Berlinale 09. Competition, round 1.

The Berlin International Film Festival has announced a first batch of ten films screening in the Competition section, though many will not actually be competing.

World premieres:

• Maren Ade's Alle Anderen (All the Others, Germany). Related: Catherine MacLennan's interview with Ade for the Lamp.

• Sally Potter's Rage, with Judi Dench, Jude Law, Dianne Wiest, Steve Buscemi and Simon Abkarian (GB / US). Related: Anne Thompson and John Hopewell reported on the project in Variety in May.

• Rachid Bouchareb's London River, with Brenda Blethyn (Algeria / France / GB). Related: Again, Variety in May; this time, Ali Jaafar.

• Rebecca Miller's The Private Lives of Pippa Lee, based on her own novel, screening out of competition and featuring Robin Wright Penn, Alan Arkin, Keanu Reeves, Maria Bello, Julianne Moore and Winona Ryder (US). Related: Lucy Atkins reviewed the novel for the Guardian in April.

International premieres:

• Theo Angelopoulos's The Dust of Time, with Irene Jacob, Michel Piccoli, Willem Dafoe and Bruno Ganz (Greece / Germany / Italy / Russia). Out of competition. Premiered in Thessaloniki; Dan Fainaru reviewed it for Screen; Cineuropa has a "making of" special.

• Chen Kaige's Mei Lanfang (Forever Enthralled), with Leon Lai, Zhang Ziyi, Sun Honglei, Chen Hong (China). Twitch's Todd Brown is impressed with the trailer.

• Screenwriter Oren Moverman makes his directorial debut with The Messenger, featuring Ben Foster, Woody Harrelson and Samantha Morton (US). Related: Variety, May, Ali Jaafar.

• Lukas Moodysson's Mammoth, with Gael García Bernal, Michelle Williams, Sophie Nyweide and Tom McCarthy (Sweden / Germany / Denmark). Related: Matt Dentler's intrigued.

Also screening out of competition will be Stephen Daldry's The Reader (more here) and - really? - Harald Zwart's Pink Panther 2, which may bring Steve Martin to Berlin, I'm guessing. At any rate, as previously announced, the festival will open with Tom Tykwer's The International on February 5 and run through February 15.

Posted by dwhudson at December 12, 2008 8:54 AM