One of the aims of the Cinémathèque québécoise’s programming is to reflect the ongoing evolution of a body of work still in the making. We are presenting this retrospective of German filmmaker Angela Schanelec as the selection of her latest film in the official competition of the 2026 Berlinale has just been announced. Winner of the Silver Bear in 2019, her filmography stretches back over three decades. Her refined directing style and sense of editing demonstrate her ability to let drama simmer, delicately and without exaggeration. Her greatest virtuosity undoubtedly lies in her ability to conceal the complexity of her art.
The screening will be introduced by Jenny Brasebin, researcher and lecturer (UdeM), specializing in German cinema.
End of winter. Two hours at the Paris Orly Airport. A young woman, on the way home to her husband falls for a stranger. A mother and her nearly grown son are traveling to the funeral of her exhusband, the boy’s father. A young couple on their first big trip abroad lose touch with each other. A woman finally dares to read her husband’s break-up letter in the soothing anonymity of public space. All wait for their planes.
Angela Schanelec
Angela Schanelec is a German filmmaker, screenwriter, and actress. In 2019, she won the Silver Bear for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival for I Was at Home, But. She also won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay for Music in 2023. She is part of the so-called first wave of the Berlin School alongside Christian Petzold and Thomas Arslan. Critics have generally embraced her cinematic style, which almost exclusively employs lengthy, static shots with little action and ambiguous emotional content, tenuously connected by a narrative. She is frequently compared to several European avant-garde filmmakers, such as Chantal Akerman, Michelangelo Antonioni and Robert Bresson, whom she has cited as an important influence.
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