Sigourney Weaver
© AFP/Getty Images/FileBERLIN (AFP) - The British-Canadian co-production will be one of 26 pictures in the official program at the Berlinale, the first major festival on the European cinema calendar. It will screen on opening night, February 9.
Maverick director Robert Altman, who is to receive an honorary Oscar in March, will premiere his take on the legendary US radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion", with an ensemble cast including Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Woody Harrelson and Kevin Kline.
The well-received US biopic "Capote", showcasing Golden Globe winner Philip Seymour Hoffmann as the extravagant writer Truman Capote fighting his demons as he wrote the masterpiece "In Cold Blood", will screen out of competition.
French veteran Claude Chabrol will bring "Comedy of Power", a thriller starring Isabelle Huppert.
Oscar winner Michel Gondry ("Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind") will present "The Science of Sleep", bringing Gael Garcia Bernal and Charlotte Gainsbourg together in a story blurring a dream world with reality. The film will also screen out of competition.
British director Michael Winterbottom, who took home the Golden Bear top prize in 2002 for "In This World", will submit "The Road to Guantanamo" about three Muslims held at the US lockup in Cuba.
German filmmaker Oskar Roehler will unveil "Elementary Particles", an on-screen adaptation of French literary bad boy Michel Houellebecq's tale of a sexual obsessive and his biologist brother, while his compatriot Matthias Glasner will submit "Free Will" about a compulsive rapist.
Valeska Grisebach will round out the German entries with "Sehnsucht" (Longing) a picture about a love triangle starring amateurs and set in the former communist east.
Organizers said they were putting the finishing touches on the program and would announce the final line-up at a press conference January 30.
Rampling and her seven fellow jury members will hand out the Golden and Silver Bear prizes at an awards ceremony in the German capital February 18.
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