2023-08-31 20:29:13
One of the world’s major film festivals is about to get a new lease on life. Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth wants to put the management of the film festival in Berlin back in the hands of one person.
Berlin.
The Berlinale is about to change: in the future, the film festival will once again be managed by just one person. This was announced by Minister of State for Culture Claudia Roth (Greens) in Berlin. The previous dual leadership of Carlo Chatrian (51) and Mariette Rissenbeek (66) is to be replaced by a managerial model.
A selection committee chaired by Roth is to determine the new director for one of the largest film festivals in the world. On Thursday, the supervisory board of the federal cultural events (KBB) reached an agreement on the future of the management level of the Berlinale.
Where is Chatrian?
The previous artistic director Chatrian had agreed to “enter into constructive discussions with the new artistic director about a future role in the new Berlinale team,” the statement said. It is not yet known which position the Italian should take over.
Along with Cannes and Venice, the Berlinale is one of the major film festivals – this year, for example, US actress Kristen Stewart was jury president and Hollywood star Sean Penn presented his documentary on Ukraine in Berlin.
Shortly after the festival, it became known that Rissenbeek would not be renewing her contract as managing director of the festival. The dual leadership should complete the 74th Berlinale together, and the new management should then start work afterwards, said a spokesman for the Minister of State for Culture.
Roth explained that the necessary decisions to modernize the Berlinale should once again be in one hand: “The talks that we have had at various levels over the past few months with numerous people who work at, with or for the Berlinale have led us to the common conviction that the largest public film festival in the world should again be managed and represented by one person.”
Thanks to the dual leadership
She thanked Chatrian and Rissenbeek for their work. Roth announced that they had confidently led the Berlinale through the difficult times of the corona pandemic. The reorganization at the top is not the only change – it was only announced in mid-July that the festival is facing severe austerity measures: the total number of films is to be reduced by almost a third, and sections are also to be deleted.
Finding a new top might not be an easy task. Rissenbeek and Chatrian had replaced longtime director Dieter Kosslick, who always felt comfortable on the red carpet and was happy to take on the role of host. Even though Kosslick’s choice of films was repeatedly criticized, Rissenbeek and Chatrian did not inherit an easy legacy.
In the sign of the pandemic
The duo’s work has been complicated by the pandemic. The first Berlinale of the two just took place in 2020, when the first reports about the spread of the corona virus circulated. The festival was split into two dates in 2021. And even in 2022, the cinemas could only be half occupied.
Rissenbeek had a lot of work to do as an organizer – she had to find sponsors and keep explaining the situation. Chatrian is considered a film fanatic who watched hundreds of films in preparation. The fact that he created a second competition – the so-called Encounters series – in addition to the competition for the Golden Bear seemed incomprehensible to some critics.
The Association of German Film Critics recently raised the question of whether a dual leadership would really be appropriate: “In such a dual leadership, conflicting economic and artistic interests can quickly lead to wrangling over competences and the diffusion of responsibility.” The association had called for a new structure, with one person at the top and a competent team behind them. Finding that is the challenge. (dpa)
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