Sandrine Bonnaire, Bernd Eichinger and Stephen Frears on Biopics
They show the life stories of historical or contemporary personalities and have recently grown more and more successful: Biopics. Why are they so popular? Is it perhaps because audiences prefer the real, complex characters featured in Biopics to the more simple, fictional ones created for feature films? Is it because they enable audiences to establish an emotional bond with the story and its characters – or is it simply the larger-than-life yet real nature of Biopics that fascinates the public? The event “Real Life Emotions – Biopics and Doc Stars“ will address both the fascination with and specific challenges of the genre. There to discuss these issues are director Stephen Frears (The Queen), producer and director Bernd Eichinger (Downfall) and actress Sandrine Bonnaire, who played Joan of Arc in the 1994 Joan the Maid and has recently directed a moving documentary about her autistic sister Sabine (Her Name is Sabine).

The Campus stepping stone: former Talents in Competition at the Berlinale and other success stories
Thanks to Fernando Eimbcke and Lance Hammer, this year will mark the first time that former Campus Talents are in the running for a Golden Bear. Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke, Campus participant in 2003, is in competition with his feature film Lake Tahoe. Lance Hammer, an American participant in the 2004 Campus, will compete with his directorial work Ballast. Ballast is a collaboration with cinematographer Lol Crawley, who met Hammer during the Talent Project Market, part of the Campus. Former Talents are well-represented in other sections of the festival as well. The Amazing Truth about Queen Raquela that will be screened in Panorama is a clear testament to the success of the Campus as an international networking platform: the Icelandic filmmaker Olaf de Fleur Johannesson and actor Stefan Schaefer initially met during the first edition of the Campus and were later able to bring Philipina producer Arleen Cuevas, another former Campus participant, to the team thanks to the online database. Megane, a film by Japanese director Naoko Ogigami, will also be screened in Panorama. As part of the series Perspektive Deutsches Kino, Iranian director Ayat Najafi will present Football Undercover and German director Steffi Niederzoll will show her film Lea. The Forum will screen Divizionz, a collaboration between former Talents Donald Mugisha (direction) and Adolf El-Assal (production). Mugisha, from Uganda, will also participate as an expert of hip hop and cinema in the Campus panel “From Street Cred to Screen Credibility - Hip Hop and the Movies“. Dorothee Wenner, the director of the Campus, is excited about so many successful stories: “The Campus has become an important platform and place for detecting future talent. We will continue to invest in the future – in the future of the Campus but above all in the films of our participants.“