There'll be more notes and roundups over the next few days, but before tonight's presentation of the Bears, I thought I'd rank the films I managed to see at this year's Berlinale. Note that these are not awards predictions but rather personal preferences, for what they're worth. In order (for the moment):
OUTSTANDING
1. Barbara (Christian Petzold), Competition (see the notes and roundup).
2. Tabu (Miguel Gomes), Competition (notes and roundup).
3. Revision (Philip Scheffner), Forum.
VERY GOOD
4. Bestiaire (Denis Côté), Forum (notes and roundup).
GOOD
5. Sister (Ursula Meier), Competition.
6. Death Row (Werner Herzog), Berlinale Special.
7. War Witch (Kim Nguyen), Competition.
8. Aujourd'hui (Alain Gomis), Competition.
9. Everybody in Our Family (Radu Jude), Forum.
10. Marina Abramović The Artist Is Present (Matthew Akers), Panorama Dokumente.
11. Golden Slumbers (Davy Chou), Forum.
JUST ABOVE THE MIDDLE LINE
12. Mercy (Matthias Glasner), Competition.
13. Captive (Brillante Mendoza), Competition (notes and roundup).
14. Francine (Brian M Cassidy and Melani Shatzky), Forum.
15. Caesar Must Die (Paolo and Vittorio Taviani), Competition.
16. White Deer Plain (Wang Quan'an), Competition.
17. Meteora (Spiros Stathoulopoulos), Competition.
18. Condition (Thomas Heise), Forum.
JUST BELOW THE MIDDLE LINE
19. Farewell, My Queen (Benoît Jacquot), Competition (notes and roundup).
20. Kid-Thing (David and Nathan Zellner), Forum.
21. Choked (Kim Joong-hyun), Forum.
22. Coming Home (Frédéric Videau), Competition.
23. Postcards from the Zoo (Edwin), Competition.
BAD
24. Iron Sky (Timo Vuorensola), Panorama Special.
VERY BAD
25. Home for the Weekend (Hans-Christian Schmid), Competition.
26. Childish Games (Antonio Chavarrías), Competition.
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