Summit
In a series of public talks, workshops and discussions, the Summit encourages exchange about films, their values for our society and how they came into being. For cinephiles and professionals alike, Berlinale Talents becomes the home for encounters with artists and experts who can only be met here.
Talks
Featuring internationally acclaimed filmmakers and artists, the public talks offer valuable insights into every possible aspect of filmmaking. Open-mindedness and a passion for discovery are the hallmarks of this creative hotbed of the festival.
Past editions have featured Tilda Swinton surprising the selected Talents with an intimate Q&A session, Martin Scorsese explaining why his parents thought he was crazy when he was young, Kristen Stewart sharing her excitement at the breaking of boundaries and traditions within the industry, Ruben Östlund pitching his next film idea to the Berlinale Talents audience, director Apichatpong Weerasethakul exploring the creative power of dreaming, Ava DuVernay leading a dialogue on new voices in cinema with Indigenous filmmakers, Cate Blanchett on developing a controversial character, Meryl Streep discussing the role of women in Hollywood, director Raoul Peck giving a probing analysis of institutional racism, and Ryūichi Sakamoto improvising live on the piano. As always at the Berlinale, audiences can actively participate and contribute their own questions and experiences.
Discussions
In smaller interactive gatherings and live workshops, experts dissect practical case studies together with the Talents, fellow guests and public audiences. Quite often, these sessions focus on specific disciplines, allowing participants to deepen their knowledge of niche subjects.
Learn how to navigate virtual shoots with Oscar-nominated cinematographer Caleb Deschanel, get the inside scoop on the secrets of storytelling with Lav Diaz, or take a glance over the shoulder of Wes Anderson's prop and model maker Simon Weisse. Take part in a discussion on the ever-growing importance of intimacy coordination in the industry, or release your inner animal on stage together with renowned actors, led by some of the top acting coaches in the business. The sessions reflect cutting-edge trends and equip filmmakers with the tools they need to stay on top of an ever-changing industry.
Workshops for Different Disciplines
The Berlinale Talents Summit is the common playground where creatives from all film disciplines meet. In order to deepen that experience, the participants are automatically assigned to tailor-made workshops, from speciality sessions for their respective fields of work to interdisciplinary sessions where they can meet and collaborate with filmmakers from other areas of expertise. In the Workshops, they can share ideas with fellow Talents, mentors and experts and explore the aesthetics and mechanics of their profession.
As a core part of the Summit programme, the Workshops create spaces for the 200 Talents to explore roles and responsibilities within teams and crews, actively benefit from the experiences of other Talents and make new contacts.
Acting Workshop
Acting Workshop
The Acting Workshop is a hands-on workshop based on the Alexander Technique. Actors are encouraged to broaden their awareness of themselves and their attentiveness to others.
Camera Workshop
Camera Workshop
The Camera Workshop invites the attending cinematographers to consider how their aesthetic and technical choices shape the stories they tell, with the chance for participants to work with state-of-the-art camera and lighting equipment.
Editing Workshop
Editing Workshop
During the Editing Workshop, expert mentors with backgrounds in fiction and documentary filmmaking engage and inspire Talents to explore the ethics and politics of the editing room.
Market Workshop
Market Workshop
Through the Market Workshop, distributors, exhibitors, sales agents and marketing professionals are invited to work with seasoned experts and share their experience and ideas with peers.
World Building Workshop
World Building Workshop
The World Building Workshop brings together visionary experts and crafty Talents from the fields of production design, costume design and digital set design to reimagine the rules between set design and narrative practice.
Sound Workshop
Sound Workshop
The Sound Workshop invites Talents to engage in collective jam sessions driven by their specific cultural backgrounds, encouraging sound designers and composers to reflect on their practices.
Talent Press
Talent Press
Our incubator for film critics and journalists, Talent Press offers writing workshops in Berlin, Buenos Aires, Durban, Guadalajara, Sarajevo and Rio.
Networking
Creating new connections and forging strong relationships is one of the most important parts of Berlinale Talents. The entire week is a playground for networking on all levels, from casual lunch with other Talents to our more structured events.
Take, for example, our Talents Tanks, which invite 200 Talents to take part in an open exchange with each other, discussing the current and future state of work in the creative world, a safe, informal space where they can reflect on some of the most pressing issues facing the industry. Focused around one of our core sustainability themes, the Talents Tanks offer a place to jointly examine and condense shared visions of the future.
Our Talents Circles format brings our 200 film professionals together with important industry figures in smaller rounds, for the chance to pose niche questions and collect inspiring insights into practical aspects of the industry. Whether it's funding-focused with our partner Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg, content-centric with ARTE, or meeting Talents alumni with films in the current Berlinale section, these sessions are unique and invaluable.
Dotted throughout the week we also have tightly-knit Focus Groups, giving you the chance to get personal with expert practitioners and raising questions on emerging aspects of the industry. Thanks to the intimate format, you'll be able to immerse yourself in topical discussions and exchanges with your fellow peers.
And we can't forget the legendary Dine & Shine, which hosts more than 400 guests and involves changing seats after every course, giving you the chance to meet a wide range of contacts from the industry reps and festival guests.
Guests
Ken Adam, Maren Ade , Ana Lily Amirpour, Harry Belafonte, Gael García Bernal, Juliette Binoche, Cate Blanchett, Jane Campion, Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Park Chan-wook, Geraldine Chaplin, Christo, Isabel Coixet, Willem Dafoe, Josephine Decker, Julie Delpy, Claire Denis, Alexandre Desplat, Lav Diaz, Ava DuVernay, Olafur Eliasson, Todd Field, Ralph Fiennes, Stephen Frears, Nikolau Geyrhalter, Greta Gerwig, Agnès Godard , Hildur Guðnadóttir, Patricio Guzmán, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Uli Hanisch, Eliza Hittman& Ira Sachs, Agnieszka Holland, Dennis Hopper, Nina Hoss, Sandra Hüller, Hou Hsiao-Hsien, Holly Hunter, Bong Joon-Ho, Kirsten Johnson, Gaston Kaboré, Shah Rukh Khan, Ellen Kuras, Mike Leigh, Ken Loach, David Lowery, Erika Lust, Andie MacDowell, John Malkovich, Lucrecia Martel, Ursula Meier, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brillante Mendoza, Tsai Ming-liang, Walter Murch, Michael Nyman, Joshua Oppenheimer, Ruben Östlund, Euzhan Palcy, Raoul Peck, Christian Petzold, Laura Poitras, Sandy Powell, Charlotte Rampling, Keanu Reeves, Carlos Reygadas, Max Richter, Isabella Rossellini, Ryūichi Sakamoto, Walter Salles, Roberto Saviono, James Schamus, Céline Sciamma, Martin Scorsese, Howard Shore, Volker Schlöndorff, Paul Schrader, Ridley Scott, Ulrich Seidl, Abderrahmane Sissako, Kristen Stewart, Tilda Swinton, István Szabó, André Téchiné, Tom Tykwer, Christine Vachon, Paul Verhoeven, Andrzej Wajda, John Waters, Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Wim Wenders, Matthew Weiner, Wong Kar-wai, Jia Zhang-ke and many more.