Berlinale - Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin

In the organizer's words:

The Berlinale is a unique place for artistic debate and entertainment. It is one of the largest public film festivals in the world, attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the world every year. For the film industry and the press, the eleven days in February are also one of the most important events in the annual calendar and an indispensable marketplace.

The Berlinale brings the big stars of international cinema to Berlin and discovers new talent. It accompanies filmmakers of all trades on their way into the limelight, promotes careers, projects, dreams and visions.

The Berlin International Film Festival can look back on an eventful history. The festival was founded in 1951, at the beginning of the Cold War, as a "showcase of the free world" for the Berlin public. Influenced by the turbulent post-war period and the unique situation in the divided city, the Berlinale has developed into a place for intercultural encounters and a platform for critical cinematic examination of social issues. To this day, it is considered the most political of all major film festivals.

Thanks to its numerous industry initiatives, the Berlinale is an important driver of innovation and an important economic factor, both internationally and for companies from Germany and Berlin.

The program: diverse, independent and willing to take risks

Every year, around 200 films of all genres, lengths and formats are shown in the various sections and special series of the Berlinale. From feature films to documentary forms and artistic experiments, the audience is invited to get to know a wide variety of milieus, lifestyles and attitudes, to put their own judgments and prejudices to the test and to experience seeing and perceiving in a new way in the field of tension between classic narrative forms and unusual aesthetics. The program also thrives on intensive dialogue with its viewers. Numerous spoken word events, audience discussions and expert panels enable active participation in the festival.

The Berlinale program at a glance

• The Competition is the traditional flagship of the Berlinale. This is where the best international films compete for the prestigious Silver and Golden Bears.
• Glamorous appearances on the Red Carpet, exciting genre cinema and films that generate discussion: the Berlinale Special celebrates the visual and thematic diversity of cinema.
• The competitive section for feature film debuts, Perspectives, aims to promote up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world and bring them into the spotlight.
• The Panorama shows exciting cinema - courageous, undisguised, contemporary. A traditional audience magnet with its own audience award.
• Generation presents films of significance. For young cineastes and everyone else.
• Berlinale Shorts: The festival's short film competition celebrates the artistic freedom and thematic diversity of the short form.
• Forum and Forum Expanded stand for reflection on the cinematic medium, social-artistic discourse and aesthetic stubbornness. The Forum Expanded expands the concept of cinema with films, installations and performances.
• The Retrospective offers a film history program curated by the Deutsche Kinemathek, Berlinale Classics classics and treasures of film history, digitally restored and in brilliant picture and sound quality.
• Berlinale Goes Kiez brings festival films and their teams to arthouse cinemas.

Berlinale Pro - Where Cinema Culture and Industry Meet

The European Film Market, the Berlinale Co-Production Market and the initiatives Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund offer filmmakers and industry representatives a comprehensive range of services for talent promotion, networking, project development, consulting, co-production, financing, audience development, marketing, distribution and discourse under the joint label Berlinale Pro. Differentiated into its respective offerings, Berlinale Pro advocates participation and a more inclusive and sustainable film industry with a common canon of topics.