The beginning of the year belongs to cinema, and the 2018 cultural agenda kicks off on January 7 with the 75th Golden Globes ceremony in Los Angeles. The German drama "In the Fade," directed by Fatih Akin and starring Diane Kruger, has been nominated in the Foreign Language category. Hopes are high, even though the film has received mixed to bad reviews in the international press.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/Warner Bros.
February: All the world's a stage
Film fans will be busy all winter, as the Berlin Berlinale begins its 68th edition on February 15. The red carpet event, which has recently come under fire for its "lack of vision," launches with the screening of Wes Anderson's new flick "Isle of Dogs." For those who prefer art to movies, the Max Beckmann exhibition "The World as a Stage" opens on February 24 in the Museum Barberini in Potsdam.
Image: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017
March: Bees, Bauhaus and books
On March 1, "The Honey Games" premieres in Germany, a film featuring the popular cartoon character Maya the Bee. A week later, the first in a series of "Bauhaus Imaginista" exhibitions opens in China, showing the global impact of the art and design movement from the turn of the 20th century. The lit.COLOGNE book fair will present the latest in literature from March 6 to 17 in Cologne and Leipzig.
Image: DW/M. Cui
April: Where you haven't gone before
The spring brings several opportunities to "go beyond." The controversial Serbian performance artist Marina Abramović will push perceptions with her retrospective "The Cleaner," opening in Bonn on April 20. Then, the Destination Star Trek convention (April 27-29) will beam up visitors from Dortmund to the world of strange alien species and fantastic adventures.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/J.Thijs
May: Head south
The Portuguese singer Salvador Sobral won the 2017 Eurovision Song Contest, so the next, 63rd edition will take place in Lisbon, the capital of the winner's homeland, with the finale on May 12. In Cannes, the most star-studded film festival opens on May 8, and the Architecture Biennale in Venice, titled "Unbuilding Walls" in its 2018 edition, opens on May 26.
Image: picture alliance / J. Woitas
June: Dive into modernity
Before the 100th anniversary of Bauhaus in 2019, the work of Anni Alber, probably the most recognized 20th century textile artist, goes on display on June 9 at the NRW Kunstsammlung (North Rhine-Westphalian Art Collection) in Dusseldorf. More contemporary art at the Berlin Biennale starting June 9 and at the European art biennial "Manifesta," this time in Palermo, Sicily, opening June 16.
Image: picture alliance/Photoshot
July: The month of theater
Designated "festival of the year" by the Los Angeles Times in 2017, the Salzburg Festival gets off to a start on July 20 with a rich program of classical music. For those who can't get their fill of opera, the Bayreuth Festival - just four hours away by train - starts on July 25 with a new production of Richard Wagner's opera "Lohengrin."
Image: picture-alliance/dpa/D. Karmann
August: The festival season has definitely arrived
More than 150 rock bands will storm the stage at the Wacken Open Air, while faithful fans brave the "monsoon season" that tends to hit northern Germany every August. Mud-proof boots are a must! Those looking for a more glamourous scene will attend the film festival in Locarno (August 1-11). And the Beethovenfest in Bonn, beginning August 31, is the best way to say farewell to summer.
Image: DW/S. Wünsch
September: Sipping champagne and drinking beer
In early fall, the Golden Lions film festival in Venice will take place for the 75th time. About 500 kilometers up north, Munich will host a large retrospective of the late German artist Jörg Immendorff from September 14. Eight days later, the annual Oktoberfest gets off to a start there.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo
October: A month dedicated to the book
The world's largest book fair held every year in Frankfurt dedicates its 2018 edition to Georgia, the country in the Caucasus. Parallel to the opening of the Frankfurt Book Fair, the most important literary prizes will be awarded: the Nobel Prize for Literature, the German Book Prize and the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
November: Tribute to the 'Smooth Criminal'
Hardly seems possible that it's been almost ten years since the "King of Pop" passed away in 2009. Michael Jackson retrospectives are beginning in 2018, including an exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris titled "The Birth of an Icon." With loans from leading artists, collectors and gallerists, the extensive showcase explores the artistic side of Jackson's output.
Image: Getty Images
December: Films, art and a word
The European Film Prize will be awarded in 2018 in the Spanish city of Seville (above). The German Language Society will announce its "Word of the Year," and rich art collectors will go shopping for new pieces at Art Basel Miami Beach.
Image: Imago/INSADCO
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"The only thing that is constant is change," said the Greek philosopher Heraclitus sometime in the 6th century BC. But today's society does not wait for change to happen, it demands it: social media and constant interconnectivity have made us crave novelty every second, not only in the sphere of consumer products but also when it comes to universal human rights.
The female viewpoint
The strong wave of contemporary feminism will surely not diminish in 2018 and will continue to influence culture and arts.
The English photographer, actress and television host Amanda de Cadenet established an online platform "Girlgaze" in 2017, a project that aims to promote the role of female artists across genres and disciplines.
In the US alone, the movie version of the Marvel superhero comic "Wonder Woman" earned over $100 million (84 million euros) during its opening weekend, an unprecedented success for a feature film starring a woman.
#MeToo #NoMore?
Petitions were signed against the display of Balthasar Klossowski's "Thérèse Dreaming" (1938) in the METImage: picture-alliance/dpa/O.Berg
One of the strongest trends of the ending year was the hashtag "MeToo," which took the social media by storm with stories of sexual misconduct.
The movement's impact will doubtless continue to resonate through all areas of society. Like every movement, it caused a counter-reaction after a petition demanded that New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art remove the painting "Thérèse Dreaming" by the French modern artist Balthasar Klossowski.
The 1938 work of art shows a 13-year-old girl lost in thought with a rolled up skirt revealing her underpants. The signatories claimed that by putting the image on display, "the Met is romanticizing voyeurism and objectification of children." The institution refused to take it down, and numerous critics accused the petition of trying to achieve art censorship.
Religious comeback
On May 10, the MET Costume Institute in New York opens its annual fashion exhibition "Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination." According to a trend report by J. Walther Thompson Intelligence, the theme marks the rising need for spirituality in the world.
"After years of consumers turning more secular, religion is making a comeback in some places, following major social and economic shifts," says the annual JWTI report. "There's been a lot of wrenching social change. It's almost as if people need a breathing period to look around and evaluate who we are and what values we believe in," it adds.
As the report indicates, religion offers a "feeling of rules and norms for a society searching for a sense of stability," a sensation that has also contributed to the resurgence of realistic painting and sculpture in the last few years.
The end of TV?
Once an alternative and disruptive industry, online streaming providers such as Netflix and Hulu have become the new norm, forcing television corporations to develop their own streaming services.
Online TV has become so prevalent that its major operators started producing high-budget and critically-acclaimed movies and series. Netflix's hit show "Stranger Things" won several Emmy awards and has been nominated for a Golden Globe in 2018. YouTube has just recently started its own paid, ad-free service.
The trend of ditching traditional TV with its fixed schedule for a service that gives viewers relative freedom will only grow stronger. A new player on the scene: a startup called The Screening Room, which aims to bring movies still playing in theatres to the home. For a fee of $50 (42 euros), subscribers will be granted a 48-hour rental period.
