A Meeting Place for Audiences

Berlinale Special is a meeting place for audiences. It’s one of the most exciting sections of the festival with five strands of programming: Special Galas are future audience favourites – big Berlinale moments with a sprinkling of stardust and red-carpet glamour; Special Midnight offers pop cultural moments, music documentaries and genre thrills; Berlinale Special Presentations is a space for “talking point” films that will prompt deeper debate and discussion; Berlinale Special Series is a showcase of outstanding new work in global series and episodic form; and last but not least, the Berlinale Special Talk is the place where we invite dialogue with special programming that deepens our connection to contemporary filmmakers by inviting them to connect with our audiences in unique event formats. This year’s Berlinale Special is comprised of a total of 20 works, including the Opening Film No Good Men by Shahrbanoo Sadat, six documentary films and a series programme of six titles.

Berlinale Special Galas include the story of the devastating tragedy at Heysel Stadium Heysel 85, from director Teodora Ana Mihai, and Ulrike Ottinger’s witty and original horror-tinged Die Blutgräfin starring Isabelle Huppert.

Noah Segan and John Turturro bring a very New York story, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York to Berlin, and Ethan Hawke returns alongside Russell Crowe as the lead in Padraic McKinley’s lean, engrossing depression-era thriller The Weight. Artificial Intelligence and the apocalypse intersect in Gore Verbinski’s wildly inventive sci-fi comedy Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die with Sam Rockwell, Juno Temple and Zazie Beetz. And festival audiences will have a chance to experience the German premiere of the superb The Testament of Ann Lee by Mona Fastvold.

In Berlinale Special Midnight Indonesia’s Edwin with Monster Pabrik Rambut and Australia’s Natalia Erika James’ Saccharine deliver two deliciously gory body horrors. And an infectiously joyous documentary, The Ballad of Judas Priest about metal legend Rob Halford and Judas Priest co-directed by Sam Dunn and Tom Morello (Rage Against the Machine) rounds out the Midnight offering.

Berlinale Special Presentations are an opportunity to go deeper into the work presented and feature in-depth conversations with the filmmakers after the premiere. Sam Pollard brings never-before-seen footage of Archbishop Desmond Tutu to TUTU, and Ruth Beckermann interrogates history in WAX & GOLD as she explores Ethiopia’s past and present through the story of a grand hotel, the Hilton Addis Ababa commissioned by the emperor Haile Selassie. Award-winning documentarian Maite Alberdi brings Un hijo propio to world premiere in Berlin, alongside the international premiere of the searing new investigative work Who Killed Alex Odeh? from Jason Osder and William Lafi Youmans.

The Berlinale Special Series section is international, with the world premiere of new chapters of Mark Cousins’ The Story of Documentary Film coming to us from the UK, as well the eagerly awaited new adaptation of Lord of the Flies, directed by Marc Munden and written by Jack Thorne (Adolescence), and a darkly comic crime drama Mint created and directed by Charlotte Regan (Scrapper). A Chilean adaptation of Isabel Allende’s landmark novel La casa de los espíritus will also premiere in this strand of programming, as well as, the Spanish series Ravalear from the producers of Robot Dreams, and a bold new German six-part horror mystery, House of Yang.

We take a great deal of care in thinking about different audiences when we make our selections. Berlinale Special is an invitation to our audience to experience the many pleasures and intellectual provocations that cinema can offer.