berlin 2023
‘Here’ Review: Belgian Drama’s Poetic Gaze Is Low-Key and Profoundly Affecting
A migrant worker meets a botanist who opens his eyes to a world of microscopic beauty in Bas Devos’ Brussels-set mood piece.
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‘Klondike’ Review: A Harrowing Ukrainian Drama Set at the Start of the War
Maryna Er Gorbach’s fourth feature won the World Cinema directing award at last year's Sundance Film Festival, while also scooping up prizes in Berlin and Sarajevo.
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‘Our Body’ Review: Claire Simon’s Intimate and Unflinching Look Inside a French Gynecology Ward
The director's latest documentary chronicles the experiences of patients in the gynecology department of a Parisian public hospital.
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‘Opponent’ (‘Motstandaren’) Review: Payman Maadi Brings Searing Intensity to Character Study of an Iranian Refugee in Sweden
Writer-director Milad Alami’s accomplished second feature weaves an emotional domestic drama around a wrestler torn between family and suppressed desires.
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Berlin: ‘20,000 Species of Bees,’ ‘Totem’ Among Independent Jury Winners
Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren’s crowd-pleasing debut, 20,000 Species of Bees, a tender look at a 8-year-old Spaniard who begins to transition and the impact that has on the child’s family, was among the standouts of this year’s Berlinale. The film, which screened in competition at the 2023 Berlin Film Festival, won the prize for best film […]
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Berlin: ‘Kokomo City,’ ‘Sira’ Win Panorama Audience Awards
D. Smith’s Sundance audience award winner Kokomo City has won over Berlin cinemagoers as well, winning the audience award for best documentary in Berlin’s Panorama section. Apolline Traoré’s Sira won the audience prize for best narrative feature. A raw depiction of the lives of four Black trans sex workers fro New York and Georgia, Kokomo […]
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Berlin: ‘The Survival of Kindness,‘ ‘Here’ Win Critics’ Fipresci Awards
Rolf de Heer’s The Survival of Kindness, a stark, and dialog-free dystopian fable about racism and the legacy of colonialism, has won over international film critics at this year’s Berlinale, taking the top prize for best film as picked by the Fipresci jury. Produced by Vertigo Productions and Triptych Pictures, The Survival of Kindness is […]
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Berlin: ‘Adolfo’, ‘Hummingbirds’ Win 2023 Generation 14Plus Sidebar
Sofía Auza’s Mexican drama Adolfo, won the Crystal Bear for best film in the Berlinale’s Generation 14plus sidebar for youth films, as picked by Generation’s youth jury. The bittersweet drama, adapted from Auza’s 2019 short, stars Juan Daniel García Treviño and Rocío de la Mañana as two strangers who meet at a deserted bus stop […]
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Berlin: ‘The Teacher’s Lounge’ Wins Best European Film Prize
İlker Çatak’s The Teachers‘ Lounge, a German drama set in a primary school, has won the Europa Cinemas Label as Best European film in the Panorama section of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival. Leonie Benesch (Babylon Berlin, Around the World in 80 Days) stars in The Teacher’s Lounge as an idealistic and ambitious young […]
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‘Under the Sky of Damascus’ Review: A Shattering Peek at Life for Syrian Women
Syrian filmmakers Talal Derki, Heba Khaled and Ali Wajeeh chronicle the experience of five actresses trying to record and expose their country's deeply entrenched misogyny.
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‘Till the End of the Night’ (‘Bis ans Ende der Nacht’) Review: Queer Crime Romance Runs Afoul of Unsound Plotting
A gay undercover cop pairs up with a paroled trans felon to infiltrate a drug network and finds their liaison complicated by his love for the person she used to be.
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Berlin: Joan Baez on Bob Dylan, Childhood Abuse and Hanging Up Her Guitar
Since she exploded on the folk scene — first with gigs at the Club 47 outside Boston, then on stage at the 1959 Newport Folk Festival — Joan Baez has been an iconic figure in American music and, thanks to her tireless activism, in American politics as well. She played at Woodstock, marched with Martin […]
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