Quebec well represented at the Berlinale

The cinema world is carving out a good place for itself at the Berlinale: Quebec filmmaker Denis Côté – a regular at the festival – will be a juror in the Encounters section, while three Quebec productions have been selected.

The Berlinale unveiled the list of jurors in its different categories on Thursday, and Denis Côté has the honor of being part of it. The Encounters section, which has existed since 2020, aims to reward “bold works by independent and innovative filmmakers” and “give more space to diverse narrative and documentary forms in the official selection”. The Quebecer will sit with two other directors, the Italian Tizza Covi and the Argentinian Lisandro Alonso.

Denis Côté is a well-known figure at the Berlinale, having been nominated four times in official competition for his films. Vic+Flo saw a bear (2013), Boris without Beatrice (2016), Directory of disappeared towns (2019) and A summer like that (2022). His film May your joy remain was selected in the Forum section in 2014. In 2021, Denis Côté won the award for best director in the Encounters category with Social hygiene.

Three productions

Three Quebec productions were selected for this 74^e Berlinale, which will take place from February 15 to 25. Montrealer Meryam Joobeur will present her first feature film, Where we come fromin official competition. Where we come from – a co-production between France, Quebec and Tunisia – tells the story of Aïcha, a mother from northern Tunisia upset by the departure of her two sons who left to join Islamic jihad.

The feature film Like fireby Quebec director Philippe Lesage (The demons, Genesis), was selected in the Generation section, a section intended as much for young audiences as for “open-minded adults”. The film tells the story of 17-year-old Jeff who is invited by a friend’s family to stay at a secluded estate deep in the woods where a great director lives.

Intercepted, by Oksana Karpovych, was chosen in the Forum section. The artist, who lives between Kyiv and Montreal, built his feature-length documentary on intercepted calls made by Russian soldiers in Ukraine. This is a Quebec, France and Ukraine co-production.

Finally, let us highlight the presence of another Quebecer at the Berlinale, Karine Savard, whose medium is both known and unknown: the design of film posters. She will take part in the exhibition “The Big Screen – Film Posters of All Time”. Karine Savard designed the posters for two films selected for the Berlinale this year (Like fireby Phillipe Lesage, and Reinasby Klaudia Reynicke), in addition to being behind the posters of numerous local and international films, including CRAZY by Jean-Marc Vallée and The Life of Adele by Abdellatif Kechiche.