European Films

The full line-up of Rotterdam's Tiger Competition has been announced. A total of 15 titles will compete for one of the three Tiger Awards, with about half the titles being from Europe. Northern Europe is represented by the Finnish comedy Rock and Roll Never Dies from Juha Koiranen, in which Samule Edelmann plays a man named Tiger (what's in a name?) who still lives with his parents though he is over 30 and who loves rock music, and the Danish mockumentary AFR from director Morten Hartz Kaplers, which investigates the power of the modern mass media. From the South come the Spanish directorial debut of Rafael Cortés called Yo (Me), which he co-wrote with its star Alex Brendemühl, and Nora Hoppe's Italo-Franco-German co-production La fine del mare (lit. The End of the Sea), which tells the story of two illegal immigrant lovers in the Italian city of Trieste.

 

The Olivier Dahan-directed La môme (La vie en rose), which recounts the life of sultry French chanteuse Edith Piaf, will open the Berlin Film Festival it was announced today. The film stars rising star Marion Cottilard as the famous singer and was long rumoured to premiere at Berlin before a spring roll-out on most of the continent except for the UK, where it will premiere in autumn. Co-stars include the ubiquitous veteran Gérard Depardieu, Sylvie Testud, Emanuelle Seiger, newcomer Jean-Pierre Martins and respected character actor Pascal Greggory. The 57th edition of the Berlin Film Festival will start on February 8 and run through February 18. 

The 2007 Berlin Film Festival has announced its first competition titles today, and they include work from two upcoming European talents as well as more established names such as double Cannes winner Bille August, US directors Steven Soderbergh and Robert De Niro and South Korea's Park Chan-wook. European titles in competition include August's Goodbye Bafana, which chronicles the  true story of James Gregory (Joseph Fiennes), the white prison guard whose life is profoundly altered when he meets the prisoner Nelson Mandela (Dennis Haysbert). The US titles are Robert De Niro's second film as a director, The Good Shepherd, which stars Matt Damon in a story about the birth of the CIA, and Soderbergh's The Good German, a homage to 1950s US studio films that stars George Clooney and Cate Blanchett.

An audacious black and white film from Argentina called La antena (The Aerial) will open the upcoming International Rotterdam Film Festival 2007, organisers confirmed yesterday. The festival, known for showcasing daring films from upcoming directors from all over the world, chose cinematographer-turned-director Esteban Sapir's second film because it is "one of next season's most lovingly crafted and strikingly original films" according to festival director Sandra Hamer, who also calles La antena "an engaging statement against the power of mass media and its cult of recycling". The festival runs from January 24, when La antena will be screened, through February 4 and will showcase some twenty titles in its Tiger Awards competition section, including the opening film. 

The International Film Festival Rotterdam has announced its first eight competition titles for its 2007 edition. Specialised in young talents, the IFFR presents first or second works of international filmmakers in its Tiger Competion, with three eventually going home with a Tiger Award. Three titles are from European filmmakers: Flemish director Koen Mortier's adaptation of Herman Brusselmans' novel Ex Drummer, about three handicapped people who form a band but still need a drummer; Die Unerzogenen from German director Pia Marais, about a teenage daughter and her addicted parents; and Aneta Lesnikovska's Does It Hurt?, which is the first DOGME film from Macedonia (FYROM) and is also about making the first DOGME film from Macedonia.