Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas & Joanna Hogg Among 300 Signatories Of Open Letter In Support Of Outgoing Berlinale Co-Head Carlo Chatrian
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A growing list of 300 film professionals, including Martin Scorsese, Olivier Assayas, Joanna Hogg, and Radu Jude, have signed an open letter calling for the contract of outgoing Berlinale Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to be reinstated and extended beyond 2024.
Late last week, Chatrian released a statement via the Berlinale website announcing his intention to step down following next year’s edition of the German festival. In his statement, Chatrian pointed to the German Ministry for Culture and Media’s decision to scrap the Berlinale’s dual management structure as the main catalyst for his departure.
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Last month, German Culture Minister Claudia Roth announced that she wants the Berlinale to be placed back under the control of a single director. Roth is reported to have told a meeting on Thursday of the supervisory board of federal cultural events in Berlin (KBB), which oversees the festival, that her conclusion was the film should be led by one person.
“I thought that continuity could be facilitated if I remained part of the festival, but, in the new structure, as it has been presented, it is quite clear that the conditions for me to continue as Artistic Director no longer exist,” the statement read. “The next edition of the festival will be therefore the end of this rewarding journey.”
Today’s open letter was addressed to Roth, whom the signatories accuse of displaying “harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior” through her efforts of “forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract.”
Chatrian’s resignation came after his co-head, Mariette Rissenbeek, also announced her decision to step down as executive director after the 2024 edition of the festival. Rissenbeek was the first woman to head up the Berlin Film Festival. She was announced as co-head in 2018, in the role of executive director, alongside Chatrian in the role of artistic director. They both took up their posts in June 2019.
The joint management structure marked a departure for the festival which had been under the stewardship of director Dieter Kosslick from 2001 onwards. The co-heads found themselves navigating the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with that edition being the last major festival with a full-blown market and attendance to take place that year. The pair then managed an online edition in 2021, and a hybrid edition in 2022, in which a scaled-down physical festival took place but the market was held online.
Read the full open letter below:
Open Letter in support of Carlo Chatrian, Artistic Director of Berlinale
We, a diverse group of filmmakers from all over the world, who have deep respect for Berlin International Film Festival as a place for great cinema of all kinds, protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behavior of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract.
Carlo Chatrian may not be a showman but in his quiet ways, he and his team have chosen an open and artistically rewarding curatorial path, showing new directions in world cinema, challenging stereotypes, and connecting different strands of filmmaking.
Despite the most difficult circumstances all beyond Chatrian’s control—the pandemic, financial restrictions, and a deteriorating festival center around Potsdamer Platz—the past editions under his guiding light were very much alive, full of positive surprises and, despite a smaller number of films shown, very popular, on par with pre-pandemic times.
Also, the films awarded with the main important prizes of the festival in the last four years are confirmed to be important films, as all of them are critically acclaimed and shown all over the world either in commercial circuits or in other important festivals.
Instead of rewarding Carlo Chatrian for his effort, dedication, and patience, the minister has chosen to further increase the difficulties until Carlo Chatrian was forced to announce that he will not continue after the completion of his current contract, as the position of Artistic Director has been dissolved.
Unsurprisingly, no better vision for the festival was presented or discussed, other than the questionable and politically backward demand for a strong hand the Berlinale supposedly needs in the form of an “Intendant”.
We strongly demand to prolong Carlo Chatrian‘s tenure and repair the damage done to this essential film festival.
Signatures:
Tizza Covi
Rainer Frimmel
Nathan Silver
Anocha Suwichakornpong
Kent Jones
Radu Jude
Zhengfan Yang
Shengze Zhu
Christoph Hochhäusler
Gastón Solnicki
Lina Rodriguez
Rolf de Heer
Andrei Ujică
Veronika Franz
Severin Fiala
Tom Shoval
Ognjen Glavonić
Kleber Mendonça Filho
Cyril Schäublin
Alex Ross Perry
Nicolás Pereda
Antoine Bourges
Alessandro Comodin
Simone Rapisarda Casanova
Roberto Minervini
Dasha Nekrasova
C.W. Winter
Guy Maddin
Matt Johnson
Michel Lipkes
Yousry Nasrallah
Matías Piñeiro
Travis Wilkerson
Sylvain George
Joao Pedro Rodrigues
Joao Rui Guerra da Mata
Alejo Franzetti
Gabriel Abrantes
Ben Rivers
Jerónimo Atehortúa
Ricardo Pretti
Gerd Kroske
Angela Schanelec
Avi Mograbi
Beatrice Gibson
Mauro Herce
Silvan Zürcher
Molly Reynolds
Luiz Pretti
Ben Russell
Athina Rachel Tsangari
Iván Granovsky
Roger Koza
Dominga Sotomayor
Amat Escalante
Matias Meyer
Khavn
Achinette Villamor
Dustin Guy Defa
Kaya Behkalam
Andreas Fontana
Steffen Goldkamp
Syllas Tzoumerkas
Martin Scorsese
Paul Schrader
Julio Hernández Cordón
Annemarie Jacir
Yeo Siew Hua
Fran Borgia
Dan Koh
Maria Speth
Mareike Wegener
Miguel Gomes
Andrea Pallaoro
Beniamino Barrese
Laura Citarella
Camilo Restrepo
Soda Jerk
Benjamin Heisenberg
Ulrich Köhler
Max Linz
Axel Koenzen
Maureen Fazendeiro
Florian Koerner von Gustorf
Anton Kaiser
Ramon Zürcher
Ted Fendt
Alexandre Koberidze
Anna Sofie Hartmann
Kirsten Tan
Reinhild Blaschke
Verena Paravel
Cynthia Beatt
Jonathan Perel
Joanna Hogg
Julian Radlmaier
Nelson Yeo
Lisa Bierwirth
Henning Beckhoff
Ulrich Seidl
KIM Young woo
Vitali Mansky
Sebastian Brameshuber
Athanasios Karanikolas
Tobias Madison
Abbas Fahdel
Kurdwin Ayub
Corneliu Porumboiu
Frédéric Jaeger
Stefano Centini
Christian Petzold
Stefan Ivančić
Éric Baudelaire
K.Rajagopal
Michael Krummenacher
Basma al-Sharif
Tulapop Saenjaroen
Jow Zhi Wei
Chanasorn Chaikittiporn
Thomas Arslan
Stefan Butzmühlen
Jeremy Chua
Ruth Beckermann
Timm Kröger
Raam Reddy
Aline Fischer
Burak Cevik
Olivier Assayas
Danaya Chulphuthiphong
Carlo Sironi
Ash Mayfair
Kiro Russo
Siyou Tan
Lila Avilés
Helena Girón
Samuel M. Delgado
Susana de Sousa Dias
Azin Feizabadi
Ivan Ikić
Gustavo Vinagre
Phạm Ngọc Lân
Sofia Bohdanowicz
Christian Schwochow
Payal Kapadia
Mladen Kovačević
Sorayos Prapapan
Thong Kay Wee
Una Gunjak
Marie Kreutzer
Katrin Gebbe
Dirk Lütter
Claire Denis
Maxi Haslberger
Srdan Golubović
Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay
Asli Özge
Ivan Salatic
Rui Poças
Eduardo Williams
Jelena Mitrović
Lai Weijie
Le Bao
Carla Simón
Bas Devos
Bertrand Bonello
Marta Popivoda
Sandra Wollner
Lisa Weber
Margarethe von Trotta
Bettina Brokemper
Nermin Hamzagić
Daniel Hoesl
Gertjan Zuilhof
Mario Martone
Viktoria Stolpe
Patric Chiha
Dušan Kasalica
Francesco Montagner
Meritxell Colell Aparicio
Mahdi Fleifel
Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Jelena Angelovski
Lukas Valenta Rinner
Georg Tiller
Hong Sangsoo
Jaume Claret Muxart
Vladimir Perišić
Michelangelo Frammartino
Peter Baranowski
Anders Edström
Christian Frosch
Giovanna Giuliani
Eliza Hittman
Paloma Schachmann
Barbara Albert
Denis Côté
Rania Attieh & Daniel García
Álvaro Gago
Cristina Diz
FOO Fei Ling
Bani Khoshnoudi
Amanda Nell Eu
Pietro Marcello
Roderick Warich
Götz Spielmann
Lodge Kerrigan
Kamila Andini
Benjamin Mirguet
Aysun Bademsoy
Natalia Marín
Nadav Lapid
Marko Grba Singh
Leandro Koch
Juan Soto Taborda
Ferran Alberich
Vladimir Durán
Martin Rejtman
Hartmut Bitomsky
M Night Shyamalan
Milagros Mumenthaler
Pilar Palomero
Isaki Lacuesta / Isa Campo
Ronny Trocker
Claudio Giovannesi
Guillaume Brac
Simón Vélez
Massimo D’Anolfi
Martina Parenti
Giacomo Abbruzzese
Till Kleinert
Peter Strickland
Alina Marazzi
Nicolas Wackerbarth
Selman Nacar
Radu Muntean
Nicole Vögele
Eva Trobisch
Alejo Moguillansky
Ute Adamczweski
Oren Moverman
Tilda Swinton
Kamal Aljafari
Marta Mateus
Nele Wohlatz
Valentina Maurel
Gabe Klinger
Philippe Falardeau
Balthasar Busmann
Ico Costa
Lois Patiño
Manuel Abramovich
Giovanni Pompili
Valentin Merz
Catarina Vasconcelos
Nicolas Wadimoff
Elena López Riera
Cláudia Varejão
Ayşe Polat
Katrin Pors
Ralitza Petrova
Jerónimo Rodríguez
Bernd Schoch
Jan Bonny
Valerie Massadian
Giorgio Diritti
Rebecca Baron
Sebastian Mez
Montse Triola
Claudia Llosa
Azazel Jacobs
Selma Doborac
Josef Hader
Dea Kulumbegashvili
Caroline Kirberg
Danijel Hočevar
Apichatpong Weerasethakul
Nina Menkes
Francis Vogner dos Reis
Myroslav Slaboshpytskyi
Joana Hadjithomas
Khalil Joreige
Myriam Sassine
Myriam El Hajj
Christelle Younes
George Peter Barbari
Rana Eid
Christian Eid
Wissam Tanios
Enzo D’Alò
Alberto Barbera
Mounia Akl
Kirill Krasovski
Jens Schillmöller
Judith Fülle
Vitaly Manski
Kristen Stewart
Dylan Meyer
Javier Fernández Vázquez
Anna Felicita Bonny
Cyril Aris
Sara Silveira
Frieder Schlaich
Joaquín del Paso
Daniel Schmidt
Philippe Lesage
Bence Fliegauf
Ann Oren
Pauline Curnier Jardin
Julia De Simone
Sebastien Pilote
Ulrike Ottinger
M. Night Shyamalan
Adina Pintilie
Jean-François Lesage
Tarr Bela
Tomasz Wolski
Vimukthi Jayasundara
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