Festivals: Letter from Berlin: Report from the 54th International Film Festival‪.‬

For ten days every February, Berlin becomes the capital of film, as the Berlinale showcases more than four hundred films and an international jury--this year headed by American actress Frances McDormand--selects the winner of the coveted Golden Bear. In its third year under new director Dieter Kosslick (pictured), and in its fifth year at glitzy Potsdamer Platz, this year's installment was even more international, more professional, more prestigious, and more popular with Berliners, slowly narrowing the gap to its great rival in Southern France. While winter in Berlin certainly cannot match May on the Cote d'Azur, many feel that as far as films are concerned, the Berlinale has closed in on Cannes. Both in the Competition and its others series--the Panorama and the Forum, which showcase international productions as well as smaller, independent films--the festival traditionally focuses on films with a certain political relevance. Among the 23 films in the competition, 19 of which were world premieres, there were several that in one way or another took issue with a variety of political concerns, both past and present. To be sure, there was not the same sense of urgency as last year, when only days before the war in Iraq more than a hundred thousand demonstrated in the streets of Berlin and elsewhere in Europe, and a passionate Dustin Hoffman spoke out against the war during the festival. But this year's films articulated political concerns and issues stronger than in the past.