New Berlinale Chief Tricia Tuttle on Political Furor and ‘Bold, Exciting’ Cinema: ‘Filmmakers Are Noting That We Live in a Crazy, Divisive World’

variety.com:

Leo Barraclough International Features Editor The Berlin Film Festival prides itself on being a political event, which dates back to its inception in 1951 as a beacon of democracy in West Berlin, surrounded by Communist East Germany in the Cold War era.

This year’s edition, the festival’s 75th, takes place in the final two weeks of a federal election in Germany that is expected to see a lurch to the right, with the right-wing Alternative for Germany party doubling down on its anti-refugee rhetoric.

This makes the position of the director of the Berlinale, as it is known locally, all the more challenging, especially as the director reports to the German federal government and the festival derives the bulk of its funding from the federal government and the state of Berlin.

This awkward relationship with lawmakers was graphically illustrated last year when the Berlin mayor Kai Wegner alleged that remarks made by award winners on stage at the Berlinale closing ceremony criticizing the Israeli government were antisemitic, a view echoed by other politicians as well as Israel’s ambassador to Germany.