Berlin 2024: Martin Scorsese announces hopes to return to festival with new film
The veteran American filmmaker Martin Scorsese took the stage to receive his honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on February 20th and revealed information about the future of his career in the process.
Introduced onto the stage by the German director Wim Wenders, Scorsese’s speech delved into the importance of Berlin’s annual celebration of arthouse cinema. Scorsese referenced the 1968 festival when Brian De Palma won the Silver Bear for Greetings, and revealed it had been a formative experience for him.
“It was a very important event and it was a real turning point for all of us,” Scorsese told the Berlinale audience, “For Brian, of course, and by extension all of us who were working low-budget in America at the time, particularly not in Hollywood. Low-budget, independent pictures were quite rare in America at the time, and it helped open the way for filmmakers like Jim McBride and Phil Kaufman, for myself”.
Back in the late 1960s, Scorsese was part of the ‘Movie Brats’, a term coined by film critic Pauline Kael that described the pack of emerging, innovative filmmakers who were changing the face of the industry. Without the work of Scorsese and De Palma, as well as other members, Steven Spielberg, Francis Ford Coppola and George Lucas, the shape of late 20th-century cinema would have looked far different.
Scorsese added: “It gave a stature in a sense that the studios started to take us seriously…It paved the way for me meeting up with Bob De Niro and casting him in Mean Streets. And 10 years later, I would come to Berlin for the first time with Raging Bull, opening night 1980 and then back again with the Rolling Stones for Shine a Light, and then again with The 50 Year Argument”.
Before departing the stage, he gave the audience a brief message, hoping to return to the film festival in the coming years with his 28th feature film. “I really feel that I’ve been blessed to have taken part in that conversation for most of my life now,” he explained, “And as for looking back on my work, I can’t…partly because I really do seem to keep wanting to make pictures. So maybe I’ll see you in a couple years, I hope with another one”.
Martin Scorsese’s favourite recent movies
In a later discussion at Berlinale, Scorsese ear-marked two movies as his favourites of recent times, including Celine Song’s Past Lives and Wim Wenders’ Perfect Days.
Song’s heart-wrenching drama is up for ‘Best Picture’ at the 96th Academy Awards, with Martin Scorsese’s own movie, Killers of the Flower Moon, also competing for the top prize. Telling the story of two former lovers who reconnect decades after their romance blossomed, Song’s film is a tender piece of cinema that has also gained a second nomination for ‘Best Original Screenplay’.
Meanwhile, Scorsese also opted to praise Perfect Days, the latest film from Wim Wenders, the very person who introduced him onstage at Berlinale to accept his honorary Golden Bear. A quiet, calm picture, which is also Oscar-nominated for ‘Best International Feature Film’, Wenders’ movie tells the story of a janitor in Japan who listens to rock music while going about his mundane job.
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