This year, the Berlin International Film Festival takes place from 12 to 22 February. It is one of the largest, most significant and tradition-rich A-class film festivals in the world, and for Latvian film industry professionals the Berlinale and the European Film Market serve each year as an important platform for building international cooperation. One of Europe’s key film industry forums – the European Film Market (EFM, 12–18 February). At the European Film Market, the Latvian stand will operate alongside those of Lithuania and Estonia, staffed by representatives of the National Film Centre of Latvia and the Latvian Producers Association. The stand is located at Gropius Bau, the main venue of the film market, and is financially supported by the Investment and Development Agency of Latvia (LIAA).
This year at the EFM, the currently most popular feature film in Latvia, Dzintars Dreibergs’ Escape Net / Tīklā. TTT Leģendas dzimšana, will have its international market premiere. The film market premiere will also be held for a five-country co-production in which the Latvian studio Air Productions is a minority co-producer – the children’s adventure film Extraordinary (Croatia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Latvia, Serbia).
At important industry section is the Berlinale Co-Production Market, among the specially selected upcoming co-productions is director Signe Baumane’s new animated feature Karmic Knot / Karmiskais mezgls the concluding part of a very personal and partly autobiographical trilogy that follows the internationally acclaimed films Rocks in My Pockets (2014) and My Love Affair with Marriage (2022). The film is produced by the Latvian studio Lokomotīve in cooperation with studios in the USA and Italy, with financial support from the National Film Centre of Latvia.
Internationally renowned Latvian animation will also be represented at the Berlinale by director Edmunds Jansons’ upcoming animated series for primary school audiences, Oskars un Lietas / Hello, Oscar! (producer Sabīne Andersone), selected for the EFM Animation Day. The series is another excellent example of Baltic cooperation, as it is based on motifs from a book by Estonian writer Andrus Kivirähk – about Oskars, who spends the summer with his grandmother in the countryside and, in an unusual way, discovers a completely unfamiliar world.
Latvia’s presence at the Berlinale also includes screenings in the Berlinale Classics programme, where on Friday, 13 February, the restored version of a famous Estonian film from cinema history will have its world premiere – director Grigori Kromanov’s mystical sci-fi thriller Hotel “At the Dead Mountaineer” (1979). The lead investigator is played by legendary Latvian actor Uldis Pūcītis, and Kārlis Sebris also appears in the film.
For use at the stand both onsite and online, the National Film Centre has prepared the statistical publication Facts & Figures with the latest data from all three Baltic states. The magazine Baltic Film will also be available at the stand and online, with content prepared jointly by the three countries, highlighting the most relevant developments and trends in each national film industry.
