Potsdamer Platz is a bit of an expat no-go zone 11 months out of the year, but even longtime Berliners can’t resist it when the red carpets are rolled out for the Berlinale (Feb 5-15). Now in its 65th year, the city’s biggest A-List festival attracts international celebrities and talent from around the world. And what’s more, the festival is open to the public, rare for festivals of this scale, and all films run with English subtitles.

The excitement includes a fair share of queer content, something the Berlinale’s never really been short on. Traditionally, Panorama has been the section to watch, helmed since 1992 by Wieland Speck. With his mentor, Manfred Salzgeber, Speck created the Teddy Award in 1987 as special commendation for LGBT films.

Before we get to the films, let’s start with the Teddy. Designed by legendary gay German comic artist Ralf König, the beautifully malformed bear already has a few new recipients this year, one being cult actor  and our cover star Udo Kier. The second, international and prolific enough to not need much explanation, Rainer Werner Fassbinder is getting awarded posthumously in the year he would turn 70. While those special mentions are announced early, several other Teddies are given out each year during the festival – for best feature, best documentary and best short. The gala ceremony hits the Komische Oper on February 13.

But to speak of legends, one has to follow with mentions of Rosa von Praunheim and Peter Kern, both of whom have films screening at this year’s Berlinale. Praunhein’s newest film Härte weaves documentary and feature filmmaking to tell the tale of karate world champion Andreas Marquardt. Austrian director Kern places a lesbian love story in the middle of predatory capitalism in Der letzte Sommer der Reichen, making different themes intersect in surprising ways.
Peter Kern isn’t the only one putting lesbian stories on the screen. Last year’s Berlinale and Teddy came under serious lavender fire for not having a single film featuring lesbians as protagonists. This year, though, the Berlinale features Dyke Hard – a road movie about a rock band raging across country as they battle cyborgs and ninjas – and documentary My Name is Annemarie Schwarzenbach – about the life of the titular writer who produced works in the 1920s – in the mix among others.

Looking at a rather ugly dimension of contemporary queer life is I Am Michael with James Franco and Zachary Quinto. Franco plays gay activist-gone-pastor Michael Glatze in a sensational tale of homosexual reparative therapy.
Outside of the Panorama, of course there are more queer films, but in terms of grand scale, Competition (the big guns section of the festival) has only one: Peter Greenaway’s Eisenstein in Guanajuato, exploring the life of Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein while he was in Mexico.

Aside from film rundowns, there’s one last thing to mention: be vicious and quick when it comes to snatching tickets – they go fast! And enjoy! There’s no avoiding the Berlinale, so dig in and catch a few of the films slated to be hyped in the film world in the year to come.

Walter Crasshole