Berlinale 2019: Australian filmmakers go global to stay global
Soaked in the authentic gravity of German audiences on Potsdamerplatz, Sarah Ward assesses the Australian impact in 2019.
21 Feb 2019
Sarah Ward
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Television
Image: Buoyancy, written and directed by Rodd Rathjen, produced by Sam Jennings, Kristina Ceyton and Rita Walsh through Causeway Films.
When the Berlinale kicks into gear each February, the German film festival couldn’t feel further away from Australia. The air is frosty and crisp, the temperature hovers around zero, and the blue hues of Europe in late winter offer a welcome reprieve from Australia’s relentless summer heat. It’s a place where the antipodes are rarely on anyone’s mind, nor antipodean filmmaking – and, cementing the latter fact, where Aussie features are usually few and far between.
Sarah Ward is a freelance film critic, arts and culture writer, and film festival organiser. She is the Australia-based critic for Screen International, a film reviewer and writer for ArtsHub, the weekend editor and a senior writer for Concrete Playground, a writer for the Goethe-Institut Australien’s Kino in Oz, and a contributor to SBS, SBS Movies and Flicks Australia. Her work has been published by the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, Junkee, FilmInk, Birth.Movies.Death, Lumina, Senses of Cinema, Broadsheet, Televised Revolution, Metro Magazine, Screen Education and the World Film Locations book series. She is also the editor of Trespass Magazine, a film and TV critic for ABC radio Brisbane, Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast, and has worked with the Brisbane International Film Festival, Queensland Film Festival, Sydney Underground Film Festival and Melbourne International Film Festival. Follow her on Twitter: @swardplay
