Coixet chosen to open Berlinale 2015

The latest project from Catalan film director, Isabel Coixet, will open this year's edition of the Berlin film festival on February 5. Her film, Nadie quiere la noche , is an adventure movie set in the North Pole at the beginning of the 20th century. The film stars veteran French actress, Juliette Binoche, in the lead role, with Rinko Kikuchi and Gabriel Byrne co-starring.

The film has been entered as part of the festival's official competition. In fact, it is the third time that a Coixet film has competed in the Berlinale festival, following previous projects, Elegy and Mi vida sin mí. On hearing the news in New York, Coixet told the press: “Berlin is a festival that has given me everything, so that in some way it has legitimised me as a director.”

However, Coixet's film will go up against some tough rivals for the prize in the shape of such high-profile competition as work by directors Terrence Malick, Peter Greenaway and Andreas Dresen.

Last year, the festival opened with The Grand Budapest Hotel, which is nominated for four Golden Globes this year and is the favourite to mop up in the UK's Bafta awards, for which it has been nominated 11 times.

Nadie quiere la noche tells the story of Josephine Peary, who, in 1908, made the long trip to the Arctic to be reunited with her husband, the explorer Robert Peary, and to share in the glory of conquering the North Pol. The films' script is by Miguel Barros (Blackthorn).