The Summit programme of Berlinale Talents comprises a wide range of talks, panel discussions, workshops, case studies and screenings of select alumni films at the three venues of the HAU Hebbel am Ufer theatre.
Thirty public events focus on a new topic each year, featuring a variety of formats and set-ups. On the HAU1 Grand Stage, internationally renowned experts offer insights into their work and methods. In the interactive panels, presentations and case studies on the HAU2 Talents Stage and the HAU3 Top Floor, experienced filmmakers and artists engage in a lively dialogue with the audience.
Talents can register for specific Summit sessions for free. For general audiences, tickets are available at the festival and HAU box offices.
Grand format sessions The ‘grand format’ sessions of the Summit programme feature high-profile directors, producers, actors, editors, cinematographers, and production designers with an outstanding international reputation, who share their experience in moderated master classes, lectures and panel discussions. They give insight into various working methods and discuss different aspects of filmmaking, ranging from development and pre-production, production and post-production to promotion of films. Many of these sessions relate to brand new or upcoming cinema productions, their content, their format, and the people working on them. ‘Grand format’ sessions are moderated by experienced film critics or film industry professionals and provide a good setting for an intimate talk with inspiring guests.
Atelier sessions The Summit also offers an opportunity for more interactive panel discussions in the ‘atelier’ sessions. These are mid-scale events for a smaller audience, in which invited experts present practical case studies, enabling Talents to join the discussion and ask more practical questions. Quite often, the ‘atelier’ sessions focus on specific fields of work (like production or editing etc.), even though the sessions are always accessible to Talents from other fields of work. The ‘’atelier’’ set-up enables directors to deepen their insight in the details of cinematography, the dynamics of editing, the secrets of casting actors, new possibilities in digital production design for films, the latest developments in online distribution or the dos and don’ts of setting up an international co-production. This format explicitly shows an ever-changing film industry, shares the latest insights and reflects the flexibility demanded from film professionals. The sessions are usually divided into parts: a presentation, often using case studies and film clips, and an interactive part with a Q&A with the experts.
Summit experts Since the first edition in 2003, over 600 experts have participated in the Summit programme, including: Sir Ken Adam, Ana Lily Amirpour, Nicolas Becker, Gael García Bernal, Juliette Binoche, Jane Campion, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Park Chan-wook, Christo, Isabel Coixet, Willem Dafoe, Julie Delpy, Thomas Demand, Claire Denis, Alexandre Desplat, Anita Ekberg, Olafur Eliasson, Ralph Fiennes, Bence Fliegauf, Stephen Frears, Greta Gerwig, Gob Squad, Agnès Godard, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Agnieszka Holland, Ted Hope, Dennis Hopper, Nina Hoss, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Holly Hunter, Gaston Kaboré, Janusz Kamiński, Shah Rukh Khan, Victor Kossakovsky, Ed Lachman, Mike Leigh, Matthew Libatique, Ken Loach, Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Andie MacDowell, Lucrecia Martel, Juergen Mayer H., Alex McDowell, Brillante Mendoza, John Cameron Mitchell, Walter Murch, Michael Nyman, Joshua Oppenheimer, David OReilly, José Padilha, Hengameh Panahi, Raoul Peck, Christian Petzold, Laura Poitras, Charlotte Rampling, Keanu Reeves, Carlos Reygadas, Alex Rodriguez, Isabella Rossellini, Ryūichi Sakamoto, Walter Salles, James Schamus, Volker Schlöndorff, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, Ulrich Seidl, Abderrahmane Sissako, Molly Marlene Stensgaard, Tilda Swinton, István Szabó, Tom Tykwer, Christine Vachon, Paul Verhoeven, Andrzej Wajda, Wim Wenders, Michael Werner, Wong Kar-wai, Jia Zhang-ke and many more.
