Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Curtains up! Grafik: Tobias Schrank © Goethe-Institut No red carpet at the 71st Berlinale – but eleven film journalists from eight countries are looking forward to an online film selection. They will present their cinematic discoveries and their reflections on the film festival in the Corona year. Photo (detail): © Silviu Ghetie / microFilm Berlinale 2021 The streaming Berlinale takes the pulse of our times The Berlinale's first online competition features powerful contemporary cinema, with the winning film resonating with our current state of mind. Photo (detail): © BURN THE FILM Berlinale Bloggers 2021 The Pandemic on and off the screen Shengze Zhu’s film A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces, featured in the Forum section at this year’s Berlinale, portrays Wuhan, a city transformed by the pandemic. Photo (detail): © Manque La Banca Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Bariloche beyond the Mountains “Esquí” (Ski), an Argentinian-Brazilian co-production, addresses the fate of descendants of the indigenous population of a region that has become a favourite tourist destination in Latin America. Photo (detail): © Jeonwonsa Film Co. Production Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Coming of age Hong Sang-soo, winner of the Silver Bear at the 70th Berlinale in 2020, is back for this year’s Competition with his 25th feature to date. Introduction, part of which was shot in Berlin, is the Korean filmmaker's sixth black-and-white production. Photo (detail): Filmstill Berlinale Bloggers 2021 “Civic Engagement is not a genre” Italian filmmaker Enrico Masi (b. 1983, Bologna), the founder of the Caucaso Factory production company for underground film, has been selected for the Berlinale Talents 2021. Photo (detail): © faktura film Berlinale Bloggers 2021 The sweet life of tenacious vampire intellectuals A further Berlinale jewel is the film Bloodsuckers (German title: Blutsauger), by German director Julian Radlmaier. Photo (detail): © Christine Fenzl Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Beyond the Male Gaze In many films, female characters who conform to the male gaze reflect a society that has been teaching women to please for centuries. Maria Schrader unravels the regimen of the male gaze in her witty and astute film “Ich bin dein Mensch” (I'm Your Man). Photo (detail) © kurhaus productions Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Where is home, mum? From the Black Forest to Hong Kong: Perspektive Deutsches Kino, the section for debut films, looks beyond the horizon to take in the great wide world. Photo (detail): © Christine Fenzl Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Once Upon a Time … there were human beings From science fiction to historical film: the Berlinale competition's reduced selection nevertheless offers an astonishing range of German films. Photo (detail): © Silviu Ghetie / microFilm Berlinale 2021 A Festival in Tricky Times A digital industry event in March, an audience event in June – this year's Berlinale has to tread unconventional paths due to the pandemic. It is all the more important that it is being held nonetheless. Berlinale – Goethe-InstitutPodcasts Hardly anything has grown as much lately as the enthusiasm for podcasts. The Goethe-Institut and the Berlinale are picking up on this trend and launching two podcasts that focus on filmmaking, the film industry, filmmakers and the films themselves. The Berlinale Bloggers 2021 Photo (Detail): © Michelle Kay Canada Jutta Brendemühl is programme curator of the Goethe-Institut Toronto and blogger at German Film @ Canada. Twitter Instagram Photo: © Private Germany Philipp Bühler has been reporting on the Berlinale as a freelance film critic since 2000. China Yun-hua Chen is a film scholar, curator, critic, and co-host of the film podcast Reel Chats. Instagram Podcast: Reel Chats (Soundcloud) Foto: © Marco Zaccaria Italy Lucia Conti is a freelance journalist and editor of Il Mitte, online magazine for Italians abroad. LinkedIn Facebook © privat Italy Elena Gabella is studying multimedia design in Rome and is a graphic designer for a video podcast project Photo: © Private Brazil Camila Gonzatto is a screenwriter and director for film and television. Instagram Twitter Photo: © Private Germany Regine Hader is a media culture scholar and editor at the Goethe-Institut. As a freelance journalist, she writes about pop culture and queer feminism. Instagram Foto: © Sercan M.Sükür Korea Hyejin Lee is a film scholar and filmmaker. She works as an Overseas Correspondent at KOFIC and studies at the Film University Babelsberg. Photo: © Private Russia Egor Moskvitin is a film critic, programme director of the “Pilot” film festival and lecturer at the Moscow Film Academy. Instagram Photo: © private Korea Hyunjin Park has worked in South Korea as an editor specializing in visual culture and is currently studying East Asian art history in Berlin. Photo: © private Lithuania Ieva Šukytė is a freelance film journalist and art historian, covering films for online and print magazines. Facebook Instagram Top