Variety
January 18, 2001
By David Rooney

BERLIN (Variety) - With a competition slate that includes Sean Penn's The Pledge, Lasse Hallstrom's Chocolat, Steven Soderbergh's Traffic and Gus Van Sant's Finding Forrester, U.S. and other English-language features continue to dominate the Berlin Intl. Film Festival (Feb. 7-18), jostling for attention with European and Asian titles.

Unveiling the lineup for his swan song edition as festival chief, executive director Moritz de Hadeln revealed a roster of 24 features and 11 short films competing for the 51st Berlinale's Gold and Silver Bears. Sixteen of these films will be world premieres.

While Berlin frequently has been criticized in recent editions as a junket forum for the U.S. majors to profile their heavy-hitting Oscar contenders, studio fare is in shorter supply this year, with more pictures than in the past coming from the indie sector.

However, Oscar hopefuls are by no means absent. Competition entries include the critically lauded Traffic, distributed domestically by USA Films; Columbia's Finding Forrester; and two Miramax productions: Chocolat and Giuseppe Tornatore's Italian-language period piece, Malena.

Also flying the U.S. flag in competition are Spike Lee's Bamboozled from New Line, and Penn's The Pledge, starring Jack Nicholson, Sam Shepard, Robin Wright Penn and Benicio del Toro, a Franchise picture opening in the U.S. through Warners.

Screening out of competition is Ridley Scott's Silence of the Lambs sequel, Hannibal, which goes out in the U.S. via MGM and internationally through Universal; and Philip Kaufman's Quills from Fox Searchlight.

Italy has a significant profile this time around after many years of being under-represented due to diplomatic tensions between the Italian industry and the German fest.

Berlin will open with Jean-Jacques Annaud's $95 million Stalingrad epic Enemy at the Gates, and close with the 70mm restored print of Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The visionary sci-fi classic is one of three posthumous tributes to Kubrick scheduled during the festival's closing days.