Albania, the Berlinale venue for Balkan cinema

TIRANA, Nov. 17 – Albania has for the first time become the venue of the Balkan cinema candidate movies to participate in the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival. Three Berlinale delegates, Anna Hoffman, Bernd Buder and Nikolaj Nikitin have arrived in Tirana to select candidate movies Albania, Kosovo, Macedonia, Croatia, Serbia and Montenegro.
Some 130 movies including features, documentaries and animated films are being examined by the Berlinale representatives.
Albania is represented with seven candidate movies of which two feature film “Pharmakon” by Joni Shanaj and “Out of Touch” by Andi Deliana.
Last year, Amnesty became the first ever Albanian participation in the prestigious Berlin International Film Festival competing in the Forum section. At the 2011 Berlinale, the Albanian-Greek-French co-production directed by Alimani won the C.I.C.A.E. Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas.
The Albanian-Greek-French co-production directed by Bujar Alimani represents the clash between a younger generation with the traditional patriarchal and oppressive structures in their society.” Love raises the desire of change but is confronted with the impossibility to be realized yet.”
The Forgiveness of Blood, was another U.S-Albanian production with an Albanian cast and scriptwriters competing in the 2011 Berlianle. The movie grabbed the Silver Bear Award at the Berlinale 2011 for the best script written by Albania-born, New York-based scriptwriter Andamion Murataj
Amnesty has recently replaced the Forgiveness of Blood as Albania’s choice for the foreign-language Oscar race after the Academy decided to disqualify the latter for not having enough local input.
The 62th Berlin International Film Festival is scheduled for February 9 to 19 2012. Up to 400 films are shown every year as part of the Berlinale’s public programme, the vast majority of which are world or European premieres. Films of every genre, length and format can be submitted for consideration. The Berlinale is divided into different sections, each with its own unique profile: big international movies in the Competition, independent and art-house productions in Panorama, movies specially for a young audience in the Generation section, the most exciting German cinema productions in Perspektive Deutsches Kino, an in-depth look at films from “distant” countries and experimental forms in the Forum, as well as an investigation of diverse cinematic possibilities in the Berlinale Shorts. The programme is rounded off by a thematic Retrospective and a Homage, which focuses on the lifework of a great cinema personality. Both of these sections, which are curated by the Berlin Film Museum, aim to place contemporary cinema within a historical context.