To strive, to seek, to find…

Gotta love Berlinale comments.

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Vicki Psarias: “As a director, you’re a mum, you’re a dad, you’re everything.”

27-year-old director, writer and magazine editor Vicki Psarias has been making films since she was 11 years old. With her TV-experienced dad, George Psarias , on hand as cameraman, she directed a film about litter on the streets of Leeds, where she grew up. As she says, “I was actually directing, which is quite freaky, because I was 10, 11, and I was saying to my dad, get a shot of that over there, quick! Look at this!”

Vicki studied film at Goldsmiths, University of London, and her graduation film, ‘Rifts’, about two warring kebab shop owners, won a number of awards at film festivals, including Best Screenplay at the Portobello Film Festival. Her second short, Broken, was based on the story of her mother and grandmother, who are of Greek Cypriot background, and their experiences of moving to the UK in the 1960s. Vicki is also the editor of Film & Festivals Magazine.

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Another article from the Berlinale Talent Campus…

(L-R: Josef Fares, Damian Harris, Vinzenz Hediger, Hiam Abbass and Newton I. Aduaka. Photo from Berlinale Talent Campus website)

From the FIPRESCI site:

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Senses and Sensibilities: Documentaries for the Big Screen panel included: John Akomfrah, Dominique Cabrera, Sandi DuBowski, Miroslav Janek.

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Five Oscars for Berlinale Stars and Films

“We are delighted and warmly congratulate Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis and director Stefan Ruzowitzky to their Oscars,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick to the presentation of the prestigious trophies Sunday night.

Yesterday, two Academy Awards went to the two-time Bear winner of this year’s Berlin International Film Festival, There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson. For his compelling tour de force, lead Daniel Day-Lewis won an Oscar for Best Actor. This oil drama from the USA also received an Oscar for Best Cinematography. One week ago in Berlin, director Paul Thomas Anderson was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director; and composer Jonny Greenwood, the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution (music).

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The FIPRESCI team found a much better picture for this article than I did…

“I’m just a twat from Leytonstone,” says Damon Albarn in the documentary BANANAZ (Ceri Levy, UK, 2008), which had its world premiere last night in Panorama Dokumente. The quote is typical of the film’s filthy, silly humour, which also encompasses a giant penis and fart gags. BANANAZ is able to take such an intimate look at its subject, the animated band Gorillaz, thanks to the director’s friendship with the group. It is this quality that was missing, or felt manufactured, in Martin Scorsese’s Rolling Stones pop promo, SHINE A LIGHT (USA/UK, 2008), which opened this year’s Berlinale.

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In the stripy top: Natalia from Peru, with Dilek from Turkey

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Madonna’s debut directorial effort, Filth and Wisdom, premiered this morning in the Panorama at the Berlinale. Here’s what I thought…

From the Berlinale Talent Campus website:

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Just got back from the World Premiere. Very, very funny indeed. I liked. Possibly a review coming soon…

Here’s the review!

The Berlinale Palast, where premieres take place. I took this on the day that the Rolling Stones turned up for the opening of their Scorcese-directed film, Shine A Light.

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