&nbsp;Berlin became the first of next year`s big European film festivals to bow to the coronavirus pandemic, announcing it would hold a reduced, online-only programme in March, a month later than usual, with an audience event in June. 
 
The festival, now in its 71st year, occupies a distinct position in the cinema calendar, with its trade component, the European Film Market (EMF), shaping how films and series are sold around the world and launching that year`s co-production as studio executives meet filmmakers. 
 
The organisers said on Friday that the film trading event would be held online, depriving Berlin of the traditional show of studio top brass snaking in limos between city centre hotels. The main film prizes would also be awarded at this time. 
 
Asked if the film market could hold its own in an era where giant streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Apple had the biggest commissioning budgets, artistic director Carlo Chatrian said the EMF still had a distinct European role. 
 
"Europe should go with its own system, which is different in the sense that it works more as a cooperation," he said. "We hope the EMF will really help that." 
 
An audience-focused film screening event will be held in the summer, targeting not pros and the press, but the general public. Alone among the major festivals, Berlin admits the public to its screenings. 
 
"We expect to invite the filmmakers and we`ll have one or two stars, but it will be an event for the public and not for the international professional visitors, or for the international press. So it will have a different character," said festival chief executive Mariette Wissenbeek. 
 
"What we need and what the festival can provide is a gathering moment," Chatrian added. "And of course, when the gathering is not possible, the festival has to find a different way to exist."

Berlin became the first of next year`s big European film festivals to bow to the coronavirus pandemic, announcing it would hold a reduced, online-only programme in March, a month later than usual, with an audience event in June.

Berlin became the first of next year`s big European film festivals to bow to the coronavirus pandemic, announcing it would hold a reduced, online-only programme in March, a month later than usual, with an audience event in June. The festival, now in its 71st year, occupies a distinct position in the cinema calendar, with its trade component, the European Film Market (EMF), shaping how films and series are sold around the world and launching that year`s co-production as studio executives meet filmmakers. The organisers said on Friday that the film trading event would be held online, depriving Berlin of the traditional show of studio top brass snaking in limos between city centre hotels. The main film prizes would also be awarded at this time. Asked if the film market could hold its own in an era where giant streamers like Netflix, Amazon and Apple had the biggest commissioning budgets, artistic director Carlo Chatrian said the EMF still had a distinct European role. "Europe should go with its own system, which is different in the sense that it works more as a cooperation," he said. "We hope the EMF will really help that." An audience-focused film screening event will be held in the summer, targeting not pros and the press, but the general public. Alone among the major festivals, Berlin admits the public to its screenings. "We expect to invite the filmmakers and we`ll have one or two stars, but it will be an event for the public and not for the international professional visitors, or for the international press. So it will have a different character," said festival chief executive Mariette Wissenbeek. "What we need and what the festival can provide is a gathering moment," Chatrian added. "And of course, when the gathering is not possible, the festival has to find a different way to exist."

Berlin rejigs film festival for pandemic times

The racist killings of nine people in a German town cast a shadow over the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday, where a minute`s silence was held to commemorate the victims, and stars who will feature in the festival spoke out. 
 
Filmmakers, some from Germany`s minority communities, expressed their shock over the attacks at the Berlinale, seen as the most political of the major film festivals and traditional champion of arthouse movies and progressive causes. 
 
The attacker, who shot dead people in shisha bars in the central German town of Hanau late on Wednesday before killing his mother and himself, published a manifesto online strewn with conspiracy theories and racist views, prosecutors said. 
 
The attack, at least five of whose victims were Turkish nationals, followed another by a far-right gunman on an eastern city`s synagogue, when two people were killed. 
 
Burhan Qurbani, director of "Berlin Alexanderplatz", a retelling of a German novel of social exclusion from the 1920s that premieres on Wednesday, talked in an interview of his fear that such attacks could become `normal`. 
 
Born in Germany to Afghan refugees, Qurbani retells Alexander Doeblin`s novel with an African refugee as the central character instead of the novel`s freshly released, disoriented prisoner. 
 
"Yesterday there was a massacre," said Qurbani, who has close family ties to Hanau. "It`s not normal in Germany, and I hope it`s not going to become normal. Our history should teach us that we can`t allow nationalist, racist and xenophobic elements to define our image." 
 
Chancellor Angela Merkel`s decision in 2015 to allow in over a million refugees, mainly people displaced by Syria`s civil war, transformed German politics, fueled the rise of a far-right party and prompted soul-searching over whether the country could live up its commitments to asylum and human rights. 
 
"As a refugee you not only lose your home, you are leaving your language, your confidence, your family, the feeling of being secure: that is human dignity to me," Qurbani said, reflecting the views of the many people who had lauded Merkel`s decision. 
 
Melika Foroutan, Iranian-German star of "Pari", which premiers on Tuesday and tells the story of an Iranian mother seeking her vanished migrant son on the teeming streets of Athens, urged more social engagement from her compatriots. 
 
"Today is not a good day," she said in an interview. "I have a nephew who also goes to shisha bars. It could have been him... I take this attack personally, and I think all democrats in Germany should take this attack personally."

The racist killings of nine people in a German town cast a shadow over the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday, where a minute`s silence was held to commemorate the victims, and stars who will feature in the festival spoke out.

The racist killings of nine people in a German town cast a shadow over the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday, where a minute`s silence was held to commemorate the victims, and stars who will feature in the festival spoke out. Filmmakers, some from Germany`s minority communities, expressed their shock over the attacks at the Berlinale, seen as the most political of the major film festivals and traditional champion of arthouse movies and progressive causes. The attacker, who shot dead people in shisha bars in the central German town of Hanau late on Wednesday before killing his mother and himself, published a manifesto online strewn with conspiracy theories and racist views, prosecutors said. The attack, at least five of whose victims were Turkish nationals, followed another by a far-right gunman on an eastern city`s synagogue, when two people were killed. Burhan Qurbani, director of "Berlin Alexanderplatz", a retelling of a German novel of social exclusion from the 1920s that premieres on Wednesday, talked in an interview of his fear that such attacks could become `normal`. Born in Germany to Afghan refugees, Qurbani retells Alexander Doeblin`s novel with an African refugee as the central character instead of the novel`s freshly released, disoriented prisoner. "Yesterday there was a massacre," said Qurbani, who has close family ties to Hanau. "It`s not normal in Germany, and I hope it`s not going to become normal. Our history should teach us that we can`t allow nationalist, racist and xenophobic elements to define our image." Chancellor Angela Merkel`s decision in 2015 to allow in over a million refugees, mainly people displaced by Syria`s civil war, transformed German politics, fueled the rise of a far-right party and prompted soul-searching over whether the country could live up its commitments to asylum and human rights. "As a refugee you not only lose your home, you are leaving your language, your confidence, your family, the feeling of being secure: that is human dignity to me," Qurbani said, reflecting the views of the many people who had lauded Merkel`s decision. Melika Foroutan, Iranian-German star of "Pari", which premiers on Tuesday and tells the story of an Iranian mother seeking her vanished migrant son on the teeming streets of Athens, urged more social engagement from her compatriots. "Today is not a good day," she said in an interview. "I have a nephew who also goes to shisha bars. It could have been him... I take this attack personally, and I think all democrats in Germany should take this attack personally."

'I take it personally': Stars at Berlin Film Festival vent anger over German race killings

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Berlin rejigs film festival for pandemic times

'I take it personally': Stars at Berlin Film Festival vent anger over German race killings