Berlinale Reception 2023 Greetings
Berlinale reception greetings
Good evening! And a warm welcome to the Berlinale at the American Embassy Berlin! Mariette Rissenbeek, congratulations on a fantastic festival! The US Embassy and I are very pleased and proud to be part of the Berlinale. Satisfied and proud is actually an understatement. My friends – who all know how passionate I am about making films – tell me that now they know why I am so passionate about my work. I’m the only US ambassador in the world who gets to moderate a big event at the Berlinale!
Movies are my passion because they speak to our humanity in a unique way. No matter what you do for a living, who you are, where you come from, what you look like or who you love, the ideas and emotions that films convey transcend all boundaries. Films move us – they increase our emotions and inspire our intellect. This power of cinema – to elevate our intellect while elevating our emotions – is at the heart of filmmaking and at the heart of the Berlinale.
Everyone here loves the movies. Some films entertain us. Some make us laugh. They can make us cry or scare us to death. I will never forget how scared I was when I first saw a film with the title Jaw. Every time I’ve seen it since, it frightens me – and amuses me anew. I love that.
Movies can also make us proud. I’m a proud Philadelphian. When times get tough and push comes to shove, as they are for our Ukrainian brothers and sisters these days, the image in my mind is of Rocky Balbao running up the steps of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Just listening to the music instills this sense of pride in their courage and determination.
Movies can also help us to better understand ourselves and our world. Later that evening, the Berlinale will honor one of the greatest filmmakers of all time: Steven Spielberg. We’re lucky to have him with us tonight. Through his films he has shaped the history of my country and his moral compass coupled with his creativity has also helped shape our world.
Spielberg’s filmmaking is informed by a belief in our common humanity. This is the same belief in humanity that guided him after creation Schindlers Listcreate the Visual History Archive of the Shoah Foundation Institute. Spielberg has made the voice of genocide survivors heard and accessible across generations and around the world. His creative genius showed us the difference films can make.
Spielberg’s films came to mind when I heard President Zelenskyj speak at the opening of the Berlinale last week. Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged us all to speak out in the face of evil or wrongdoing. “Cinema alone cannot change the world,” he said, “but it can inspire people who can change the world.”
This appeal to humanity, this doer-optimism have always been at the heart of the Berlinale. The festival was launched in 1951 as a Marshall Plan initiative. Toby Rodes – former US Army captain and junior diplomat in Berlin – wanted to revive the German film tradition. And to do this by connecting Germans with Americans through one of our most famous cultural exports, then and now: the cinema, also known as Hollywood. From the very beginning, the Berlinale has also championed the commitment to freedom of speech and opinion, the most fundamental values of any democratic society.
Hollywood wouldn’t be the same without the contributions of the pioneering German-Jewish studio heads who immigrated to California from Europe. They built a global industry that turned film into a popular art form and an unparalleled medium of communication.
We are proud to co-host this reception with a film studio that is part of this inspiring story: the award-winning Studio Babelsberg, just around the corner. A special greeting and a big thank you to our friends at Studio Babelsberg – Carl Woebcken, Christoph Fisser, Henning Molfenter, Michael Duewel and Eike Wolf. We are proud that so many American films are on the program this year and so many Americans are attending the festival and are here tonight – including members of the Motion Picture Association. Welcome back to Germany, Ambassador Rivkin, and many thanks to Christian Sommer for being a great partner here in Berlin!
A warm welcome also to the producers, cast and crews of some of the American films and TV series that are part of this year’s Berlinale! The entire cast of the documentary “Love to Love You, Donna Summer” directed by Oscar and Emmy winner Roger Ross Williams and Brooklyn Sudano, daughter of Donna Summer, is in the house.
It is a special honor to welcome Euzhan Palcy, the recipient of an honorary Oscar last year for her contributions to the film industry. Madame Palcy, your artistic vision – “to bring our collective humanity to the screen” – is inspiring. Thank you for sharing your experience with our panel this afternoon at Morrison & Foerster on diversity in film.
Welcome Christiane Stützle and Christoph Wagner and all our friends from the law firm Morrison & Foerster. Our panel co-hosted today vividly conveyed that diversity and inclusion makes teams, industries and communities stronger, smarter and more successful.
I also have to thank my team – the best team in the world – for all their work that made this evening so special. I would especially like to thank Kerstin Reichert for her leadership and passion.
This year’s Berlinale is dedicated to people in Ukraine and Iran who stand up for their freedoms with enormous courage in the face of unspeakable oppression. Thank you all for standing by her side. Yesterday, today and tomorrow. And as long as it takes in the future.
Our Guests of honor this evening are the Ambassador of Ukraine to Germany, His Excellency Oleksii Makeiev, his wife Olena and daughter Anastasia.
Ambassador Makeiev, there are not enough words to describe my admiration for the courage of the Ukrainian people in the face of Putin’s brutality. But allow me to say a few words here tonight in the spirit of our fundamental ethical unity. Your country is a country of heroes. Heroes who continue to face brutal aggression. The agents of this aggression must be held accountable.
We know that Russian forces have executed execution-style murders of Ukrainian men, women and children. We know they torture civilians in custody by beating, electrocuting, mock executions and raping them.
Russian officials have deported hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian civilians to Russia, including children who have been forcibly separated from their families. These actions are not accidental or spontaneous. They are part of the Kremlin’s widespread and systematic attack on the civilian population of Ukraine. Against our Ukrainian brothers, Russia is committing nothing less than crimes against humanity.
The scale of the human suffering the Kremlin is inflicting on Ukrainian civilians is staggering – its physical scale is staggering and its moral cost even greater. As President Biden underscored during his historic visit to Kiev yesterday and during his visit to Warsaw today, the moral imperative before us compels us to act, act now and act until Ukraine realizes victory has been won is. We will also prepare to rebuild Ukraine and restore justice to the victims of Russian crimes against humanity.
Mr Ambassador, I stand here tonight to say that our shared values require that we do everything in our power to hold accountable those responsible for these crimes. There can be no impunity.
Together we will help defend democracy and sovereignty of Ukraine. The United States of America will work with you and your government, with Germany, and with all of our transatlantic partners to achieve peace and justice for the people of Ukraine. And we’ll all stand by you for as long as it takes. Slava Ukraine.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know that this Berlinale community shares this commitment and this conviction. Let me close with a very special thank you to all of you: the writers, directors, actors, producers, cinematographers, artists and all of you here who, through your creative expression, are doing what you can – to use the words of Telling President Zelenskyy to change the world.
Thank you for everything you do. Thank you for being here with us tonight. Thank you for standing proudly united for humanity, in all our diversity.
