BERLIN, Feb 3 — The 69th Berlinale, Europe's first major film festival of the year, opens Thursday with 23 new movies from around the world screening in the main showcase.
Seventeen pictures will vie for the Golden and Silver Bear prizes at the 11-day event, with a jury led by French Oscar winner Juliette Binoche.
Twenty of the 23 features in the main showcase are world premieres and two are directors' feature debuts. Seven of the movies in competition are by women.
The Berlinale Special section features other notable films that will have gala screenings.
Here are the their titles, directors and production countries.
Main showcase
L’adieu à la nuit (Farewell to the Night), Andre Techine and starring Catherine Deneuve (France/Germany) (out of competition)
Amazing Grace, Alan Elliott, US (documentary about an iconic 1972 concert by Aretha Franklin, out of competition)
Der Boden unter den Fuessen (The Ground beneath My Feet), Marie Kreutzer, Austria
Di jiu tian chang (So Long, My Son), Wang Xiaoshuai, China
Elisa y Marcela (Elisa and Marcela), Isabel Coixet, Spain
Der Goldene Handschuh (The Golden Glove), Fatih Akin, Germany/France
Gospod postoi, imeto i’ e Petrunija (God Exists, Her Name is Petrunya), Teona Strugar Mitevska, Macedonia/Belgium/Slovenia/Croatia/ France
Grace a Dieu (By the Grace of God), Francois Ozon, France
Ich war zuhause, aber (I Was at Home, But), Angela Schanelec, Germany/Serbia
The Kindness of Strangers, Lone Scherfig and starring Zoe Kazan, Tahar Rahim, Andrea Riseborough and Bill Nighy, Denmark/Canada/Sweden/Germany/France (opening film)
Kız Kardesler (A Tale of Three Sisters), Emin Alper, Turkey/Germany/Netherlands/Greece
Marighella, Wagner Moura, Brazil (out of competition)
Mr Jones, Agnieszka Holland and starring James Norton and Peter Sarsgaard, Poland/Britain/Ukraine
Ondog, Wang Quan’an, Mongolia
The Operative, Yuval Adler and starring Diane Kruger and Martin Freeman, Germany/Israel/France/US (out of competition)
La paranza dei bambini (Piranhas), Claudio Giovannesi, Italy
Repertoire des villes disparues (Ghost Town Anthology), Denis Cote, Canada
Synonymes (Synonyms), Nadav Lapid, France/Israel/Germany
Systemsprenger (System Crasher), Nora Fingscheidt, Germany
Ut og staeler hester (Out Stealing Horses), Hans Petter Moland and starring Stellan Skarsgard, Norway/Sweden/Denmark
Varda par Agnes (Varda by Agnes), Agnes Varda, France (documentary, out of competition)
Vice, Adam McKay and starring Christian Bale and Amy Adams, US (out of competition)
Yi miao zhong (One Second), Zhang Yimou and starring Zhang Yi and Fan Wei, China
Berlinale Special
ANTHROPOCENE: The Human Epoch, Jennifer Baichwal, Nicholas de Pencier and Edward Burtynsky, Canada (documentary)
The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Britain
Brecht, Heinrich Breloer, Germany/Austria
Celle que vous croyez (Who You Think I Am), Safy Nebbou and starring Juliette Binoche, France
El Norte (The North), Gregory Nava, US
Es haette schlimmer kommen koennen - Mario Adorf (It Could Have Been Worse - Mario Adorf), Dominik Wessely, Germany (documentary)
Gully Boy, Zoya Akhtar and starring Ranveer Singh and Alia Bhatt, India
Lampenfieber (Kids in the Spotlight), Alice Agneskirchner, Germany (documentary)
Peter Lindbergh - Women Stories, Jean Michel Vecchiet, Germany (documentary)
Photograph, Ritesh Batra, India/Germany/US
Watergate - Or: How We Learned to Stop an Out of Control President by Charles Ferguson, US (documentary)
Weil du nur einmal lebst - Die Toten Hosen auf Tour (You Only Live Once - Die Toten Hosen on Tour), Cordula Kablitz-Post, Germany (documentary). — AFP
