We’ve known that Wong Kar-wai would be the Jury President of the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival since August. Yesterday, the Berlinale announced that Wong’s long-anticipated The Grandmaster would open the 2013 edition on February 7.
The Grandmaster is, as the festival puts it, “an epic martial arts drama set against the tumultuous backdrop of 1930’s China and inspired by the life and times of the legendary Ip Man (Tony Leung), mentor to Bruce Lee.” The cast also features Ziyi Zhang, Chang Chen, Zhao Benshan, Xiao Shengyang, and Song Hye Kyo.
Today, the Berlinale’s given us a first peek at Forum Expanded, the program that focuses on “the still nameless area between cinema and art.” Isabella Rossellini will present Mammas, a “continuation of the Green Porno series of short films, which she presented at the Berlinale in 2008. Once again, the actress and director takes on a broad range of different animal roles—this time round in order to explore the maternal instincts of different species.”
There’ll also be a special focus on Hélio Oiticica (1937 – 1980), “regarded as one of Brazil’s most famous artists… primarily known for the interactive objects and participatory installations and environments he produced in the 1960s…. Alongside the so-called ‘Quasi-Cinema’ installations from the ‘Block-Experiments in Cosmococa—program in progress’ series…, we are also presenting the film Hélio Oiticica, a documentary by Cesar Oiticica Filho, the artist’s nephew and curator for his estate.”
And Richard Foreman, “founder of the legendary New York Ontological Hysteric Theatre returns to the big screen for the first time in over 30 years with his film Once Every Day.”
One more Berlinale 2013 note. Curator Rainer Rother talks at length about this year’s Retrospective, The Weimar Touch. The International Influence of Weimar Cinema after 1933.
In other 2013 festival news. Sundance has revealed the names of 19 members of five juries who’ll be awarding prizes in January, and among them are Liz Garbus, Davis Guggenheim, Gary Hustwit, Ed Burns, Nadine Labaki, and Don Hertzfeldt. At Cartoon Brew, Amid Amidi has trailers for the ten animated shorts that’ll be screening at Sundance; and Indiewire‘s Eric Kohn‘s predicting that Richard Linklater’s Before Midnight will be quite the hit.
At Twitch, Ben Umstead reports that Slamdance has announced a series of special screenings that include “the first ever Slam Collective feature documentary made by seven Slamdance alumni from five continents. Entitled I Want to Be an American, this innovative project is made up of the seven filmmakers’ short films, constructed and presented in the style of the surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse.” Also lined up are Dan Mirvish’s Between Us, Chad Crawford Kinkle’s Jug Face, and Philippe Caland’s Vipaka.
And finally for now, Locarno (August 7 through 17) has announced that it’s partnered with the City of Milan to establish “the Pardo alla Migliore Opera Prima ‘Città di Milano’ (Award for the Best First Film).”
Update: And this just in (no link yet): “International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) adds two programs to Signals, its section of thematic and topical programs. The festival honors Kira Muratova with a full retrospective of her features and short films. The second addition to Signals is Changing Channels, a program about episodic storytelling featuring new television work and web-based series directed by filmmakers.”
More on the 2013 lineups: Berlinale (rounds 1, 2, and 3), First Look, Sundance (rounds 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5), Slamdance, and Rotterdam (rounds 1, 2, and 3).
For news and tips throughout the day every day, follow @KeyframeDaily on Twitter and/or the RSS feed. Get Keyframe Daily in your inbox by signing in at fandor.com/daily.
