BERLIN (Reuters) – American Tricia Tuttle, who spent a decade at the British Film Institute, was announced as the Berlinale’s next director on Tuesday, taking charge as the festival attempts to dodge the fallout from Germany’s budget chaos.
She will take over after the 2024 Berlin Film Festival, set for Feb. 15-25, which will be the last held under the co-director structure that was ushered by the Dutch Mariette Rissenbeek and the Italian Carlo Chatrian in June 2019.
Tuttle, another non-German, starts the job on April 1, 2024, and promised that by then she would have sufficient German language skills “for you to laugh at me”.
“The last few years have been a challenge for every festival, every festival is struggling with the same challenges around public funding,” Tuttle told journalists on Tuesday.
The festival said in July that it was slimming down the number of films shown across its various segments and dissolving its showcase for up-and-coming German cinema as part of efforts to stabilize its budget after an additional 2.2-million-euro ($2.38 million) in federal funding expires this year.
Culture Minister Claudia Roth said efforts were underway to ensure additional funding for the festival was included in the 2024 federal budget, which is still being negotiated after a court decision blew a 60-billion-euro hole in government spending plans.
“Concerns that the Berlinale will be cut to the bone is not based in reality,” the minister said at a news conference, adding that provisional plans envisaged a 1.5 million euro budget increase, which would amount to an inflation-busting 14% boost.
Tuttle, 53, who is from North Carolina, has held senior roles at the British Film Institute (BFI), BAFTA and the National Film and Television School (NFTS).
($1 = 0.9258 euros)
(Reporting by Miranda Murray and Thomas Escritt; Editing by Frances Kerry)
