The Berlin International Film Festival has announced its complete Competition lineup. Of 24 films screening in the program, four are directed by women, amounting to about 17 percent of the total. Nineteen of the Competition titles — including the four helmed by women — are eligible for the fest’s highest honors, the Golden Bear and the Silver Bears.
Foreign-language Oscar nominee “On Body and Soul” took home the Golden Bear in 2017. Ildikó Enyedi’s love story centers on two slaughterhouse employees.
Women-directed films in this year’s Competition slate include Emily Atef’s “3 Days in Quiberon,” a drama about a famous movie star poised to give her final interview to the press, and Laura Bispuri’s “Daughter of Mine,” the story of a nine-year-old girl and her relationships with her adoptive and biological mothers.
Jurors deciding the Golden and Silver Bears include “Moonlight” producer Adele Romanski, TIME film critic Stephanie Zacharek, and “The Young Pope” actress Cécile de France.
The Berlinale Special films program is also complete. The slate features 12 titles, two of which are helmed by women: Isabel Coixet’s Emily Mortimer-starrer “The Bookshop” and Pernille Fischer Christensen’s “Becoming Astrid,” a drama about a trailblazing woman.
Seven series are screening in the TV section of the Berlinale Special, and two of them are helmed by women: “Picnic at Hanging Rock” (Larysa Kondracki) and “Sleeping Bears” (Keren Margalit).
The fest recently aligned itself with the #MeToo movement via a press statement. “The Berlinale is firmly committed to the struggle for sexual self-determination and against any and all forms of abuse,” the statement reads. Under the banner “NO to Discrimination!,” the Berlinale is offering to put audience members who have experienced or witnessed sexual abuse in contact with counseling centers.
The 68th edition of the Berlinale runs from February 15 to 25.
Check out the women-directed films screening in the Competition and Special programs below.
Competition films:
3 Tage in Quiberon (3 Days in Quiberon) by Emily Atef (Germany / Austria / France)
Figlia mia (Daughter of Mine) by Laura Bispuri (Italy / Germany / Switzerland)
Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie (Romania / Germany / Czech Republic / Bulgaria / France) — First Feature
Twarz (Mug) by Małgorzata Szumowska (Poland)
Berlinale Special films:
The Bookshop by Isabel Coixet (Spain / United Kingdom / Germany)
Unga Astrid (Becoming Astrid) by Pernille Fischer Christensen (Sweden / Germany / Denmark)
Berlinale Special — Berlinale Series:
Picnic at Hanging Rock — Director: Larysa Kondracki (episodes 1–3) — Written by Beatrix Christian, Alice Addison (Australia)
Sleeping Bears — Creator and director: Keren Margalit (Israel)
