Berlin Film Festival will take place between February 16-26. According to artistic director Carlo Chatrian, the 73rd edition promises an eclectic selection, bringing together a variety of genres and cinematic forms.

The Competition programme features three debut films and 11 works by filmmakers who have been at the festival before. Opening the 2023 Berlinale is the romantic comedy She Came To Me (dir. Rebecca Miller), starring Peter Dinklage as a composer who suffers writer’s block and rediscovers his passion after an adventurous one-night stand.

Steven Spielberg will be honoured for lifetime achievement with an Honorary Golden Bear, and his latest film The Fabelmans, a love letter dedicated to cinema, will close the festival.

Radu Jude in the International Jury

This year’s International Jury is presided over by Kristen Stewart and comprises Romanian director and screenwriter Radu Jude, Iranian-French actress Golshifteh Farahani, German director Valeska Grisebach, US casting director and producer Francine Maisler, Spanish director Carla Simón, and Hong Kong director and producer Johnnie To. The jury will decide the winners for the Golden Bear and the Silver Bear, the most important awards of the festival.

In 2021, the Golden Bear went to Radu Jude’s film Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, and in 2015, the director won the Silver Bear for Directing with Aferim!. Moreover, his first feature, The Happiest Girl in the World (2009), as well as Everybody in our Family (2012), Uppercase Print (2020) and The Exit of the Trains (2020, co-directed with Adrian Cioflânca) had their world premieres in the Forum section.

The International Short Film Jury includes Romanian editor Cătălin Cristuțiu, who will decide the winners in the Berlinale Shorts section together with US artist and director Sky Hopinka and German director and screenwriter Isabelle Stever.

Judith State in the European Shooting Stars program

Among the ten up-and-coming actors selected for the European Shooting Stars 2023 is also Romanian actress and choreographer Judith State, who in 2020 won the Gopo Award for her leading role in Marius Olteanu’s debut, Monsters. She has been in films such as Sieranevada and Malmkrog (dir. Cristi Puiu), The Father Who Moves Mountains (dir. Daniel Sandu) and R.M.N. (dir. Cristian Mungiu), for which she was nominated as a Shooting Star.

The jury praised her performance in the film: “She exhibits a natural ability and a strong presence, bringing authenticity and charm to the role. She is very much in the moment, and is able to reach through the screen to move the audience.”

Two Romanian films in the Forum section

Romania is present in the Forum section with two titles, Between Revolutions (dir. Vlad Petri, Romania-Croatia-Qatar-Iran) and Mammalia (dir. Sebastian Mihăilescu, Romania-Poland-Germany).

Between Revolutions follows the correspondence between two women, one from communist Romania and the other from Iran, separated by the revolutions in their countries. Mammalia tells the story of Camil, a 39-year-old man who embarks on a journey where real and fantastic intertwine.

The first Romanian series in the Berlinale Series section

Competing in the Berlinale Series section is also Spy/Master (dir. Christopher Smith), an HBO Max original production shot in Romania and Hungary. The action of the series takes place during the Cold War and stars Romanian actor Alec Secăreanu (nominated for the British Independent Film Awards in 2017 for his role in God’s Own Country) as Victor Godeanu, Nicolae Ceaușescu’s most important adviser and a double agent at the same time. Godeanu must leave Romania before his cover is blown, which sets the premises for a gripping thriller with KGB agents, CIA, and Romanian spies.

• For more details on this year’s edition, visit the Berlinale website.
• Our colleague Flavia Dima will be at the Berlinale and write daily about the films and events in the program. You can follow her festival report here.

cover photo: Richard Hübner

Melissa Antonescu

Writer, photographer and videographer. For Films in Frame she writes news about the latest happenings in the film world and brings to the readers' attention the productions that can be seen at the cinema. When she's not writing articles, she's photographing people in a small studio or searching for new cake recipes.