16/01/2004 - Loach, Angelopoulos and Rohmer: a magnificent showcase for the competition at the German festival. Young hopefuls from Old Continent are also competing, led by Matteo Garrone

Virtually all the titles taking part in the main competition at the 54th edition of the Berlin Festival (from February 5 – 15, 2004) have been announced. Out of the 26 films in this year’s competition (22 of which are competing for Golden Bear), 18 titles are already out in the public domain: these include the most recent works by European filmmakers like Ken Loach, Theo Angelopoulos, John Boorman, Eric Rohmer and Patrice Leconte. But the list also includes works by some of the young hopefuls of European cinema like Matteo Garrone, the Swedish director Bjoern Runge and the Norwegian Hans Petter Moland. The festival will be kicking off with an out-of-competition screening of Cold Mountain [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the British director Anthony Minghella, in the presence of the actors Nicole Kidman and Jude Law. So, glamour and stars to launch a festival that seems to have a political flavour to its cinema this year.

Ken Loach tells the difficult love story between a Catholic woman and a Pakistani immigrant in Glasgow, while John Boorman will be showing his look at South Africa, post apartheid. The Greek maestro, Theo Angelopoulos will be in Berlin with the first part of his trilogy looking at the history of Greece in the 20th century, while Hans Petter Moland follows the trail of a young Vietnamese boy searching for his roots and his American father, based on a screenplay by Terence Malick. The new film by Eric Rohmer is an international political espionage thriller set in 1936. So, politics will be in the front line at Berlin. But, in fact all genres will be well represented: comedy (Patrice Leconte), drama (Cédric Kahn), romance (Matteo Garrone and Patty Jenkins) and a look at the ups and downs of friendship (Bjoern Runge).
The complete programme for the 2004 Berlinale will be announced on January 26, 2004.

FILMS COMPETING FOR THE GOLDEN BEAR

Ae Fond Kiss [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Britain)
Director: Ken Loach
Actors: Eva Birthistle and Atta Yaqub

Beautiful Country (Norway/USA)
Director: Hans Petter Moland
Actors: Nick Nolte,Tim Roth, Damien Nguyen and Bai Ling

Before Sunset (USA)
Director: Richard Linklater
Actors: Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy

Too Much Information (France)
Director: Patrice Leconte
Actors: Fabrice Lucchini, Sandrine Bonnaire and Anne Brochet

Country of my Skull (USA)
Director: John Boorman
Actors: Juliette Binoche and Samuel L. Jackson

Daybreak (Sweden)
Director: Bjoern Runge
Actors: Pernilla August and Jakob Eklund

Red Lights (France)
Director: Cédric Kahn
Actors: Carole Bouquet and Jean-Pierre Darroussin

In Your Hands [+see also:
trailer
film profile] (Denmark)
Director: Annette K. Olesen

The Missing (USA)
Director: Ron Howard
Actors: Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett

Monster (USA)
Director: Patty Jenkins
Actors: Charlize Theron and Christina Ricci

Nightsongs (Germany)
Director: Romuald Karmakar
Actors: Frank Giering, Anne Ratte-Polle, Manfred Zapatka and Marthe Keller

Primo Amore (Italy)
Director: Matteo Garrone
Actors: Vitaliano Trevisan and Michaela Cescon

Svjedoci (Croatia)
Director: Vinko Bresan
Actress: Mirjana Karanovic

Weeping Meadow (Trilogy Part 1) (Greece)
Director: Theo Angelopoulos

Triple Agent (France)
Director: Eric Rohmer
Actors: Serge Renko, Emmanuel Salinger, Amanda Langlet and Katerina Didaskalu

The Life Awaiting For You (Spain)
Director: Manuel Gutiérrez Aragón

(Translated from French)