Before commencing the presentation of the Competition prizes, Berlin Film Festival jury president Wim Wenders began proceedings with a prepared statement, responding to the controversy that has blighted the festival since its opening-day press conference last week, in which he contentiously declared filmmakers to be “the counterweight of politics, we are the opposite of politics.”
He amended those words in a more nuanced and conciliatory manner tonight, declaring the languages of political activists and cinema artists to be distinct but complementary. His words came notably in the middle of a ceremony that honored several overtly political films, including Perspectives winner “Chronicles From a Siege,” by Palestinian-Syrian filmmaker Abdallah Alkhatib,
→ Continue reading at Variety
