An open letter supporting the continuation of artistic director Carlo Chatrian’s leadership at the Berlinale has received nearly 300 signatures and counting from the international film community, including Martin Scorsese, Joanna Hogg, Radu Jude, Paul Schrader, Ulrich Seidl, Marie Kreutzer, Tilda Swinton and M. Night Shyamalan.
Italian Chatrian is set to step down from the role of artistic director following the 2024 edition, in the wake of the festival confirming it will return to a single-director model, having employed Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek as co-directors for the past four editions.
They took over from long-time festival director Dieter Kosslick who was at the Berlinale from 2001 to 2019.
Executive director Rissenbeek announced in May that she will step down after the 2024 edition.
Scroll down for the letter in full
Chatrian said in a statement: “I thought 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 open letter originated from a few filmmakers and was circulated by Romanian filmmaker Jude. It said the filmmakers “protest the harmful, unprofessional, and immoral behaviour of state minister Claudia Roth in forcing the esteemed artistic director Carlo Chatrian to step down despite promises to prolong his contract.”
It noted “Carlo Chatrian may not be a showman,” but praised him for steering the festival through “the most difficult circumstances all beyond Chatrian’s control—the pandemic, financial restrictions, and a deteriorating festival centre around Potsdamer Platz”.
The letter continued: “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.”
UK director Ben Rivers, who served on the Berlin Encounters jury in 2022, told Screen he had been contacted by Romanian director Radu Jude about signing the letter - and had had no hesitation in doing so. Rivers mounted a staunch defence of Carlo Chatrian’s work at the Berlinale.
“What Carlo and his team have done in Berlin is pretty remarkable. They’ve not only put together an amazing festival for the past four years. They have also had to deal with the pandemic. They’ve not only kept it alive but it has been a really vibrant festival despite all those difficulties,” Rivers said. “Then, you get through that period and this is the thanks you get.”
Rivers predicted if Chatrian leaves after next year as expected, his team will depart too.
“After having a really successful run in really difficult times, to basically give him the push without any real negotiation for his position - nothing good cam come from that,” he suggested. “It doesn’t smell good. It’s not just in terms of Carlo and his team and their jobs. It’s also then future of the festival. It doesn’t seem the organisers] are caring particularly about what the future of the festival…it’s let’s get rid of a very successful team with nothing else in place.”
The UK director, whose credits include Two Years At Sea to which he is making a sequel and Ghost Strata, added the “wholeheartedly agreed” with the sentiments in the letter and “would really like to see Carlo and his team to continue.”
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
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