Berlin Film Festival adds Philip Seymour Hoffman, Maximilian Schell tributes

The Berlin Film Festival kicks off today and prior to the opening, organizers announced plans to pay tribute to the late actors Philip Seymour Hoffman and Maximilian Schell.

The festival’s opening gala features the introduction of the international jury, which includes filmmakers from around the world. This year’s jury is lead by American producer James Schamus and also includes actors Greta Gerwig, Tony Leung and Christoph Waltz. It will even be broadcast on German television.

Wes Anderson’s latest, The Grand Budapest Hotel, opens the festival with its World Premiere. The Monuments Men, which opens in the U.S. on Friday, will also be screened.

There will also be a few somber moments throughout the event. Hoffman will be remembered with a special screening of Capote, which earned him his Oscar, on Feb. 11.

“His death was pretty tough on everyone in the industry. But Philip Seymour Hoffman will be here,” Shamus said during the opening press conference, reports The Hollywood Reporter. “He will be here...A lot of his friends will be joining together (in Berlin) to remember him – it is places like Berlin that provide a place to remember, mourn and to celebrate. No, no, he'll be here.”

Variety reports that the festival’s tribute to Schell will include a screening of Meine Schwester Maria, his documentary about his equally famous sister, actress Maria Schell.

Schell was also an Oscar winner, taking Best Actor home for 1961’s Judgement At Nuremberg. He also directed Marlene, a documentary on Marlene Dietrich, which was screened at Berlin in 1984.

The festival runs from Feb. 6 to Feb. 16.

image: Wikimedia Commons

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