Achtung Berlin! The New Film Festival Award
„12th Achtung Berlin Film Festival is being held“
April 14th, 2016
From April 13th until April 20th, Berlin was the host of the 12th „Achtung Berlin“, New Film Festival Award. The festival presented what the regional scene has created in the past year and the film competition was organized along several categories: "Made in Berlin-Brandenburg", the major section with the most important films, short films and documentaries of the year, "Berlin Highlights" and "Berlin Documents" with films by young talents exploring current subjects, "Berlin Coproductions" with international film productions with Berlin-Brandenburg involvement, and a retrospective.
The Berlin Film Festival "Achtung Berlin! - New Berlin Film Award" started in 2004 and it is the third biggest film festival in the German capital. Since then it has shown current feature, documentary and short films shortly before their official release in cinemas. The specialty of the week-long festival is that it only shows films that have been completely or in part been made in Berlin and Brandenburg. Directors of the films are both famous and young talents. This year, it’s Timo Jacobs, a ‘face’ of German cinema, who opens the festivities with an UFO comedy called „Mann im Spagat“, his second directorial effort since „Klappe Cowboy!“. Following last year’s opening downer, this urban fairytale about self-produced water, Elvis hologram shows and bike rallies should make for a great kick-off.
Eleven movies competed for the New Berlin Film Award, including „Fado“ by Jonas Rothlaender, an utterly convincing drama about a young doctor who leaves Berlin for Lisbon to win back his ex-girlfriend. Romance is the focal point of Daniel Carsenty’s „After Spring Comes Fall“, a tale of a Kurdish refugee recruited as an informant in Berlin by the Syrian Security Service.
Meanwhile, Yony Leyser’s „Desire Will Set you Free“ captures Berlin’s bruised, messed-up beauty with lots of great stand-alone scenes and a who’s who of international lefty radicals, punks and queers. As usual, it’s the non-fiction section that never fails, with Britta Wauer’s „Rabbi Wolff“ painting a charming portrait of rabbi and former political correspondent William “Willy” Wolff, and Annett Ilijew’s insightful „Somos Cuba“ taking an intimate seven-year look at working-class life in Havana.
Another documentary that stands out is „Fluchtrecherchen“, a compilation of elegant, at times playful and never preachy shorts on the refugee crisis.
Films were shown at Kino International, Babylon, Filmtheater Friedrichshain, Bundesplatz Kino, Tilsiter Lichtspiele and Neue Kammerspiele in Kleinmachnow, and the entrance fee ranged between 7.50 and 9.00 euros.
The award ceremony took place again this year on the penultimate day of the festival in Babylon. Also, the winners of the prize of the Association of German Film Critics, the prize of the Ecumenical Jury and the Exberliner Film Awards were announced here. The program of “Achtung Berlin” will be completed through workshops, film discussions and parties in Berlin clubs.
