In a vibrant interview conducted via Zoom, the Sunday Observer had the opportunity to speak to Tricia Tuttle, the Festival Director of the 75th Berlin International Film Festival—a prestigious event renowned for its rich legacy and commitment to showcasing diverse cinema.
As an official press invitee to participate in the Festival, which will take place from February 13 to 23, 2025, I had the privilege of discussing various topics with Tuttle, including the evolving landscape of cinema, the importance of cultural representation and the Festival’s initiatives to engage younger audiences.
Q: This year is special for the Berlin Film Festival as it celebrates its 75th anniversary. As the Festival director for the first time during this significant year, can you discuss the Festival’s arrangements?
A: Absolutely! Our 75th anniversary is a key focus for this year’s celebrations. A significant part of what we’re doing is reflecting on our history and the stories that have shaped the festival over the past 75 years. For instance, the Golden Bear award, which has been awarded since the Festival’s inception, is crafted by a German sculptor and has been made at the same forge for all these years.
We also want to honour legacy filmmakers who have a longstanding relationship with the Festival. For example, Todd Haynes, who premiered his first film ‘Poison’ here and won the Teddy Award, is one such filmmaker.
This year, Tilda Swinton, who had her first film featured at Berlinale and has attended many times since, is serving as our jury president and will receive the honorary Golden Bear.
Our approach this year combines looking back at our rich history while simultaneously pushing forward to engage newer audiences. We aim to maintain Berlinale’s reputation as one of the most important film festivals in the world, while making it exciting and relevant for younger generations.
Q: The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the top five film festivals in the world and is considered the most political film festival globally. Film is a medium often regarded as a form of soft power. Can you speak about how the festival has evolved in this regard?
A: Certainly! While soft power is an aspect of film, it’s not the primary focus of our festival. However, films can indeed wield soft power, as the presence of a filmmaker at Berlinale can be a significant event for their country. For example, we have a Slovenian film screening in our first feature competition this year, and we expect diplomats to attend, which reflects that soft power dynamic.
Ultimately, we view the festival more as a meeting place for countries around the globe. Berlinale was founded to foster connections between Germans and international filmmakers, serving as a window to the world and a conversation starter.
This spirit remains deeply embedded in our DNA. For instance, last year, over 150 countries were represented among our industry guests, and this year, we feature films from 75 countries in our program. That international diversity is crucial to us.
Regarding our identity as a political film festival, we acknowledge the political dimensions of cinema.
Many filmmakers are motivated to reflect the world we live in and to address pressing issues through their work. As such, politics is an inherent part of filmmaking. However, I’ve noticed that external political discussions have sometimes overshadowed our focus on cinema itself.
In recent years, rather than discussing the films, we often find ourselves addressing broader news agendas.
I believe it’s vital that we shift the conversation back to the films and what they represent. While we embrace the political nature of many films, we also want to prioritise meaningful discussions about the artistry and narratives they present.
Q: Asian cinema, particularly Southeast Asian cinema, has been making its presence known in the international Festival arena more than ever over the past few years. How do you analyse this trend, and can you discuss how Berlinale recognises this part of the world in the festival?
A: It’s crucial for us to build strong relationships with filmmakers from Southeast Asia, as well as South Asia more broadly.
In particular, our connection with Sri Lankan film talent serves as a great example.
At Berlin Talents, we prioritise showcasing emerging filmmakers through our talent initiatives, which help us discover exciting new voices in cinema.
This program also facilitates connections between these filmmakers and the international industry, providing them with valuable exposure.
While we have historically maintained robust relationships with filmmakers from India, Pakistan, and Bengali cinema, I believe there’s significant potential for us to deepen our engagement with Southeast Asian cinema.
Over the next few years, I aim to strengthen these relationships and enhance our curatorial expertise in this vibrant region.
There are so many compelling stories from Southeast Asia that deserve to be highlighted at the festival.
Q: Meenakshi Sheddi is one amazing film programmer for South Asia who has introduced many Asian filmmakers to the international film festival arena, especially at the Berlin International Film Festival. Can you discuss other film programmers focused on this particular region and the importance of having organic film programmers with a socio-political and cultural understanding of their regions?
A: Meenakshi is indeed a significant figure in South Asian cinema and has made remarkable contributions. In addition to her work, we do have programmers who focus on East Asian cinema.
While we can’t cover every part of the world with dedicated programmers, we are expanding our team to better embrace diverse regions.
We recently welcomed Jessica Kiang, an Irish critic with a strong background in programming. She is deeply interested in East Asian cinema and is enthusiastic about developing relationships with Southeast Asian industries as well.
Having film programmers from these regions is vital because they bring a nuanced socio-political and cultural understanding that enriches our festival. This awareness allows them to curate films that resonate authentically with their audiences and highlights the film industry’s unique stories and challenges.
Q: Many Sri Lankan filmmakers have had the opportunity to participate in Berlin Talents, and Vimukthi Jayasundara represented the Berlin Film Festival Jury in 2022. As a festival director with ample experience in the international arena, how do you view the challenges and opportunities for young filmmakers in Sri Lanka seeking to participate in international film festivals? What proposals do you have to support them?
A: I believe Berlin Talents is an excellent starting point for young filmmakers. Many filmmakers face financial constraints that can make it difficult to travel to international festivals, but Berlinale is designed to be inclusive and accessible. It offers a range of screenings, parties, receptions, and networking opportunities that can facilitate valuable connections.
I highly encourage emerging filmmakers to explore formal pathways into our programs, particularly through Berlinale Talents. We have a strong track record of welcoming talented individuals from Southeast Asia, with at least one or two participants from the region each year. In 2022, for instance, we had notable representation from countries such as Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, and Indonesia, among others.
We will be announcing an exciting initiative soon that I cannot disclose right now, but it will be revealed in mid-February and is likely to be of significant interest to the Sri Lankan film industry.
Q: Like many aspects in today’s world, culture is no longer seen as a source of spiritual enrichment; it has become commodified, similar to identity politics. As individuals emphasise their differences to highlight their uniqueness, the market for such distinctions increases. Many Asian countries, having experienced colonisation, find themselves caught between Western civilization and their own cultural identities.
This situation often leads to a lack of emphasis on human subjectivity and individual stories, overshadowed by grand narratives. In this context, an anthropological lens has often been used to understand cinema in this part of the world, especially by European film festivals. How do you understand and analyse this?
A: This is an interesting perspective, and while I haven’t specifically considered it from an Anglo-European viewpoint, I believe film festivals are the perfect space for the type of cinema you’re describing. Berlinale, for instance, provides an environment for intimate, human, reflective, and sometimes quiet personal stories. This focus on diverse voices is one of the festival’s strengths.
While we do feature films with grand narratives, we also showcase many smaller, more intimate works that present unique perspectives often missing from mainstream cinema. This diversity is part of the joy of film festivals—a sentiment I would never want to lose.
The Festival Forum has a long history of presenting films that are not driven by commercial success but highlight the individual filmmaker’s voice. Many of these filmmakers rely on international film festivals as their primary distribution strategy to reach audiences.
What’s incredibly special about Berlinale is the representation of around 200 feature films that encompass a wide variety of cinematic voices. It creates a rich tapestry, much like a symphony of different narratives sung in various ways, which is truly beautiful. As programmers, we are particularly interested in films that resonate with us and have the power to shift our perspectives.
The Holy Grail for us is when a film transforms the way you perceive the world, leaving you slightly changed after experiencing it.
For instance, this year in our first feature competition, we have a film by Filipino filmmaker Lyric Dela Cruz, who is based in Italy. His work, which has garnered recognition for his photography, explores the lives of three Filipino domestic workers living in Italy. Their stories intertwine, focusing on one woman who has long served a wealthy Italian matron and how their lives change when she inherits the woman’s property.
This film touches on post-colonial themes, as well as complex emotions like jealousy and family dynamics. It’s a beautiful film that invites us to see the world in a slightly different light.
Q: Unlike ten years ago, the new world order demands drastic changes in grand initiatives, including cinema. As a Festival with more than a seven-decade heritage, how do you think it should evolve to align with the norms of the changing world order, particularly one dominated by social media?
A: I believe there are two key points to consider. First, while we must acknowledge the changing landscape, we shouldn’t overly react to it. Even though young people today might not engage with cinema in the same way as before, there’s still a crucial role for festivals in advocating for the cinema experience.
We want to inspire excitement about discovering unusual films and sharing those experiences—laughing, crying, and responding as a collective audience. Festivals create spaces for cultural sharing that are more important than ever in a world filled with isolated, individual experiences.
We want to protect and invigorate this aspect of cinema while actively figuring out how to attract younger audiences. The entire industry needs to address this challenge. One way we’re doing this is by leveraging social media to reach and engage young people.
This year, for the first time, we began a partnership with TikTok to build a channel that highlights films in the festival that could captivate a younger audience.
As a parent of 18-year-old twins, I see how platforms such as TikTok serve as news and entertainment for them, shaping their lifestyles. Music has successfully utilised these platforms to engage younger audiences, including rediscovering classic tracks. I believe there’s similar potential for cinema, especially in connecting contemporary films to new audiences. We’re just beginning to explore these possibilities.
75th Berlin International Film Festival
Tilda Swinton to be awarded Golden Bear
The 75th Berlin International Film Festival will award Scottish actor Tilda Swinton the Honorary Golden Bear for her lifetime achievement. The award will be presented at the Opening Ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on February 13, 2025.
“The range of Tilda Swinton’s work is breathtaking. To cinema she brings so much humanity, compassion, intelligence, humour and style, and she expands our ideas of the world through her work. Tilda is one of our modern filmmaking idols, and has also long been part of the Berlinale family. We are delighted to present her with this Honorary Golden Bear,” said Festival Director Tricia Tuttle.
“The Berlinale is the first film festival I ever went to, in 1986 with Derek Jarman and the first film I made, his Caravaggio. It was my portal into the world in which I have made my life’s work – the world of international filmmaking – and I have never forgotten the debt I owe it. To be honoured in this way by this particular festival is deeply touching for me: it will be my privilege and pleasure to celebrate, once more next February, the seedbed that is this wide-eyed and reliably wonderful gathering,” said Swinton.
