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Mexican cinema presence at the Berlinale

Included in the Berlinale’s short film competition is the co-production between the United States, Ghana and Mexico Kwaku Ananse by Akosua Adoma Owusu; inspired by a traditional West African tale about a spider which spends its life collecting all of the world’s wisdom in a wooden box.

The “Forum” section includes Matar extraños, a co-production between Mexico and Denmark directed by Jacob Secher Schulsinger and Nicolás Pereda. “Forum” is a space dedicated to avant-garde cinema, experimental works and other explorations of cinematographic language. In the Berlinale’s own words: “The films in the Forum straddle the line between art and cinema.”

In the “Panorama” section is Tanta agua by Ana Guevara and Leticia Jorge, a co-production between Uruguay, Mexico and the Netherlands which in 2012 won the Norteado award at Films in Progress 22, at the San Sebastián International Film Festival. “Panorama Special” includes Workers by José Luis Valle, a co-production between Mexico and Germany.

“Panorama” defines its mission as building bridges between artistic vision versus commercial interests, presenting to possible distributors the best of contemporary auteur films, meaning films with a notable individual signature.

It's also worth mentioning that the short animated documentary Reality 2.0, directed by MexicanVíctor Orozco but produced in Germany, will participate in the "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" section of the Berlinale.

Included in the international competition for feature length films is the co-production between Spain and Chile, Gloria by Sebastián Lelio, which won the Films in Progress Industry Award last year. Gloria is the only representative of Latin American cinema competing for the prestigious Golden Bear. The international competition’s jury is presided by Won Kar Wai and the selection includes the most recent work of critically acclaimed filmmakers such as Richard Linklater, Bruno Dumont, Gus Van Sant and Steven Soderbergh.