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Constructed in the early 1990s on a barren no-man’s-land between the city’s former East and West, Potsdamer Platz was never exactly the beating heart of Cool Berlin. These days, however, it’s positively depressing. Many of the shopfronts are empty, and most of its cinemas – the collective home of the Berlin International Film Festival for almost 20 years – have either shut down or are under reconstruction.
One of the fun things at Cannes – which runs, at least in its professional capacity, on a diet of slightly manic speculation – are the rumours that flood the Croisette on the festival’s final day, as the hours tick down to the awards ceremony. Friendly publicists, sleep-deprived executives and loose-lipped hotel staff all report on the various actors and filmmakers being summoned back to accept an award.
After an online-only edition in 2021, this year’s Berlin International Film Festival kicked off on February 10 and, for the first time since 1992, I chose not to attend. The first weeks of the year had seen Omicron case numbers surging wildly across Europe; exactly a month before the event began, Germany hit a daily record of 80,000 new cases. To insist on staging it as an in-person event seemed to me both reckless and tone-deaf – and to then refuse any provisions for online screenings, on top of that, just felt arrogant.
After an online-only edition in 2021, this year’s Berlin International Film Festival kicked off on February 10 and, for the first time since 1992, I chose not to attend. The first weeks of the year had seen Omicron case numbers surging wildly across Europe; exactly a month before the event began, Germany hit a daily record of 80,000 new cases. To insist on staging it as an in-person event seemed to me both reckless and tone-deaf – and to then refuse any provisions for online screenings, on top of that, just felt arrogant.