Distribution Watch: Berlinale 2023
Tracking which titles have North American distribution
Last updated: April 2, 2024
Instead of doing this on Twitter, I decided to move my distribution watch over here to make it a bit more extensive, and hopefully make it a good resource for anyone else weirdly obsessive about what films will get to see a general release in North America.
Read on for the Berlinale programme below (not including series, rep titles, and Forum Expanded as they’re more difficult to track). Titles in bold will have a North American distributor, which I’ll include along with a source. I’ll keep updating this through the year, so bookmark the page if you’d like to follow along.
I’ve also decided to include mentions of prize winners for any of the official juried awards. There are a slew of different prizes given out so I only wanted to focus on the main ones, but if you’re curious to see what all the winners are the Berlinale website has done a great job compiling all of them in one place.
And since I’m only one person: if you see something I’m missing, get in touch to let me know so I can add an update.
Competition
20,000 Species of Bees (dir. Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren) {Winner: Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance} [Film Movement]
Afire (dir. Christian Petzold) [Sideshow/Janus Films] {Winner: Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize}
Art College 1994 (dir. Liu Jian) [Dekanalog]
Bad Living (dir. João Canijo) {Winner: Silver Bear Jury Prize}
BlackBerry (dir. Matt Johnson) [IFC Films]
Disco Boy (dir. Giacomo Abbruzzese) {Winner: Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution} [Big World Pictures]
Ingeborg Bachmann - Journey into the Desert (dir. Margarethe von Trotta)
Limbo (dir. Ivan Sen) [Music Box Films]
Manodrome (dir. John Trengrove) [Lionsgate]
Music (dir. Angela Schanelec) [Cinema Guild] {Winner: Silver Bear for Best Screenplay}
On the Adamant (dir. Nicolas Philibert) [Kino Lorber] {Winner: Golden Bear for Best Film}
Past Lives (dir. Celine Song) [A24]
The Plough (dir. Philippe Garrel) {Winner: Silver Bear for Best Director}
The Shadowless Tower (dir. Zhang Lu) [Strand Releasing]
Someday We'll Tell Each Other Everything (dir. Emily Atef) [Strand Releasing]
The Survival of Kindness (dir. Rolf de Heer)
Suzume (dir. Makoto Shinkai) [Crunchyroll]
Till the End of the Night (dir. Christoph Hochhäusler) {Winner: Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance}
Tótem (dir. Lila Avilés) [Sideshow/Janus Films]
Encounters
Absence (dir. Wu Lang)
The Adults (dir. Dustin Guy Defa) [Universal]
The Cage is Looking for a Bird (dir. Malika Musaeva)
Eastern Front (dirs. Vitaly Mansky, Yevhen Titarenko)
The Echo (dir. Tatiana Huezo) {Winner: Best Director, Encounters; Berlinale Documentary Award}
Family Time (dir. Tia Kouvo)
Here (dir. Bas Devos) [Cinema Guild] {Winner: Best Film, Encounters}
In the Blind Spot (dir. Ayşe Polat)
in water (dir. Hong Sang-soo) [Cinema Guild]
The Klezmer Project (dirs. Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann)
Living Bad (dir. João Canijo)
My Worst Enemy (dir. Mehran Tamadon)
Orlando, My Political Biography (dir. Paul B. Preciado) [Sideshow/Janus Films] {Winner: Special Jury Award, Encounters}
Samsara (dir. Lois Patiño) {Winner: Special Jury Award, Encounters}
The Walls of Bergamo (dir. Stefano Savona)
White Plastic Sky (dirs. Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó)
Berlinale Special
#Manhole (dir. Kazuyoshi Kumakiri)
Boom! Boom! The World vs. Boris Becker (dir. Alex Gibney) [Apple TV+]
Der vermessene Mensch (dir. Lars Kraume)
Golda (dir. Guy Nattiv) [Bleecker Street]
Infinity Pool (dir. Brandon Cronenberg) [NEON]
Kill Boksoon (dir. Byun Sung-hyun) [Netflix]
Kiss the Future (dir. Nenad Cicin-Sain)
Last Night of Amore (dir. Andrea di Stefano)
Loriot's Great Cartoon Revue (dirs. Peter Geyer, Loriot)
Love to Love You, Donna Summer (dirs. Roger Ross Williams, Brooklyn Sudano) [HBO Films]
Mad Fate (dir. Soi Cheang) [ILLUME Films]
Massimo Troisi: Somebody Down There Likes Me (dir. Mario Martone)
Seneca - On the Creation of Earthquakes (dir. Robert Schwentke)
She Came to Me (dir. Rebecca Miller) [Vertical Entertainment]
Sun and Concrete (dir. David Wnendt)
Superpower (dirs. Sean Penn, Aaron Kaufman) [Paramount+]
Talk to Me (dirs. Danny Philippou, Michael Philippou) [A24]
TÁR (dir. Todd Field) [Focus Features]
Panorama
After (dir. Anthony Lapia)
All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White (dir. Babatunde Apalowo)
Ambush (dir. Chhatrapal Ninawe)
And, Towards Happy Alleys (dir. Sreemoyee Singh)
The Beast in the Jungle (dir. Patric Chiha)
The Burdened (dir. Amr Gamal)
The Castle (dir. Martín Benchimol)
The Cemetery of Cinema (dir. Thierno Souleymane Diallo)
Do You Love Me? (dir. Tonia Noyabrova)
Drifter (dir. Hannes Hirsch)
The Eternal Memory (dir. Maite Alberdi) [MTV Documentary Films]
Femme (dirs. Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping) [Utopia]
Green Night (dir. Han Shuai) [Film Movement]
Hello Dankness (dir. Soda Jerk) [Self-released]
Heroic (dir. David Zonana)
Inside (dir. Vasilis Katsoupis) [Focus Features]
Iron Butterflies (dir. Roman Liubyi)
Joan Baez I Am a Noise (dirs. Karen O'Connor, Miri Navasky, Maeve O'Boyle) [Magnolia Pictures]
Kokomo City (dir. D. Smith) [Magnolia Pictures]
Matria (dir. Álvaro Gago)
Midwives (dir. Léa Fehner)
Opponent (dir. Milad Alami)
Passages (dir. Ira Sachs) [Mubi]
Perpetrator (dir. Jennifer Reeder) [Shudder]
Property (dir. Daniel Bandeira)
The Quiet Migration (dir. Malene Choi)
Reality (dir. Tina Satter) [HBO Films]
Silver Haze (dir. Sacha Polak) [Dark Star Pictures]
Sira (dir. Apolline Traoré)
The Siren (dir. Sepideh Farsi)
Sisi & I (dir. Frauke Finsterwalder) [Film Movement]
Stams (dir. Bernhard Braunstein)
The Teachers' Lounge (dir. İlker Çatak) [Sony Pictures Classics]
Transfariana (dir. Joris Lachaise)
Under the Sky of Damascus (dirs. Heba Khaled, Talal Derki, Ali Wajeeh)
Forum
About Thirty (dir. Martin Shanly)
ALLENSWORTH (dir. James Benning)
Anqa (dir. Helin Çelik)
Being in a Place - A Portrait of Margaret Tait (dirs. Luke Fowler and Margaret Tait)
Between Revolutions (dir. Vlad Petri)
The Bride (dir. Myriam U. Birara)
Calls from Moscow (dir. Luís Alejandro Yero)
Cidade Rabat (dir. Susana Nobre)
Concrete Valley (dir. Antoine Bourges) [MDFF for Canada; no US distributor]
De Facto (dir. Selma Doborac)
Dearest Fiona (dir. Fiona Tan)
The Face of the Jellyfish (dir. Melisa Liebenthal)
Forms of Forgetting (dir. Burak Çevik)
A Golden Life (dir. Boubacar Sangare)
Horse Opera (dir. Moyra Davey)
In Ukraine (dirs. Piotr Pawlus, Tomasz Wolski)
The Intrusion (dirs. Flora Dias, Juruna Mallon)
Leaving and Staying (dir. Volker Koepp)
Mammalia (dir. Sebastian Mihăilescu)
Notes from Eremocene (dir. Viera Čákanyová)
Our Body (dir. Claire Simon) [Cinema Guild]
Regardless of Us (dir. Yoo Heong-jun)
Remembering Every Night (dir. Yui Kiyohara) [KimStim]
The Temple Woods Gang (dir. Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche)
There Is a Stone (dir. Tatsunari Ota)
The Trial (dir. Ulises de la Orden) [Self-released]
This Is the End (dir. Vincent Dieutre)
Where God is Not (dir. Mehran Tamadon)
Generation
Adolfo (dir. Sofía Auza) {Winner: Crystal Bear for the Best Film, Youth’s Jury Generation 14plus}
Almamula (dir. Juan Sebastian Torales)
And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine (dirs. Axel Danielson, Maximilien Van Aertryck) [Strand Releasing]
Autobio-Pamphlet (dir. Ashish Avinash Bende)
Dancing Queen (dir. Aurora Gossé)
Deep Sea (dir. Tian Xiaopeng)
Delegation (dir. Asaf Saban) [Greenwich Entertainment]
Dreams' Gate (dir. Negin Ahmadi)
A Greyhound of a Girl (dir. Enzo d’Alò)
Hummingbirds (dirs. Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía "Beba" Contreras) {Winner: The Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury for the Best Film}
I Woke Up With a Dream (dir. Pablo Solarz)
Just Super (dir. Rasmus A. Sivertsen)
Kiddo (dir. Zara Dwinger)
Looking for the World (dir. Jenna Hasse)
The Lost Boys (dir. Zeno Graton)
Mimi (dir. Mira Fornay) {Winner: The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Film}
Mutt (dir. Vuk Lungulov-Klotz) [Strand Releasing]
Ramona (dir. Victoria Linares Villegas)
Sea Sparkle (dir. Domien Huyghe)
Sica (dir. Carla Subirana)
Sweet As (dir. Jub Clerc) {Winner: Crystal Bear for the Best Film, Children’s Jury Generation Kplus}
The Properties of Metals (dir. Antonio Bigini)
Tomorrow is a Long Time (dirs. Jow Zhi Wei, Leon Dai, Edward Tan)
We Will Not Fade Away (dir. Alisa Kovalenko)
When Will It Be Again Like It Never Was Before (dir. Sonja Heiss)
Perspektive Deutsches Kino
Ararat (dir. Engin Kundağ)
Ash Wednesday (dirs. Bárbara Santos, João Pedro Prado)
Bones and Names (dir. Fabian Stumm)
Elaha (dir. Milena Aboyan)
The Kidnapping of the Bride (dir. Sophia Mocorrea)
Lonely Oaks (dirs. Fabiana Fragale, Kilian Kuhlendahl, Jens Mühlhoff)
Long Long Kiss (dir. Lukas Röder)
Nuclear Nomads (dirs. Kilian Armando Friedrich, Tizian Stromp Zargari)
On Mothers and Daughters (dir. Tanja Egen)
Seven Winters in Tehran (dir. Steffi Niederzoll)