BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL SELECTS TWO OSCAR-CONTENDING FILMS

Stephen Daldry’s Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, starring Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock, has been selected to make its international debut in February at the Berlin Film Festival, where it will screen out of competition, the festival announced today (Monday). The film, set in New York during the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, is due to make its domestic debut this coming weekend Also scheduled to screen out of competition in Berlin is Zhang Yimou’s The Flowers of War, set in Nanking in 1937 following Japan’s brutal occupation of the city. The film, which stars Christian Bale and is China’s Oscars entry in the best foreign language film category, is also slated to debut in the U.S. next weekend.