Berlin Film Festival Showbiz and Celebrity Breaking News

London-based sales agency Film Republic has boarded Finnish film “Eden” as it prepares for the European Film Market in Berlin. The company has released a teaser for the film.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Christian Petzold’s “Undine,” which world premieres in competition at the Berlin Film Festival. Petzold won the Silver Berlin Bear for best director for “Barbara” in 2012.

Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique expands their slate for the upcoming Berlin Film Festival with global sales rights on “Last and First Men,” from the late Icelandic-born filmmaker-composer Jóhann Jóhannsson, which will world premiere in the Berlinale Special section.

Berlin-based sales agent M-appeal has picked up Norwegian children’s film “Sisters: The Summer We Found Our Superpowers,” ahead of the European Film Market in Berlin, where it will screen.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the first clip from Berlinale Special Gala film “Curveball,” which is inspired by the true story of how the work of the German secret service led to the Iraq War.

London-based production, finance and sales company Film Constellation has added Tim Sutton’s Berlinale title “Funny Face” to its international sales slate. UTA is representing North American rights.

American playwright and filmmaker Kenneth Lonergan, French actor and “The Artist” star Bérénice Bejo, and Palestinian director Annemarie Jacir will serve on the International Jury of the Berlin Film Festival.

Picturehouse Entertainment has acquired U.K. rights from TrustNordisk for Maria Sødahl’s “Hope,” which stars Stellan Skarsgård and Andrea Bræin Hovig, and will have its European premiere at the Berlin Film Festival this month.

The Japanese film “37 Seconds” is deceptively delicate and quietly tough. Not unlike its protagonist.

The Berlin Film Festival has suspended its Alfred Bauer Prize following revelations that the award’s namesake and the Berlinale’s first director was much more closely affiliated with the Nazi Party than previously known.

It’s not that the knives were out, exactly. It’s just that the faint whiff of lame duckishness has hung over the Berlin Film Festival since the announcement of longtime director Dieter Kosslick’s 2019 departure, an impression that intensified during the last two editions, which were generally regarded as among the weakest the festival has recently seen.

Variety has been given exclusive access to the trailer for Swiss/Croatian feature film “Mare,” written and directed by Andrea Staka, which will have its world premiere in the Panorama Section of the Berlin Film Festival.

MADRID  —  Just minutes after the Berlinale confirmed on Wednesday its selection in main competition, the pedigree producers of Argentine Natalia Meta’s “The Intruder” (“El Prófugo”) have dropped a first teaser-trailer for what has been described as a “pyscho-sexual fantastic thriller.”

The Berlin Film Festival is unveiling its main competition line-up this morning, alongside additional galas.

Imagine a high-ratings, high-stakes game show that trivializes a convict’s life-or-death fate for public consumption. As wild as it sounds, a version of this reality TV entertainment apparently really exists in modern-day Iran, where writer-director Massoud Bakhshi’s “Yalda, a Night for Forgiveness” is set, and where a wildly popular edition of it has been airing for nearly a decade.

Reel Suspects has acquired international sales rights to Caru Alves de Souza’s coming-of-age tale “My Name is Baghdad,” which will world premiere at the Berlin Film Festival in the Generation 14 section.

A big year for the Berlin Film Festival, the 70th edition of the Berlinale will open with Philippe Falardeau’s anticipated “My Salinger Year,” headlined by a powerful female duo, Sigourney Weaver and Margaret Qualley.

Brussels-based company Best Friend Forever acquired two debut features, Camilo Restrepo’s Berlinale-bound “Los Conductos” and Pascal Tagnati’s “Corsican Summer.” Both films are produced by up and coming outfit 5à7 films.

“Minamata,” starring Johnny Depp, Nanette Burstein’s documentary series about Hillary Clinton, “Hillary,” and Agnieszka Holland’s “Charlatan” have been selected to play at the Berlin Film Festival, the event said Tuesday.

British actor Jeremy Irons, who plays Ozymandias in the HBO series “Watchmen” and won an Oscar in 1991 for “Reversal of Fortune,” will serve as president of the International Jury at the 70th Berlin Intl. Film Festival, the event revealed Thursday.

European Film Promotion has unveiled the 10 Shooting Stars, up-and-coming acting talents set to break out internationally, who will be honored at the 2020 Berlin Film Festival.

Restored footage of an infamous Tokyo University debate between controversial Japanese poet and novelist Yukio Mishima and university students is the centerpiece of a documentary “Mishima: The Last Debate” by Keisuke Toyoshima, which will be released theatrically in Japan in March.