Romania at the 2021 Berlin Film Festival

The first European film festival this year has kicked off. Held online due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 71st edition of the International Berlin Festival will be held with no red carpet and no screenings in front of public audiences. The festival will be held in two phases: the first addressing professionals and a second one devoted to the audience. More precisely, over March 1-5 the festival will cover the Industry Event, including the European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund sections addressing professionals in the film industry and journalists. Only part of talks and live workshops included in the Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund sections will be available online for the larger audience. Then, over June 9-20, the Summer Special event will address all film aficionados who will be able to watch films selected in the 2021 edition. The awards gala will be held in a public event held on the sidelines of Summer Special. 

The international jury awarding this year's prizes will be made up of six filmmakers, recipients of the Golden Bear award in previous festival editions. Among them is Adina Pintilie, who in 2018 grabbed the much-coveted award with the film "Touch Me Not!". This year, competing for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards will be 15 feature films, including Romanian director Radu Jude's latest feature, "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn". The film is a Romania-Luxembourg-Croatia-the Czech Republic co-production dealing with individual relations with society, and telling the story of a school teacher who finds her career and reputation under threat after a personal sex tape is leaked on the Internet. We recall in 2015 Radu Jude won the Silver Bear award for best directing with his feature, "Aferim!". This year he will be competing against prestigious film directors from Canada, Iran, Japan, Mexico, Germany, France, Georgia, the Czech Republic, Hungary or Qatar. The selected films were produced in times of pandemic and express society's sense of restlessness. The other eight sections of the Berlin Film Festival include films featuring top international movie stars. A Turkey-Romania coproduction has been selected for the Panorama section. (V.P.)