Berlinale Talent Campus, Goethe-Institut and FIPRESCI organized at this year's Berlinale (February 7-17, 2008) again and for the sixth time the "Talent Press", an initiative within the Berlinale Talent Campus. This workshop allows young critics to attend the festival (with a press badge), and to win experience in writing, on a daily basis, and on one of the biggest film festivals of the world. Supported by renowned film-journalists (Peter Cowie, Derek Malcolm, Dana Linssen, Stephanie Zachariak), they wrote reviews on films presented in various sections of the festival, composed features and reported about the atmosphere of the Campus and interviewed both talents and experts. Articles of the participants were published daily — between February 9 and 14 — on the website of the Berlinale Talent Campus and on the homepages of the Goethe-Institut and FIPRESCI.

The Talents

Eight young colleagues introduce themselves:
Dilek Aydin (Turkey): Reflecting on Reflections All Over Body And Soul
Shaibu Huseini (Nigeria): Short Take
Ezequiel Schmoller (Argentina): Questions
Natalia Ames (Peru): Film Criticism: In Peru, in My Life
Suchandrika Chakrabarti (UK): From Trial and Error to Visual Language
Benjamin Cho (Australia): Teenager Stripped Bare By The Movies
Martyna Olszowska (Poland): The Way Between
Mayank Shekhar (India): Why I Am A Critic

The Texts

Day 0 — Before the Festival
All participants of the Talent Press were asked to write a review on one and the same film, God Man Dog (Lui lang shen gao ren), the second film of Taiwanese director Singing Chen (2007), presented in the International Forum of New Cinema.

Day 1 — Saturday, February 9
Natalia Ames loved Fernando Eimbcke's competition entry Lake Tahoe
Shaibu Husseini reviews Brad Anderson's Transsiberian
Ben Cho on Slingshot, Brillante Mendoza's survey of Manila slumlife
Dilek Aydin enjoyed the Patti Smith portray Dream of Life
Ezequiel Schmoller asks what the Talent Campus participants are expecting
Suchandrika Chakrabarti reviews Eran Riklis' Lemon Tree
Martyna Olszowska made a tour through the Talent Campus
Mayank Shekhar about composers of film music

Day 2 — Sunday, February 10
Suchandrika Chakrabarti reports on Agnieszka Moody's introduction to the Media Program of the European Union
Ben Cho listened Fernando Eimbcke and Pablo Fendrik talking about Latin America and the problems of filmmaking
Dilek Aydin finds out that in Yves-Christian Fournier's Everything Is Fine (Canada) by far not everything is fine
Ezequiel Schmoller explains why Citizen Havel is a good example of "direct cinema"
Martyna Olszowska reviews Revanche by Austrian Götz Spielmann
Natalia Ames writes on three stars visiting the Campus: Maria Schrader, Kate Henshaw-Nuttall and Shah Rukh Khan

Day 3 — Monday, February 11
Suchandrika Chakrabarti meets John Akomfrah
Ben Cho introduces Chinese filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai and reviews his competition entry In Love We Trust
Dilek Aydin reports on the panel "Cairo Underground"
Martyna Olszowska attended the panel "Heroes vs. Anti-Heroes. Success Stories in Cinema"
Mayank Shekhar reviews Majid Majidi's The Song Of Sparrows (competition)
Natalia Ames reviews Elite Squad, Brazilian director José Padilha's competition entry (and Golden Bear winner)
Shaibu Husseini talked to screenwriter and producer Dick Ross

Day 04 — Tuesday, February 12
Ezequiel Schmoller reviews There Will Be Blood by Paul Thomas Anderson
Shaibu Husseini reviews Night And Day by Korean director and writer Hong Sangsoo
Ezequiel Schmoller talks to Abderrahmane Ahmed Salem, the founder and director of the Mauritanian "La Maison des Cinéastes"
Martyna Olszowska reviews Dennis Lee's debut film Fireflies In The Garden
Mayank Shekhar meets UK film and theater director Stephen Daldry
Natalia Ames visited a conference with Andrzej Wajda, the Polish filmmaker

Day 05 — Wednesday, February 13
Suchandrika Chakrabarti on Madonna and her film Filth and Wisdom
Ben Cho about Dusan Makavejev who visited the Talent Campus
Dilek Aydin on Marian Quinn's 32A
Martyna Olszowska talks with Thai director Aditya Assarat
Mayank Shekhar on Luis Buñuel and the Berlinale retrospective
Dilek Aydin attended the panel "From Street Cred to Street Credibility — Hip Hop and the Movies"
Mayank Shekhar listened to a debate on film criticism

Day 6 — Thursday, February 14
Ben Cho on Martin Scorsese and the Stones
Natalia Ames didn't like Before Fall, Spanish director F. Javier Gutiérrez' debut, but attests it a certain talent for direction
Dilek Aydin attended the workshop "Eyes on the Music" which hosted composer Gustavo Santaolalla
Ezequiel Schmoller reviews Natasha Arthy's Fighter
Suchandrika Chakrabarti attended the panel "The Dark Side of Cinema", which took a wide-ranging look at human emotions in film
Martyna Olszowska enjoyed Jose Luis Lopez-Linares' cooking documentary The Chicken, The Fish And The King Crab
Mayank Shekhar on Amos Kollek's Restless
Ezequiel Schmoller reports on a panel devoted to documentary
Natalia Ames attended the panel "The Language of Spaces and Things" and talked to designer Alex McDowell
Shaibu Husseini presents the Script Station of the Campus
Suchandrika Chakrabarti reviews Bananaz by British documentarist Ceri Levy
Ben Cho talks with cinematographer and first-time director Ellen Kuras
Shaibu Husseini reviews Albertina Carri's La rabia

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