Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle said questions around freedom of speech had loomed large as she prepared her inaugural edition but not impacted her selection, as she announced the line-up for the main Competition and new Perspectives strand on Tuesday.
Prior to her arrival, the 2024 edition dissolved into a war of words over conflicting views about the Israel-Hamas conflict, after several filmmakers criticized Israel over its ongoing offensive in Gaza in the closing night awards ceremony and a handful of local politicians responded saying their comments were antisemitic.
The incident led to suggestions that the Berlinale, which has always prided itself as a safe space open to the debates of the day, was no longer a bastion of freedom of speech and different political perspectives.
“Lots of filmmakers from Arab countries have approached us over the last weeks, just to make sure the festival is a space for open dialogue and discourse,” Tuttle said in answer to a question on how the festival would tackle around questions of freedom of speech this year.
“Where we can, we like to have individual conversations, and we’d encourage filmmakers to come to us, to talk to us about this. It’s affected the program… but not so far, it’s not been something that’s kept us from being able to program the program that we wanted to, but outreach is really important for us.”
Tuttle suggested that the current political mood had been challenging for festivals but added that she had not let the atmosphere of division dent her pleasure of programming the festival.
“It was a challenge. Let’s be honest, but this year has been really challenging. It’s been challenging for every festival. We’re living in a world that’s very divisive and divided and [in which] discourse is not always friendly and open,” she said.
“But as challenging as it’s been, and I mean this really, honestly, it’s also been really joyous and really, pleasurable and a real privilege to get to watch the films that we’ve just talked about here and work with our teams to put together a program. So, I think it would be crazy for me to complain about the challenges when we have these amazing films to show to audiences.”
Tuttle also addressed news of the Berlinale’s state funding boost following an announcement by the German Ministry of Culture on the eve of the press conference of an additional $1.9M (€1.9M), bringing the overall budget to $12.8M (€12.8M).
“We’re really very, very grateful… we’re hugely grateful for this support,” she said. “You all have written about it. It’s been very well documented that the Berlinale has had a few years of financial challenges with rising costs and and also this year in particular, around a change in our sponsor and partner portfolio. Luckily I knew that immediately when I came in and set about tackling it with a really incredibly committed and passionate and experienced team.”
