Berlin Film Festival opens with 'The Grandmaster'

Berlin, Feb 7 (AP) The Berlin Film Festival opens Thursday with martial arts spectacular "The Grandmaster" directed by Wong Kar-wai. The film about Bruce Lee's mentor Yip Man is running out of competition because the director also heads this year's jury. The international cut premiering in Berlin has been shortened from the version released in China last year. Nineteen movies including Steven Soderbergh thriller "Side Effects" with Jude Law and Catherine Zeta-Jones, and Gus Van Sant's film "Promised Land" about the shale gas industry starring Matt Damon, are competing for prizes at the 63rd Berlinale. French filmmaker Claude Lanzmann will be honored for his life's work. Lanzmann's nine-and-a-half hour documentary "Shoah" about the horrors of the genocide of European Jews was screened at the festival in 1986. (AP) BB 02072020 NNNN