After nearly four hundred films screening over ten days to 21,000 accredited guests and a third of a million ticket buyers, the Berlin International Film Festival drew to a close this past Sunday. The 68th installment of Europe’s largest film festival was a robust edition, with an unusually-high number of worthy films spread over the Berlinale’s dozen sections. As he did in once already in 2014 with “The Grand Budapest,” Wes Anderson

Intimacy and sex are essential elements to finding happiness in life, a theme found in this year's winning film. "Touch Me Not,” by Adina Pintilie, has won the Golden Bear prize at this year's Berlinale. The festival opened on February 15th and closed today and included around 400 films. Of those, nineteen were competing for the top Golden Bear prize. Romanian director Adina Pintilie said she had not expected to win the award for her film

The mother and daughter lead the fat sow to the boar’s pen. They pry open their mouths and pour bottles of rum down their throats to get them in the mood. As they begin to mate, the young woman lingers behind to watch. They need the sow to give birth, for soon the young woman’s fiancé and future family will arrive and they will need the meat for the celebration. Her name is Maria (María Mercedes Coroy) and she has been

Ever since his Silver Bear win earlier this year at Berlin Jayro Bustamante's IXCANUL (pronounced eesh-kanool) has garnered about fifteen different awards and distinctions. This good year gave Bustamante, a filmmaker from Guatemala, some much-needed exposure and, hopefully, even-better means to make another film soon. In IXCANUL Maria, 17, lives on the slopes of an active volcano. An arranged marriage is

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As usual, lots of mesmerizingly-good cinema to see and report on at the ongoing Berlinale. I'm a die-hard Cannester (it sounds weird, I know) but somehow Berlin being held in February just seems to work out better timing-wise for a lot of the more vital and less-established filmmakers. The wild, young things are here in Berlin and the older, more reliable filmmakers wait until May to make an appearance. Some, like Terrence Malick