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Dieter Kosslick, director of the Berlinale for the past decade, has come out with yet another witticism in the punning slogan "Happy Bärsday" (i.e. Happy Bear’s Day, the bear being the official symbol of both the film festival and the city of Berlin). But as the 60th edition of the Berlin filmfest gets underway, the Tagesspiegel has lashed out against "German cinema’s leading lobbyist". Between "mass and class”, Kosslick clearly opts for the former, bewails the Berlin daily. The Berlinale has grown, to be sure, and its director is as “funny” as ever. But he has failed to “cosmopolitanise” the event. "In his profoundly Social Democratic efforts to come across as the people’s cinematic benefactor, Kosslick has over-compartmentalised the Berlinale.” Worse still, “By rolling out the red carpet for [untried] German filmmakers he is provincialising the International Film Festival.” Instead, opines Der Tagesspiegel, the director ought to try to attract more masterpieces to compete with Cannes and stop giving the official competition short shrift.
