Florian Weghorn – Berlinale Talents #Berlinale2019

PODCAST| Chiara Nicoletti interviews Florian Weghorn, programme manager of the Berlinale Talents.

The Berlinale Talents turns 17 and as for every teenager, it’s time to think about the future once the critical time of adolescence has passed. Florian Weghorn is back on FRED to talk about this year’s talent, taking place from February 9th to the 14th with its 250 up-and-coming film professionals from 77 countries. It’s not the first time that the number of women (141) overcomes the number of men and it’s a good sign that things will get better eventually in the whole gender quotes’ discussion surrounding festivals, film funds and awards. This year’s theme is “Mistakes” as the talents participating are navigating towards, through and beyond their errors, past and future failures to learn how to appreciate their mistakes and how to fail better in order to finally learn the filmmaking craft. A total of 20 renowned alumni are returning as guests, including the Golden Bear winner Adina Pintilie and the directors David Lowery, Guy Nattiv, Teona Strugar Mitevska, and many more. Among the “famous guests” meeting the talents: the recipient of this year’s Honorary Golden Bear, Charlotte Rampling, the Competition directors André Téchiné and Nadav Lapid and Roberto Saviano, whose novel was the basis of Claudio Giovannesi’s Competition entry La paranza dei bambini (Piranhas).

Berlinale Talents is an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, a business division of the Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin GmbH, funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, in cooperation with Creative Europe MEDIA, a programme of the European Union, the Robert Bosch Stiftung and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg. It was initiated in 2003. In addition to the extensive summit programme of master classes and panel discussions with top-notch experts, Berlinale Talents offers a range of Project Labs in which you can further develop and present your own project. Berlinale Talents also provides Studio programmes and workshops for specific groups of film professionals. As an initiative of the Berlin International Film Festival, the entire event is closely linked with the programmes of the festival sections and the European Film Market. While the roots of Berlinale Talents are firmly planted in Berlin new shoots of the initiative have been sprouting internationally. These Talents International editions, Talents Beirut in Lebanon, Talents Buenos Aires in Argentina, Talents Guadalajara in Mexico, Talents Durban in South Africa, Talents Sarajevo in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Talents Tokyo in Japan have the familiar structure and purpose of their German counterpart; all the while retaining a regional perspective and finding support and the necessary amenities in a locally based international film festival. Talents initiatives are supported by local partners as well as by the Goethe-Institut.

To know more about Berlinale Talents, click here.