The Berlin film festival starts today in virtual mode, with the programming to be unveiled only for professionals, with the public sessions being postponed until June, due to the pandemic of the covid-19.
After, in February 2020, still taking place in traditional ways, escaping the conditioning effects of the new coronavirus, this year the Berlin festival takes place in two distinct moments, the first of which this week with the various protagonists of the film industry to meet in virtual mode.
Until Friday, projections of 780 films are foreseen, including those of the official programming and competition, there will also be the coproduction market, parallel financing programs, and the dissemination of new talents; all with the participation of more than 470 companies and entities related to cinema and audiovisual.
In this 71st edition, the official program includes several Portuguese productions and co-productions.
The short films competition includes “Luz de Presença”, by Diogo Costa Amarante – director awarded the Golden Bear in 2017 -, and “Nanu Tudor”, by the Moldovan Olga Lucovnicova, with co-production between Portugal, Belgium and Hungary.
In the Forum section is, in world premiere, the film “No taxi Jack”, between documentary and fiction, by Susana Nobre. The film “Rock Bottom Riser”, by the Portuguese-American director Fern Silva, is part of the Encontros competition.
In the Expanded Forum program are “Mudança”, by Portuguese-Guinean Welket Bungué, “Night for day”, by British visual artist Emily Wardill, with Portuguese-Austrian coproduction, and Portuguese production “13 ways of looking at a blackbird”, of the Brazilian Ana Vaz.
At “Berlinale Talents”, a training program, talks and meetings, will feature directors Paulo Carneiro and David Pinheiro Vicente and sound designer Inês Adriana. They are joined by Canadian director Joelle Walinga and Brazilian producer Janaina Bernardes, who work with Portugal.
The second part of the festival, with the official program to be shown in class and with an audience, is scheduled from June 9 to 20.