The very special energy of debut films is well known to festival and cinema lovers. Six fascinating feature film debuts by four women and two men are to be discovered in the upcoming cinematic annual review of AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS: a drama about lovers and alienated people from India, a sibling drama from Ireland, a truly toxic teenage drama from Lithuania, a dog courtroom film from France and Switzerland, an exclusive visit to a parents' evening in Norway or an end-time musical that takes place underground. The 19th Berlin World Cinema Festival will present these six debut films in 2024:
“All We Imagine As Light” , the first feature film by renowned documentary film director Payal Kapadia, which was awarded the Grand Jury Prize in Cannes – making it the first Indian female director to receive a double award in the Cannes competition; “September Says” by Irish actress and director Ariane Labed, who worked on it with German film editor Bettina Böhler; “Toxic” by Saulé Bliuvaité from Lithuania, which tells the story of the destructive obsession with beauty and which won the Golden Leopard in Locarno; the Swiss-French comedy “Hundschuldig – Le procès du chien” by French actress and director Laetitia Dosch, who was rightly awarded the Cannes Palm Dog for it in Cannes; “Parents' Night - Armand” by Norwegian director Halfdan Ullmann Tøndel, grandson of Liv Ullmann and Ingmar Bergman, which won the Caméra d'Or for best debut film in Cannes and features a brilliant cast including Renate Reinsve ( “The Worst Person in the World” ), and “The End” by American Joshua Oppenheimer ( “The Act of Silence” , “The Look of Silence” ), who was able to win over stars such as Tilda Swinton and Michael Shannon for his first feature film, which premiered in Telluride, and who also shot parts of the film in Saxony, North Rhine-Westphalia and Thuringia.
The festival starts its cinematic world tour on Friday, November 29, in the cinema in the KulturBrauerei with Mohammad Rasoulof's "The Seed of the Sacred Fig Tree" , Germany's official Oscar® submission for 2025. From November 29 to December 7, 2024, AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS will show highlights of current world cinema that were previously celebrated and awarded at the leading film festivals in Cannes, Venice and Sundance. Festival cinemas are the cinema in the KulturBrauerei as well as the delphi LUX, Neues Off and Rollberg cinemas. The main partners in 2024 are Audi City Berlin, the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, ARTE and CineStar.
The full program of the 19th edition of AROUND THE WORLD IN 14 FILMS will be published on the website on Friday, November 8, 2024. Ticket sales will start on Tuesday, November 12, 2024.
Film still: “The End” © MUBI