Berlin International Film Festival 2008

Official Berlinale poster 2008

The 58th Berlin International Film Festival 2008 (Berlinale) took place from February 7th to 17th, 2008 .

The Berlinale opened with Martin Scorsese's documentary Shine a Light . The film documents two concerts by the Rolling Stones in October / November 2006 in New York City . Michel Gondry's Be Kind Rewind was shown as the graduation film .

The festival achieved a new visitor record again this year. More than 20,000 visitors to the festival were accredited. The accredited came from 125 countries, including 4,200 journalists. 230,000 of the 430,000 moviegoers bought a ticket. In addition to the Rolling Stones, stars like Madonna and Indian megastar Shah Rukh Khan came to the Berlinale to celebrate the world premieres of their films.

competition

On December 10, 2007, the first eight films to be shown in the official competition were announced. Another nine films were announced on January 9, 2008. On January 18th the competition program was completed.

The following films were shown in the official competition:

Movie title	Director	Country of production	Actor (selection)
ballast	Lance hammer	United States	Michael J. Smith, Jim Myron Ross, Tarra Riggs
Musta Jaä (Black Ice)	Petri Kotwica	Finland , Germany	Outi Mänenpää , Ria Kataja, Martti Suosala, Ville Virtanen
Elegy or the art of loving	Isabel Coixet	United States	Penélope Cruz , Ben Kingsley , Dennis Hopper
Fireheart	Luigi Falorni	Germany and Austria	Letekidan Micael
Gardens of the Night	Damian Harris	United Kingdom and USA	Tom Arnold , Kevin Zegers , John Malkovich
Happy-Go-Lucky	Mike Leigh	United Kingdom	Sally Hawkins , Alexis Zegerman, Eddie Marsan , Samuel Roukin
Il ya longtemps que je t'aime (I've Loved You So Long)	Philippe Claudel	France , Germany	Kristin Scott Thomas , Elsa Zylberstein , Serge Hazanavicius , Laurent Grevill
Zuo You (In Love We Trust)	Wang Xiaoshuai	China	Liu Weiwei, Zhang Jiayu, Yu Nan
Julia	Erick Zonca	France	Tilda Swinton , Kate del Castillo , Aidan Gould, Saul Rubinek
Kabei	Yōji Yamada	Japan	Sayuri Yoshinaga, Mitsugoro Bando, Tadanobu Asano
Cherry blossoms - Hanami	Doris Dörrie	Germany	Hannelore Elsner , Elmar Wepper
Lady Jane	Robert Guédiguian	France	Ariane Ascaride, Gérard Meylan, Frédérique Bonnal
Lake Tahoe	Fernando Eimbcke	Mexico	Diego Cataño, Héctor Herrera, Daniela Valentine
Bam gua Nat (Night and Day)	Hong Sang-soo	South Korea	Kim Youngho, Eunhye Park, Hwang Soojung
Caos Calmo (Quiet Chaos)	Antonello Grimaldi	Italy	Nanni Moretti , Isabella Ferrari, Alessandro Gassmann , Valeria Golino
Restless	Amos Kollek	Israel, Germany, Canada, France, Belgium	Moshe Ivgy, Ran Danker, Karen Young, Phyllis Sommerville
Avaze Gonjeshk-ha ( The Song of Sparrows )	Majid Majidi	Iran	Reza Najie, Maryam Akbari, Kamran Dehghan, Hossein Aghazi
SOP Standard Operating Procedure	Errol Morris	United States	Joshua Feinman, Merry Grissom, Shaun Russell
The Sparrow	Johnnie To	Hong Kong and China	Simon Yam Tat Wah, Kelly Lin Hsi Lei, Gordon Lam Ka Tung, Lam Suet
Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad)	José Padilha	Brazil	Wagner Moura , Caio Junqueira, André Ramiro
There Will Be Blood	Paul Thomas Anderson	United States	Daniel Day-Lewis , Paul Dano , Ciarán Hinds

Out of competition

The Rolling Stones , Martin Scorsese (2nd from left) and Dieter Kosslick (right) before the premiere of Shine a Light

The following films were shown outside of the competition within the competition:

Be Kind Rewind - Director: Michel Gondry (with Jack Black , Mos Def , Danny Glover , Mia Farrow , Melonie Diaz )
Fireflies in the Garden - Director: Dennis Lee (with Julia Roberts , Ryan Reynolds , Willem Dafoe , Emily Watson )
Katyń - Director: Andrzej Wajda (with Maja Ostaszewska , Artur Żmijewski , Paweł Małaszyński)
The Queen's Sister - Director: Justin Chadwick (with Natalie Portman , Scarlett Johansson , Eric Bana )
Shine a Light - Director: Martin Scorsese (with The Rolling Stones )
Om Shanti Om - Director: Farah Khan (with Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone )

International jury

The president of the international jury was the Greek-French director Constantin Costa-Gavras , who won a Golden Bear at the Berlinale in 1990 . He was supported by the actresses Diane Kruger (Germany) and Shu Qi (Taiwan), the German production designer Uli Hanisch , the Oscar-winning US film editor and sound designer Walter Murch , and the Russian film producer Alexander Rodnjanski . The Danish director Susanne Bier and the French actress Sandrine Bonnaire canceled their participation shortly before the start of the film festival.

Award winners

Golden Bear : Tropa de Elite by José Padilha

Silver bears

Best Director : Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood
Grand Jury Prize : Errol Morris for SOP Standard Operating Procedure
Best Actor : Reza Najie for Avaze Gonjeshk-ha
Best actress : Sally Hawkins for Happy-Go-Lucky
Best script: Wang Xiaoshuai for Zuo you
Outstanding Artistic Achievement: Jonny Greenwood for There Will Be Blood

Alfred Bauer Prize : Lake Tahoe by Fernando Eimbcke

Berlinale Shorts (short film competition)

In the short film competition of the Berlinale 29 films were shown, 11 of them in competition.

International short film jury

The members of the international short film jury were Marc Barbé (France), Ada Solomon (Romania) and Laura Tonke (Germany).

Award winners

Golden Bear: O zi buna de pla ja from Bogdan Mustata

Silver Bear: Udedh bun by Siddharth Sinha

"Prix UIP": Frankie by Darren Thornton

DAAD short film award : B teme by Olga Popova

Panorama section

Zoo Palast , panorama premiere cinema

In the Panorama section 50 films were presented this year, including 18 documentaries. The opening film of the main program was the Russian production Rusalka by Anna Melikyan . “Panorama Special” opened with the film Lemon Tree by Eran Riklis with Hiam Abbass in the leading role. Within the section Madonna presented her first film Filth and Wisdom as a director. The film Chiko , produced by Fatih Akin , was also part of the panorama program.

Panorama Audience Award : Lemon Tree by Eran Riklis

Generation section

The Generation section consists of the parts Kplus (children's films) and 14plus (youth films from 14 years of age). In both parts, the Transparent Bears prizes were awarded by a jury of children and young people respectively for the best feature film and the best short film.

Glass bear generation 14plus:

The Black Balloon by Elissa Down (Australia) for best feature film
Café com directed by Daniel Ribeiro (Brazil) for the best short film

Transparent bear Kplus:

Buddha fell apart in shame by Hana Makhmalbaf (Iran / France) for the best feature film
Nana by Warwick Thornton (Australia) for best short film

Retrospective

The retrospective was dedicated to Luis Buñuel's work . The Spanish director was honored with a comprehensive retrospective of his films and a series of events with lectures.

Homage

The homage of the 58th Berlinale was dedicated to the Italian director Francesco Rosi . On February 14, 2008 he was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear for his life's work .

Perspective German cinema

The Perspektive Deutsches Kino will arouse curiosity about current trends and developments in German cinema according to the organizers. Around twelve films from the current year are selected. The Dialogue en perspective prize was awarded by a Franco-German jury. In 2008 it was awarded to the Drifter contribution, and an honorable mention went to Lostage. Section head was Alfred Holighaus .

The contributions in 2008:

Movie title	Director	Actor (selection)
Berlin - May 1st	Sven Taddicken , Jakob Ziemnicki , Ludwig & Glaser	Benjamin Höppner , Jacob Matschenz
The visitor	Lola Randl	Sylvana Krappatsch , Samuel Finzi , André Jung
The things between us	Iris Janssen	Daniela Wutte , Christoph Jacobi , Antje Widdra
The heroes from the neighborhood	Jovan Arsenic	Marc Zwinz , Nina Hoger , Christopher Buchholz
Drifters	Sebastian Heidinger
Football undercover	David Assmann , Nayad Ajafi
In your skin	Pola Schirin Beck	Kim Schnitzer , Margrit Sartorius
Jesus loves you		Lilian Franck , Michaela Kirst , Robert Cibis , Matthias Luthardt
Lea	Steffi Niederzoll	Alma Leiberg , Martin Kiefer
Lost days	Bettina Eberhard	Ulrike Schwab , Till Firit , Klaus Heindl , Stefan Lampadius and Heiner Stadelmann
Love, Peace & Beatbox	Volker Meyer-Dabisch	Mando, Wetlipz, Chlorophil
Robin	Hanno Olderdissen	Mateo Wansing Lorrio , Franziska Jünger
Teenage fear	Thomas Stuber	Franz Dinda , Niklas Kohrt , Janusz Kocaj

Berlinale Talent Campus

The Berlinale Talent Campus for young filmmakers took place from February 9th to 14th under the title Screening Emotions - Cinemas Finest Asset .

European Shooting Star 2008

Every year at the Berlinale, when the “ Shooting Stars ” are awarded, the focus of attention is on young European actors. This year the following artists received this award at the Berlinale: Joel Basman (Switzerland), Nicolas Cazalé (France), Stine Fischer Christensen (Denmark), Elio Germano (Italy), Maryam Hassouni (Netherlands), Hannah Herzsprung (Germany), Marko Igonda (Slovakia), Anamaria Marinca (Romania) and Zsolt Nagy (Hungary).