Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg Among 400+ Signatories of Open Letter Urging for Prolongation of Carlo Chatrian’s Berlinale Leadership (EXCLUSIVE)
Martin Scorsese, Radu Jude, Joanna Hogg, Claire Denis, Bertrand Bonello, M. Night Shyamalan, Kristen Stewart, Hamaguchi Ryusuke and Margarethe von Trotta are among the international filmmakers and talents who have signed an open letter in support of Carlo Chatrian whose mandate as artistic director of the Berlinale will come to an end next year. The number of signatories has now exceeded 400 names and keeps growing.
As we reported last week, Chatrian had been expected to stay on beyond 2024, and was surprised to learn that the German body which oversees the festival, Kulturveranstaltungen des Bundes in Berlin (KBB), announced that it would no extend his contract. The org had previously said it would abandon the model of having an executive director and an artistic director and return instead to having a single director, following the next edition. The festival’s executive director Mariëtte Rissenbeek will also be leaving her post after the next edition.
More from Variety
Berlin Film Festival Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian to Step Down After 2024 Edition
TorinoFilmLab Reveals Nine SeriesLab Projects, Five Participants of SeriesLab Talents (EXCLUSIVE)
Chatrian and Rissenbeek were appointed to their respective roles in June 2018 and led their first edition in 2020 after Dieter Kosslick’s tenure as festival director came to an end with the 2019 Berlinale.
Speaking to Variety last Saturday, Chatrian made it clear the culture ministry decision last week came as a complete surprise. “In March, I had a meeting with [Roth] where we agreed to renew my contract as artistic director. What was still to define was the structure of the leadership. I’ve always said that I was fine with other forms of governance, as long as my freedom in composing the program was preserved. The public announcement, on Aug. 31, made me completely aware that the conditions for me to go on as artistic director after March 2024 were no longer there.”
Here is the 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
Guy Maddin
Matt Johnson
Michel Lipkes
Yousry Nasrallah
Matías Piñeiro
Travis Wilkerson
Sylvain George
Joao Pedro Rodrigues
Joao Rui Guerra da Mata
Alejo Franzetti
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
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
Achinette Villamor
Kirsten Tan
Reinhild Blaschke
Verena Paravel
Cynthia Beatt
Jonathan Perel
Joanna Hogg
Julian Radlmaier
Nelson Yeo
Lisa Bierwirth
Henning Beckhoff
Ulrich Seidl
Marie Kreutzer
Kim Young woo
Vitali Mansky
Sebastian Brameshuber
Athanasios Karanikolas
Tobias Madison
Abbas Fahdel
Kurdwin Ayub
Corneliu Porumboiu
Frédéric Jaeger
Stefano Centini
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
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
Edwin
Caetano Gotardo
Maxime Giroux
Stefano Savona
Gernot Wieland
Maren Ade
Juliana Rojas
Jean-Pierre Dardenne
Igor Drljaca
Filipa
Sina Ataeian Dena
Jessica Sarah Rinland
Federico Veiroj
Helke Misselwitz
Qiu Yang
Emily Atef
Giovanni Maderna
João Canijo
Tommaso Santambrogio
Lisandro Alonso
Michael Klier
Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Jean-Pierre Gorin
Thomas Moritz Helm
Jöns Jönsson
Damiano & Fabio D’Innocenzo
Chiara Marañón
Rafi Pitts
Maryna Vroda
Michael Koch
Karim Hussain
Ana Lungu
Sergei Loznitsa
Maike Mia Hôhne
Dagmar Knöpfel
Ricardo Alves Jr
João Salaviza
Renée Nader Messora
Leonor Teles
Clément Cogitore
John Gianvito
Irene v. Alberti
Filipa Reis
Tan Wei Keong
Petar Valchanov
Kristina Grozeva
Rachel Daisy Ellis
Miguel Llansó
Raul Domingues
Liis Nimik
Eytan Ipeker
Elina Psykou
Stefan Jäger
Blake Williams
Serge Bozon
Andres Veiel
Hans-Christian Boese
Kaveh Farnam
Katrin Renz
Sophie Kluge
Hannes Held
Andreas Dresen
Lola Arias
Jodie Mack
Paulo Roberto de Carvalho
Bernhard Braunstein
Courtney Stephens
Jean-Christophe Simon
Meng Xie
Zsuzsanna Kiràly
Pedro Cabeleira
Brandon Cronenberg
Alexander Dumreicher-Ivanceanu
Alonso Ruizpalacios
Ivan Marković
Joao Rosa
Olimpia Pont Cháfer
Ho Yuhang
Tsai Ming-liang
Silvia Luzi
Luca Bellino
Liryc Dela Cruz
Giorgos Karnavas
Tran Thi Bich Ngoc
Fabrice Aragno
James Gray
Alauda Ruiz de Azúa
Paul Poet
Celluloid Liberation Front
Sven Taddicken
Michael Weber
Anna Marziano
Matteo Zoppis
Carlo Cresto-Dina
alberto fasulo
Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren
Ann-Kristin Reyels
Matthias Luthardt
Gianluca Matarrese
Mark Cousins
Stanley Kwan
Ildiko Enyedi
Ann Hui
Joan Chen
Argyris Papadimitropoulos
Alessio Rigo de Righi
Benjamin Pfohl
Björn Hoffmann
Bi Gan
Andrea Štaka
Ehsan Khoshbakht
Luis López Carrasco
Elfi Mikesch
Thomas Imbach
Katinka Narjes
Gianfranco Rosi
Paolo Taviani
Joao Matos
Jan Zabeil
Eren Aksu
Claudia Rorarius
Nicolas Philibert
Gabriella Manfrè
Marina Resta
Stefan Neuberger
Christoph Friedel
Claudia Steffen
Walter Fasano
Nazareno Nicoletti
Giorgio Gosetti
Mitra Farahani
Marco Dutra
John Trengove
Pacho Velez
Gabriel Mascaro
Filipa César
Mikel Gurrea
Heidi Specogna
Lixi Frank
Peter Kerekes
Vincent Meessen
Wang Xiaoshuai
Ning Hao
Emre Erkmen
María Alché
Eugène Green
Sergej Stanojkovski
Fern Silva
Eloy Enciso
Thorsten Trimpop
Daniel Zimmermann
Valeska Grisebach
Isabelle Stever
Zahra Vargas
Miraz Bezar
Mina Mileva
Vesela Kazakova
Nicolas Steiner
Henrika Kull
Best of Variety
Oscars Predictions: Best Actor - There Will Be Blood in the Lead Actor Race
Everything We Know About 'I Am Legend 2,' Starring Will Smith and Michael B. Jordan
Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
