Berlinale bows residency program

BERLIN -- The Berlin Film Festival has unveiled an initiative to lure filmmakers to the German capital: the Berlinale Residency. The international fellowship program will invite six filmmakers and their new projects to a four-month stay in Berlin beginning this fall. At a presser Tuesday, fest organizers also unveiled the complete lineups of the various sections, most of which had already been announced in piecemeal fashion. Wang Quan'an's Chinese drama "Bai lu yuan" (White Deer Plain) rounds out this year's Competition selection. A total of 23 films will screen as part of the main Competition lineup, with 18 of those, including "White Deer Plain," vying for the Golden and Silver Bears and five showing out of competition. Promising a star-heavy affair, this year's fest boasts the likes of Robert Pattinson, Angelina Jolie, Meryl Streep, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and Jake Gyllenhaal, who is serving on the international jury. Nearly 400 films will unspool in Berlin, among them Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod's "Bel Ami," Steven Soderbergh's "Haywire," Angelina Jolie's "In the Land of Blood and Honey," Billy Bob Thornton's "Jayne Mansfield's Car," Hark Tsui's "Flying Swords of Dragon Gate," Nikolaj Arcel's "A Royal Affair," Phyllida Lloyd's "The Iron Lady" and Benoit Jacquot's historical drama "Farewell My Queen," which opens the fest. The Berlinale Residency, meanwhile, is the latest initiative aimed at promoting international film production. "The Berlinale Residency is a logical progression of the previous Berlinale initiatives," said fest topper Dieter Kosslick. "The fellowship serves as a follow-up project for filmmakers who already had a feature in the official program of a festival, who were selected with projects in the Berlinale Co-Production Market or Berlinale Talent Campus, or who were supported through the World Cinema Fund. However, we are also looking forward to receiving other filmmakers from around the world, whom the program will entice to Berlin." Kirsten Niehuus, managing director of regional funder Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg -- one of the initiative's main sponsors -- said the program not only works on traditional story development, but also in close relationship with the market and industry experts. "Audience orientation and effective analysis are more important today than ever before." The six selected projects will include feature and documentary films and cross-media works. The Berlinale Co-Production Market and the Guadalajara Film Festival, also a Berlinale Residency partner, will serve as initial presentation platforms for the projects. The Berlinale is also considering possible partnerships with co-production marts in Buenos Aires, Durban and Sarajevo. The Berlinale Residency's other main backers include the Nipkow Program, the Berlin-based European fellowship program, and the EU's Media Mundus Program. The residency program kicks off in September. The first call for entries will be at the Berlinale, which runs Feb. 9-19. The fest also announced Tuesday that it will honor engineer Ray Dolby for his contribution to cinema. The fest is presenting Dolby -- the man behind Dolby Stereo and Dolby Surround -- with its Berlinale Camera award "in recognition of his work as one of the most important engineers and inventors in the film industry." "Dolby revolutionized sound in cinemas and contributed greatly to making films the amazing acoustic experience we know today," the fest said. By installing multiple loudspeakers and applying multi-channel technology, Dolby surround sound introduced viewers to the feeling of being fully immersed in the action. Dolby introduced Dolby Stereo, his first surround sound technology, in 1975. It was quickly adopted by movie theatres worldwide as films like "Star Wars" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" were released in the new sound format. Dolby Digital surround sound followed, which also later became the standard for home cinema audio with the introduction of DVD. Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories in 1965 and remained on its board of directors until his retirement last year, although he remains director emeritus. Contact Ed Meza at staff@variety.com