02/12/2003 - Kosslick announces some of the films competing at the next Festival: the German director Karmakar, the Spanish filmmaker Aragon, the Croatian Bresan, the Danish Olesen and the American Ron Howard

Even though there are still another two months to go before the start of the 2004 edition of the Berlinale, the first 5 films taking part in the official competition have already been chosen. The entries are from Germany, Spain, Denmark, Croatia and the USA and are by directors like Romuald Karmakar (The Himmler Project, 2000) and the Academy Award-winner, Ron Howard (A Beautiful Mind, 2001).

The details of the five films that have so far been chosen to take part in the competition at the Berlinale were given by the festival’s director, Dieter Kosslick, who said they range “from tragic love story to political psychodrama, from historical thriller to intimate family saga”.

The works are: Die Nacht singt ihre Lieder (“Nightsongs”) by the German director, Romuald Karmakar, starring Frank Giering, Anne Ratte-Polle, Manfred Zapatka and Marthe Keller; La vida que te espera (“Your Next Life”) by the Spanish director, Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón, the sixth time his work has been in competition at the Berlinale (he won the Silver Bear for Best Director in 1977 for his film Camada negra); the Croatian film Svjedoci (“Witnesses”) by Vinko Brešan, starring the famous Serbian actress, Mirjana Karanović (and which is the Croatian entry to run for the 2004 Oscar for Best Foreign Film); In Your Hands [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the Danish director, Annette K. Olesen (who won the Blue Angel for the Best European Film at the 2002 Berlinale with her first work, Minor Mishaps [+see also:
trailer
film profile]) and The Missing by the Oscar-winning American director, Ron Howard, based on Thomas Eidson’s novel, “The Last Ride”, starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett.

The 54th edition of the Berlinale will be taking place from February 7 to 12, 2004.

(Translated from Italian)