Berlin film fest mixes US stars, global contenders

New movies from directors Steven Soderbergh and Gus Van Sant and a trio of films starring French divas will be competing this year at the Berlin International Film Festival.

A diverse selection of 19 movies, including films from Kazakhstan and Iran, will vie for the main Golden Bear prize at Europe's first major film festival of the year. The event runs from Feb. 7-17.

Van Sant's film about the shale gas industry, Promised Land, starring Matt Damon, and Soderbergh's thriller Side Effects, featuring Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones, are the most prominent U.S. offerings.

Filmmaker Denis Ctis among the Canadians heading to Berlin with his latest work: Vic+Flo ont vu un ours. Thomas Arslan's German Western film Gold also has a Canadian connection: it was filmed in B.C.

There's a strong contingent from eastern Europe, including Oscar-winning Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, about a poor Gypsy family; Calin Peter Netzer's Child's Pose, which highlights corruption in Romania; and Malgoska Szumowska's In the name of, a film about a gay priest in Poland.

French actresses Juliette Binoche, Catherine Deneuve and Isabelle Huppert all star in separate competition entries this year Binoche in Camille Claudel 1915, about the French sculptor's later years; Deneuve in On My Way; and Huppert in The Nun, a movie about a convent.

From Iran comes Closed Curtain, directed by dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi and fellow Iranian Kamboziya Partovi. Panahi was sentenced to house arrest in Iran andbanned from filmmakingafter being convicted in 2011 of "making propaganda" against Iran's ruling system. Festival director Dieter Kosslick said Panahi's no longer confined to his home but still isn't supposed to make films.

Kosslick said Monday that organizers "tried to bring new people who are making films for the first or second time into the program," continuing a tradition of having less-heralded directors rub shoulders with established names. This year, there's an entry from Kazakhstan Harmony Lessons, directed by Emir Baigazin.

The top prize will be awarded by a seven-member jury under Chinese director Wong Kar-wai, whose members include actor-director Tim Robbins. Wong's new movie about two kung fu masters, The Grandmaster, is screening out of competition and will open the festival.

Last year's Golden Bear went to Caesar Must Die, by Italy's Paolo and Vittorio Taviani, which showed inmates of a high-security prison staging Shakespeare's Julius Caesar.Canadian film War Witch (Rebelle) also picked up kudos.