Lost in the 90s” / New Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kinemathek

With “Lost in the 90s”, the Retrospective of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival puts the spotlight on one of the most influential decades in recent film history. The end of the Cold War and the opening up of borders triggered a creative surge in cinema in the 1990s – in Berlin and Eastern Europe, but also internationally. Filmmakers from both East and West literally explored new spaces. While the crisis-rattled film industry in Eastern Europe had to adapt to the brave new world of market capitalism, Berlin was gripped by a new sense of freedom. Filmmakers began to discover the other side of the East-West divide and to shoot their films there. Video and Music Television (MTV) conquered the market, the digital revolution – although still in its infancy – began its forward march, and stylistically, anything was possible in the film world.

Berlinale Director Tricia Tuttle: “The starting point for the Retrospective curated by Heleen and her team is Berlin after the fall of the Wall, a period marked by upheaval and new beginnings both nationally and internationally. Genre and visual experiments, and the rebellious spirit of independent cinema characterise the cinema of this next Berlinale Retrospective. We are looking forward to presenting a programme including work from Ulrike Ottinger, Harun Farocki, Chantal Akerman, Werner Herzog, Krzysztof Kieślowski, and John Singleton among others”.

The Retrospective will look at this epoch in three thematic sections, “Berlin”, “East Meets West”, and “The End of History”, in an attempt to capture the nineties zeitgeist. The first will focus on Berlin films of the 1990s, with films such as Michael Stocks' Prinz in Hölleland (Prince in Hell, 1993). The second leitmotif looks at interchange, with cinematic explorations from East and West. While the third focal point, with its title an ironic paraphrase of Francis Fukuyama’s outmoded theory on “The End of History” and the triumph of global market capitalism, encompasses works critical of the system, with the rise of the slacker and other subcultures. US-American cinema in particular produced intense cinematic portraits of Generation X, such as Richard Linklater's Slacker (1990), John Singleton's Boyz n the Hood (1991) and the films of Todd Solondz.

Heleen Gerritsen, who took over in June 2025 as artistic director of the Deutsche Kinemathek and head of the Retrospective and Berlinale Classics section, says: “Some 430 million people in the early 1990s were simultaneously and directly impacted by the period of upheaval in the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union. It was a time of crises and conflicts but, at the same time, borders and archives were opening up. Artists from both East and West reacted to current events and faced each other. Well-known directors such as Chantal Akerman, Jean-Luc Godard, and Werner Herzog shot films in Eastern Europe, as did Ulrike Ottinger with her film Johanna d'Arc of Mongolia (1989) and Harun Farocki and Andrei Ujica with Videograms of a Revolution (1992). Conversely, filmmakers such as music video pioneer Zbigniew Rybczyński, animation artist Jan Švankmajer, and extraordinary Polish director Krzysztof Kieślowski brought new impetus to western film production. We are pleased to once again show some of these films at the Kinemathek at the E-Werk complex, an industrial monument which served as a techno club in the 1990s, rendering it an excellent backdrop for the theme of the 2026 Retrospective.”

The 2026 Retrospective will showcase 22 films; the complete programme will be published in December 2025. The Kinemathek will also be hosting a series of discussions and networking events at the E-Werk.

Heleen Gerritsen studied Slavonic Languages, Eastern European History and Economics in Amsterdam and Russian Philology in Saint Petersburg. While still a student, she worked for international festivals and production companies, including Lenfilm and the international literature festival berlin. After posts in film and television production, including at ARTE, SWR, RBB and SAT.1, she moved on to leading curatorial roles. From 2014 to 2016, she headed the dokumentART – European Documentary Film Festival in Neubrandenburg and, from 2017 to 2025, the goEast – Festival of Central and Eastern European Film at the DFF – Deutsches Filminstitut & Filmmuseum in Wiesbaden. Her main areas of focus are Central and Eastern European cinema, culture(s) of remembrance and immersive narrative formats. Heleen Gerritsen serves on international juries and works as a speaker and presenter around the world.