of the Berlinale.
