THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER 91 FEBRUA RY 12, 2020
T
he 70th anniver-
sary of the Berlin
International Film
Festival should be
a cause for celebration.
But recent revelations
about the festival’s
first director, Dr. Alfred
Bauer, are casting a
dark shadow over this
year’s festivities.
Bauer, a film
historian who ran the
Berlinale from its start
in 1951 through 1976,
has long been held
up as a symbol of the
Berlinale’s core values
of openness, tolerance
and the embrace of
the other. Since his
death in 1986, Berlin
has awarded the
Alfred Bauer Prize in
his honor, recogniz-
ing work that “opens
new perspectives on
cinematic art.” Baz
Luhrmann won the
Alfred Bauer for Romeo
+ Juliet in 1997, Zhang
Yimou won in 2003 for
Hero, and Polish dis-
sident director Andrzej
Wajda won in 2009 for
Sweet Rush.
But new revela-
tions, first reported in
German newspaper
Die Zeit on Jan. 29,
show that Bauer was
not what he appeared
to be. Documentsfrom the early 1940s
indicate the “film
historian” was an
active and enthusiastic
member of the Nazi
Party under Adolf
Hitler and was a high-
ranking member of the
Reichsfilmintendanz,
the film division of
the Nazi propaganda
ministry. During
Bauer’s time there,
the division autho-
rized such films as
Veit Harlan’s Kolberg
(1945), a war drama
meant to encourage
the German popula-
tion to fight the Allies
to the last man. A Nazi
file on Bauer calls him
a “devoted” member of
the Sturmabteilung, the
Nazi Party’s original
paramilitary wing.
After the war, Bauer
was initially designated
with an employment
ban, part of the Allies’
“denazification” pro-
cess. But when Oscar
Martay, a film officer of
the U.S. Army stationed
in Berlin, persuaded
the American military
to fund the first Berlin
Film Festival in 1951,
Bauer was asked to run
it. The official history
of the Berlinale has
always portrayed the
festival, launched atthe height of the Cold
War, as a “window to
the free world” for the
countries of commu-
nist Eastern Europe.
Bauer’s history now
casts this interpreta-
tion in a new light.
“It is a paradox of
history that I and my
late friend and mentor
Andrzej Wajda — who
was part of the Polish
underground resis-
tance during World
War II — should have
received an award
in Berlin that car-
ries Bauer’s name,”
says Polish director
Agnieszka Holland, the
Alfred Bauer Prize win-
ner in 2017 for Spoor.
“The real question is:
How many skeletons
are still in the closet?”
In a statement, the
festival, which has
canceled this year’s
Bauer Prize, says it will
“seize the opportunity
to begin a deeper
research on the festival
history with the support
of external experts.”
Adds Berlinale
artistic director Carlo
Chatrian: “Considering
what has been
reported, it is very
likely we will have to
change things and [get
rid of the name].” — S.R.Searchlight Pictures acquired
The Night House for an estimated
$12 million, while Hulu/Neon
picked up Palm Springs for a
record-breaking $17.5 million.
“It’s good to see traditional
distributors like Searchlight, SPC
and Neon buying again, back in
the game and not being priced out
by streamers,” says Simon Gillis,
CEO of British production group
See-Saw.
Deals for finished films are
unlikely to match Sundance but
Berlin’s presale market is look-
ing bullish. It helps that Berlin
is starting two weeks later than
usual so as not to clash with the
Oscars. “It gives everyone an extra
two weeks to prep projects, to
secure cast and attachments and,
if you’ve picked something out of
Sundance, to give you the time to
turn it around and show it at the
EFM,” says HanWay managing
director Gabrielle Stewart.
But, argues Julia Weber of Global
Screen, the sales arm of German
film and TV group Telepool, for
Berlin to be successful, it needs
both a strong market and a strong
festival. Instead of looking at the
2020 competition lineup, Weber
points to Encounters, a new
section launched by Chatrian to
highlight innovative and ground-
breaking cinema, as a potential
spot for discovering new talent.
“Berlin should be a place of dis-
covery,” says Alison Thompson,
co-president of Cornerstone
Films, which picked up inter-
national sales on the Elisabeth
Moss starrer Shirley ahead of
2019’s EFM (the film will screen
in the Encounters section). “It’s
the place we want to see that new
director, that new actor, that new
screenwriter and say, ‘Can we get
on board their next project?’ ”GO FROM HERE?
FESTIVAL FOUNDER’S
NAZI PAST SURFACES
Revelations about Alfred Bauer, who ran
the Berlinale from 1951 to ’76, cast the
event’s egalitarian origins in a new lightBy Scott Roxborough
2020 Preview
Berlinale
founder Alfred Bauer
and Sophia Loren at
the 1959 fest’s
International Film Ball.very important sign [that] we
want to bring all audiences to
the Berlinale.”
Chatrian also points to
Pinocchio, Matteo Garrone’s live-
action version of the Italian fairy
tale, starring Roberto Benigni as
Geppetto, which has been a huge
success in Italy, grossing some
$16.5 million. Its Berlin bow,
an international premiere, will
kick off the film’s pan-European
release with sales group HanWay,
which held back English-language
rights on the movie, looking to
close a U.S. deal for Pinocchio at
the European Film Market.
Sellers heading to the EFM are
hoping to build on the momen-
tum out of Sundance, which saw
headline-making buys from the
likes of Lionsgate and Roadside
Attractions (Ironbark) and Netflix
(The 40-Year Old Version), w ith
some deals hitting eight figures: