Euro Beat: Berlinale Finally Finishes Unveiling Massive Lineup

Most festivals send out one or two line-up announcements at most -- but not Berlinale. Perhaps they are worried that their insanely huge lineup would be too overwhelming in one press release, or perhaps they just get very excited every time six more films are confirmed. Regardless, every other day for the last two months, I've received an announcement of some sort listing a partial program of films for one of their many sections. But now, the entire lineup is finally upon us!

And so, rather than leaving you to comb through trade articles of piecemeal data, I present below the entire list of films in the festivals Competition, Forum and Panorama sections. Beyond that, I'm afraid I can't be of much help sorting it all out, as that's probably what I'll be spending my nights doing in the three weeks leading up to the festival. I can tell you that there is some new work from very notable directors (Sangsoo Hong, Bruno Dumont, Bille August, Ulrich Seidl), some intriguing titles (Naked Opera, Killing Strangers, To the Wolf) and a nice selection of films that have already screened which I haven't gotten a chance to see (The Grandmaster, Upstream Color, Dark Blood, Before Midnight). Other than that, if any lesser known names or titles jump out to any readers, please post them in the comments so I can put them on my radar!

In the meantime, starting tomorrow I'll be posting dispatches from Geneva about the finely curated, world-cinema-oriented Black Movie Festival. Stay tuned.

Box Office

As in the last installment of Euro Beat, The Hobbit is still owning Europe. More precisely, it held the number one spot again in Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden. Meanwhile Portugal and the U.K. went to Les Miserables and Spain gave Jack Reacher the number one spot. Finally, in Italy, Playing for Keeps was the reigning champion. I feel like its popularity is somehow connected to Berlusconi's resurgence, but am having trouble putting my finger on exactly how...

The only country which couldn't make time for American blockbuster imports was Germany, who has their own local blockbuster on their hands. The comedy Schlussmacher, which is about an employee at a professional agency that helps couples break up who gets assigned to assist his own parents with their separation, took the number one spot with $4.6 million. It only barely beat The Hobbit, but given that it's playing in half as many theaters, its still quite a feat.

In France, the Luc Besson-scripted romantic comedy A Prince (Almost) Charming opened softly, taking in $0.8 million. This gross could be due in part to its totally offputting poster, but I'm just speculating here. On the other hand, the French buddy-cop comedy The Other Side of the Periphery with Omar Sy is still going strong, having now earned around $14 million.

Berlin Film Festival 2013 Lineup  

Competition

Before Midnight by Richard Linklater, USA/Greece (Out of Competition)
Dark Blood by George Sluizer, The Netherlands (Out of Competition)
Dolgaya schastlivaya zhizn (A Long and Happy Life) by Boris Khlebnikov, Russian Federation
Night Train to Lisbon by Bille August, Germany/Switzerland/Portugal (Out of Competition)
Prince Avalanche by David Gordon Green, USA
Uroki Garmonii (Harmony Lessons) by Emir Baigazin, Kazakhstan/Germany
Vic+Flo ont vu un ours (Vic+Flo Saw a Bear) by Denis Côté, Canada
W imię... (In the Name of) by Małgośka Szumowska, Poland
Camille Claudel 1915 by Bruno Dumont, France
The Croods by Kirk De Micco and Chris Sanders, USA (animated film in 3D)
Elle s'en va (On my Way) by Emmanuelle Bercot, France
Epizoda u životu berača željeza (An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker) by Danis Tanovic, Bosnia and Herzegovina/France/Slovenia
Gloria by Sebastián Lelio, Chile/Spain
Gold by Thomas Arslan, Germany
La Religieuse (The Nun) by Guillaume Nicloux, France/Germany/Belgium
Layla Fourie by Pia Marais, Germany/South Africa/France/Netherlands
The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman by Fredrik Bond, USA
Nugu-ui Ttal-do Anin Haewon (Nobody's Daughter Haewon) by Hong Sangsoo
Paradies: Hoffnung (Paradise: Hope) by Ulrich Seidl, Austria/France/ Germany
Pardé (Closed Curtain) by Jafar Panahi and Kambozia Partovi, Iran
Poziţia Copilului (Child's Pose) by Călin Peter Netzer, Romania
Promised Land by Gus Van Sant, USA
Side Effects by Steven Soderbergh, USA
Yi dai zong shi (The Grandmaster) by Wong Kar Wai, Hong Kong, China -  (out of competition), opening film

Panorama Special
 
Ayer no termina nunca (Yesterday Never Ends) by Isabel Coixet - Spain
Die Legende von Paul und Paula (The Legend of Paul and Paula) by Heiner Carow, Germany

Panorama Fiction

Boven is het stil (It's all so Quiet) by Nanouk Leopold, Netherlands/Germany
Concussion by Stacie Passon, USA
Flores Raras (Reaching for the Moon AKA: The Art of Loosing), by Bruno Barreto, Brazil
Hayatboyu (Lifelong) by Asli Ozge, Germany
Interior. Leather Bar. by Travis Mathews, James Franco, USA
Kai PO Che by Abishek Kapoor, India
Burn it up Djassa by Lonesome Solo, Ivory Coast/France
Lose Your Head by Stefan Westerwelle, Patrick Schuckmann, Germany
Maladies by Carter, USA
Frances Ha by Noah Baumbach, USA
Mes séances de lutte by Jacques Doillon, France
Soğuk (Cold) by Uğur Yücel, Turkey
Something in the Way by Teddy Soeriaatmadja, Indonesia
Upstream Color by Shane Carruth, USA
Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? by Arvin Chen, Taiwan
Workers by José Luis Valle González, Mexico/Germany
Youth by Tom Shoval, Israel/Germany
Baek Ya (White Night) by Hee-il LeeSong, Republic of Korea
Behind the Camera by E J-Yong, Republic of Korea
Habi, the Foreigner by Maria Florencia Alvarez, Argentina/Brazil
Inch'Allah by Anais Barbeau-Lavalette, Canada
Fatal by Don-Ku Lee, Republic of Korea
Lovelace by Rob Epstein, Jeffrey Friedman, USA
Meine Schwestern (My Sisters) by Lars Kraume, Germany
Rock the Casbah by Yariv Horowitz, Israel
The Broken Circle Breakdown by Felix van Groeningen, Belgium
So Much Water by Ana Guevara Pose, Leticia Jorge Romero, Uruguay/Mexico/Netherlands/Germany
La Piscina (The Swimming Pool) by Carlos Machado Quintela, Cuba/Venezuela
Chemi sabnis naketsi (A Fold in my Blanket) by Zaza Rusadze, Georgia 
Belated by Barbara Sarasola-Day, Argentina/Columbia/Norway
Don Jon's Addiction by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, USA

Panorama Documentary
 
Art/Violence by Udi Aloni, Batoul Taleb, Mariam Abu Khaled, Palestinian Territories/USA
Bambi by Sébastien Lifshitz, France
Belleville Baby by Mia Engberg, Sweden
Born This Way by Shaun Kadlec, Deb Tullman, USA
Exposed by Beth B, USA
Fifi az khoshhali zooze mikeshad (Fifi Howls from Happiness) by by Mitra Farahani, USA
La maison de la radio by Nicolas Philibert, France/Japan
Narco Cultura by Shaul Schwarz, USA
Out in Ost-Berlin - Lesben und Schwule in der DDR (Out in East Berlin - Lesbians and Gays in the GDR) by Jochen Hick, Germany
Parade by Olivier Meyrou, France/USA
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door is Always Open by Daniel Young, Switzerland
Salma by Kim Longinotto, Great Britain
TPB AFK: The Pirate Bay Away From Keyboard by Simon Klose, Sweden
A World Not Ours by Mahdi Fleifel, Lebanon/Great Britain/Denmark 
Gut Renovation by Su Friedrich, USA 
Naked Opera by Angela Christlieb, Luxemburg/Germany
Roland Klick - The Heart is a Hungry Hunter by Sandra Prechtel, Germany
Sing Me the Songs That Say I Love You - A Concert for Kate McGarrigle by Lian Lunson, USA
State 194 by Dan Setton, USA/Israel
The Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer, Denmark/Norway/Great Britain

Forum

Die 727 Tage ohne Karamo (The 727 Days without Karamo) by Anja Salomonowitz, Austria
A Single Shot by David M. Rosenthal, USA/United Kingdom/Canada
Al-khoroug lel-nahar (Coming Forth by Day) by Hala Lotfy, Egypt
A batalha de Tabatô (The Battle of Tabatô) by João Viana, Guinea-Bissau/Portugal
Computer Chess by Andrew Bujalski, USA   

Echolot by Athanasios Karanikolas, Germany
Elelwani by Ntshavheni Wa Luruli, South Africa
Fahtum pandinsoong (Boundary) by Nontawat Numbenchapol, Thailand/Cambodia


Fynbos by Harry Patramanis, South Africa/Greece
Grzeli nateli dgeebi (In Bloom) by Nana Ekvtimishvili and Simon Groß, Georgia/Germany
Halbschatten (Everyday Objects) by Nicolas Wackerbarth, Germany/France
Hélio Oiticica by Cesar Oiticia Filho, Brazil - IP
I aionia epistrofi tou Antoni Paraskeua (The Eternal Return of Antonis Paraskevas) by Elina Psykou, Greece
I kóri (The Daughter) by Thanos Anastopoulos, Greece/Italy
I Used to Be Darker by Matt Porterfield, USA
Je ne suis pas mort (I'm Not Dead) by Mehdi Ben Attia, France
Krugovi (Circles) by Srdan Golubović, Serbia/Germany
Kujira no machi (The Town of Whales) by Keiko Tsuruoka, Japan
Lamma shoftak (When I Saw You) by Annemarie Jacir, Palestinian Territories/Jordan
Matar extraños (Killing Strangers) by Jacob Secher Schulsinger, Nicolás Pereda, Mexico/Denmark
Materia oscura (Dark Matter) by Massimo D'Anolfi and Martina Perenti, Italy
Das merkwürdige Kätzchen (The Strange Little Cat) by Ramon Zürcher, Germany
Le météore (The Meteor) by François Delisle, Canada
Mo sheng (Forgetting to Know You) by Quan Ling, People's Republic of China
...Moddhikhane Char (Char... The No Man's Island) by Sourav Sarangi, India


Obrana i zaštita (A Stranger) by Bobo Jelčić, Croatia/Bosnia Herzegovina
La Paz by Santiago Loza, Argentina
La plaga (The Plague) by Neus Ballús, Spain
Powerless by Fahad Mustafa and Deepti Kakkar, India
Sakura namiki no mankai no shita ni (Cold Bloom) by Atsushi Funahashi, Japan
Senzo ni naru (Roots) by Kaoru Ikeya, Japan
Shirley - Visions of Reality by Gustav Deutsch, Austria
Sieniawka by Marcin Malaszczak, Germany/Poland
Stemple Pass by James Benning, USA 
Sto lyko (To the Wolf) by Christina Koutsospyrou and Aran Hughes, Greece/France
Terra de ninguém (No Man's Land) by Salomé Lamas, Portugal
Tian mi mi (Together) by Hsu Chao-jen, Taiwan
Vaters Garten - Die Liebe meiner Eltern (Father's Garden - The Love of My Parents) by Peter Liechti, Switzerland
Viola by Matías Piñeiro, Argentina
The Weight of Elephants by Daniel Joseph Borgman, New Zealand/Denmark
Za Marksa... (For Marx...) by Svetlana Baskova, Russia