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Germany holds virtual Berlinale film festival

With theatres shuttered due to the coronavirus outbreak, Europe’s first major cinema showcase of the year begins in Berlin on Monday.

Germany holds virtual Berlinale film festival
German actress Paula Beer poses with the trophy "Silver Bear for Best Actress" during the awarding ceremony of the 70th Berlinale film festival in Berlin on February 29, 2020. Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP

Due to the pandemic The Berlinale has been pushed back by a month, put online and divided into two parts as the movie industry struggles to find its feet. Now in its 71st year, The Berlinale will hold the competition virtually for critics, reporters and rights buyers from 1st-5th March. 

For the second stage, organisers hope to invite stars and screen the films for the general public in June, mainly at open-air cinemas. Last year’s event, one of the last before the pandemic, sold more than 330,000 tickets.

The festival has also gone “gender neutral” with its acting awards — best actress and best actor prizes are history, replaced with best lead and supporting performance.

Industry watchers say that despite severe restrictions on making and screening movies, the Berlinale has managed to pull together an exciting lineup.

“I’m pleasantly surprised that they were able to get what looks like a pretty impressive collection of solid movies together for this festival,” Scott Roxborough, European bureau chief for The Hollywood Reporter, told AFP.

The world premiere of a documentary about music legend Tina Turner and an “impressive” pack of pandemic-era movies will take the spotlight at an all-virtual Berlin film festival starting on March 1, 2021. Photo: by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP

‘Uncertain times’

One of the hottest titles is “Tina”, a star-studded HBO documentary about the queen of rock’n’roll by Oscar winners Dan Lindsay and T.J. Martin (“Undefeated”) to be released on March 27.

The film features never-before-seen concert footage, interviews with the 81-year-old superstar and recollections from the likes of Angela Bassett and Oprah Winfrey.

Directors including Emmy winner Maria Schrader (“Unorthodox”), German-Spanish actor Daniel Bruehl (“Rush”) and France’s Celine Sciamma (“Portrait of a Lady on Fire”) will be premiering new work in competition.

All 15 contenders for the top prizes to be awarded on Friday are films that were made or in post-production during the pandemic.

Berlinale artistic director Carlo Chatrian said the selection captures “the uncertain times we are experiencing”.

Bruehl, who starred in the bittersweet German comedy “Good Bye, Lenin” and is now part of the Captain America franchise, will make his directorial debut with “Next Door”, a black comedy about gentrification.

Schrader will unveil “I’m Your Man”, a sci-fi comedy about a woman falling for a custom-made Mr Right, played by British actor Dan Stevens (“Beauty and the Beast”) while Sciamma offers up “Petite Maman”, a magical realist look at girlhood.

One of Romania’s top filmmakers, Radu Jude, is back with the intriguingly titled “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” about a teacher whose sex tape winds up on the internet.

Hong Sang-soo of South Korea, who won best director in Berlin last year for “The Woman Who Ran”, will show “Introduction”, vying against titles from Japan, Mexico and Lebanon.

 
Bear trophies for the upcoming 71st Berlinale film festival are displayed during a media tour at the Noack foundry in Berlin. Photo: Hannibal Hanschke/AFP)

Watching under house arrest

The Berlinale comes at a complicated time for the industry.

With the glamour of the red carpet and the magic of the big-screen experience sorely lacking, Roxborough said festivals were still “experimenting” with formats as the pandemic drags on.

“A danger of these virtual festivals is that even critics can’t get super excited about watching films at home,” he said.

“They have to have some kind of communal experience to go crazy for the movie that nobody’s heard about but that now everybody just has to see.”

Cannes hopes to hold its festival in July after being cancelled last year.

Venice managed to benefit from a break in high infection levels to take place last September with a range of special precautions.

But this winter, with the second wave raging, Sundance was held online.

The Berlinale jury will be made up of six previous Golden Bear winners including last year’s laureate, dissident Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof, who claimed the prize for “There Is No Evil” about capital punishment.

Five of the members will all stay at the same hotel and sit, physically distanced, in a Berlin cinema made specially available under lockdown, while Rasoulof will watch from Tehran under house arrest.

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SPORTS

‘Significant fanbase’: How popular is the NFL in Germany?

For the second year in a row the US's National Football League (NFL) will be playing games in Germany. The Local asked an expert how popular American football is in the soccer-obsessed Bundesrepublik.

'Significant fanbase': How popular is the NFL in Germany?

The Super Bowl, arguably the largest annual sports event in the US, is coming up this Sunday.

Many in Germany will be tuning in, even if that means staying up until 4:30 am to catch the game, famous halftime show and running commentary. 

READ ALSO: Where to watch the Super Bowl in Germany

In fact, US’s National Football League (NFL) has garnered such a following in the Bundesrepublik that US teams will even be crossing the Atlantic twice this year to play in front of live audiences in Frankfurt and Munich.

“I think it’s fair to say that it’s [The NFL] becoming more popular even though we don’t know exactly how much the figures or the interest is rising,” Sebastian Uhrich, a professor of sports management at the University of Cologne, told The Local’s Germany in Focus podcast this week.

“If we have a look at the numbers of the last five years, in for example, the TV audience of the Super Bowl, there’s more of a sidwards trend of these figures, it’s not really rising. But I would assume there’s more people getting interested.” 

Uhrich estimated that the NFL has between two and three million supporters in Germany.

“In Germany obviously there’s a significant fanbase of American football,” he said, adding that it’s the “largest market in Europe”.

That could explain why star player Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers faced the Seattle Seahawks at Munich’s Allianz Arena in November.

It marked the first NFL Game in Germany and tickets quickly sold out.

READ ALSO: Munich and Frankfurt to host regular season NFL games

Seizing on the success, the Kansas City Chiefs and New England Patriots will make their debuts as designated teams in two additional games in Germany later this year.

American Football: Pro League NFL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers - Seattle Seahawks, at the Munich Allianz Arena in November 2022.

American Football: Pro League NFL, Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Seattle Seahawks, at the Munich Allianz Arena in November 2022. Photo: picture alliance/dpa | Sven Hoppe

Uhrich sees the games as a big bonus for existing NFL fans in Germany.

“Playing games in Germany provides German consumers, supporters and fans an additional offering, besides all the media offerings,” he said.

“Up until last year they were only able to watch NFL games on TV or on social media. If they wanted to see a game they had to travel to the US, so this is obviously a significant addition to what they can consume.”

But he added that the NFL’s nod to Germany isn’t guaranteed to drum up a significant amount of new support.

“It’s only two games per year so I wouldn’t over estimate the significance,” he said. “I wouldn’t expect this to be the driver of a huge number of additional supporters in the future.”

Could (American) football compete with soccer?

In Germany, the NFL faces tough competition with the by-far most popular sport: soccer, or simply football as non-Americans refer to it.

“I would never expect that they’re able to replace soccer as the most popular sport,” said Ulrich. “So many other sports have been trying to do this for years and they’re not even close.”

Yet Ulrich was optimistic that the NFL could “become part of that second tier of sports,” in Germany which includes hockey, volleyball and basketball.

“Soccer is so traditional and has such a huge fan base in Germany. It might be something that happens in 15 or 20 years but not in the near future. It’s pretty unlikely.”

READ ALSO: American football touches down in Germany

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