Editor

As part of the Festival’s official programme, the Berlinale Special 2012 will be presenting recent works by contemporary filmmakers, film portraits of outstanding personalities, extraordinary formats and restored cinema masterpieces. In addition to the six films already announced (see press releases from Dec. 19, 2011, and Jan. 9, 2012), twelve more titles have been confirmed for this year’s Berlinale Special programme.

In 2012 talks will be hosted following the screenings of a number of Berlinale Special films. The venue for this new format is the movie theatre in the Haus der Berliner Festspiele at Schaperstraße 24. Besides Werner Herzog’s documentary film series Death Row and Angelina Jolie’s directorial debut In The Land Of Blood And Honey, these films include the documentaries Althawra… Khabar (Reporting … A Revolution) by Bassam Mortada, Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry by Alison Klayman, Hijos de las Nubes by Alvaro Longoria, Anton Corbijn Inside Out by Klaartje Quirijns as well as Chris Kenneally’s Side by Side, with Keanu Reeves.

At a matinée, the film The Life and Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943) by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger will be presented in a newly restored version.

Film director Mark Cousins will be showing his 900 minute-long documentary The Story Of Film: An Odyssey as a European premiere.

The Berlinale Special will also be keeping its traditional venues Kino International and the Friedrichstadt-Palast, where the Berlinale Special Gala Screenings will again be presented.


Berlinale Special Gala screenings at the Friedrichstadt-Palast:

Young Adult
USA
By Jason Reitman (Up In The Air, Juno, Thank You for Smoking)
With Charlize Theron, Patton Oswalt, Patrick Wilson, Elisabeth Reaser
German premiere

Already announced:
Don – The King Is Back (India/Germany) by Farhan Akhtar
Marley (Great Britain/USA) – documentary by Kevin Macdonald
La chispa de la vida (Spain/France) by Álex de la Iglesia



Berlinale Special screenings at the Kino International:

Glück (Bliss)
Germany
By Doris Dörrie (Naked, Am I Beautiful?, Cherry Blossoms, The Hairdresser)
With Alba Rohrwacher, Vinzenz Kiefer, Matthias Brandt, Oliver Nägele
World premiere

I, Anna
Great Britain/Germany/France
By Barnaby Southcombe (Feature debut)
With Charlotte Rampling, Gabriel Byrne, Hayley Atwell, Eddie Marsan
World premiere

Matineé
The Life And Death Of Colonel Blimp (1943)
Great Britain
By Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger (The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus)
With Roger Livesey, Deborah Kerr, Anton Walbrook
Restored version

Already announced:
Keyhole (Canada) by Guy Maddin


Berlinale Special screenings at the Haus der Berliner Festspiele:

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry – Documentary
USA
By Alison Klayman
International premiere

Althawra… Khabar (Reporting … A Revolution) – Documentary
Egypt
By Bassam Mortada
International premiere

Anton Corbijn Inside Out – Documentary
Netherlands
By Klaartje Quirijns
World premiere

Hijo de las nubes, La última colonia (Sons Of The Clouds, The Last Colony) – Documentary
Spain
Alvaro Longoria
World premiere

Side by Side – Documentary
USA
By Chris Kenneally (Crazy Legs Conti: Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating)
World premiere

Already announced:
Death Row (USA) – documentary series by Werner Herzog
In The Land Of Blood And Honey (USA) by Angelina Jolie



More Berlinale Special presentations:

To celebrate the 60th Anniversary of the film journal “Positif”:
Der Fangschuss (Le coup de grâce, 1975)
Germany
By Volker Schlöndorff (The Tin Drum, Germany in Autumn, The Legend of Rita)
With Matthias Habich, Margarethe von Trotta, Rüdiger Kirschtein, Mathieu Carriere, Valeska Gert

The Story Of Film: An Odyssey – Documentary
Great Britain
By Mark Cousins (The First Movie, The New Ten Commandments)
European premiere



Special Screening:
For the “50th Anniversary of the Oberhausen Manifesto”:
Abschied von den Fröschen (Farewell to the Frogs) – Documentary
Germany
By Ulrike Schamoni