This week, Film Comment is reporting from Berlin, where the 2024 Berlinale kicked off on February 15. Throughout the festival, we’ll be sharing daily podcasts, dispatches, and interviews covering all the highlights of this year’s selection, including new films by Olivier Assayas, Mati Diop, Bruno Dumont, Hong Sangsoo, and many more. Subscribe to the Film Comment Letter here to stay up-to-date.

On today’s episode, our fourth from Berlin, FC Editor Devika Girish is joined by an international cadre of programmers and critics made up of Jonathan Ali, Frédéric Jaeger, and Antoine Thirion to talk about Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias’s Pepe, Hong Sangsoo’s A Traveler’s Needs, Malaury Eloi Paisley’s L’homme-vertige, Dag Johan Haugerud’s Sex, Victor Kossakovsky’s Architecton, and Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell’s Direct Action.

As if that weren’t enough! This episode also features a special, short interview by FC Publisher (and President of Film at Lincoln Center) Lesli Klainberg with super-producer Christine Vachon of Killer Films, the production company behind two standout hits of 2023, Past Lives and May December. The two dig into the contemporary and historical importance of the Berlinale for American independent film and how Christine is able to adapt her business to ongoing changes in the industry.

Stay up to date with all of our Berlinale 2024 coverage here: https://www.filmcomment.com/blog/category/festivals/berlin/berlin-2024/