The full extent of the festival's diversity
The workshop character of Retrospective 2014, under the title "Aesthetics of Shadow. Lighting Styles 1915 - 1950" met with positive feedback. Lukas Foerster wrote in die tageszeitung on February 6, 2014: "A film programme such as "The Aesthetics of Shadow" isn't about developing a finished body of work, it's about making new paths in film history visible."
Perspektive Deutsches Kino revived the Midnight Movie, harking back to the American cult films of the 1970s, which permanently expanded the limits of film representation by eschewing cinematic convention. Two films celebrated late-night premieres, and the rest of the 2014 Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme was a success as well: "It's a good year. Very diverse - even previously seldom-seen genres like horror and black comedy are represented - at an artistcally advanced level" (Kirsten Riesselmann in die tageszeitung on February 6, 2014). Furthermore, Perspektive 2014 ventured to a location unusual for the venues of the Berlinale - Raumfahrer (Spacemen) by Georg Nonnenmacher, the depiction of an inmate's inner world, was presented at the JVA Tegel penitentiary as a special screening.
Berlinale Talent Campus renamed itself in 2013, operating under the title Berlinale Talents in February 2014. The name change reflects the professionalism of the programme, as programme manager Matthijs Wouter Knol explained - moving away from a scholastic, academic connotation. The 2014 programme carried on with the workshops Summit, Studios, Project Labs and Talent Press, under the theme "Ready to Play - Breaking the Rules". The talents were challenged to think about playful paths in film development and design, as well as to question entrenched structures within the film business.