The Festival
Every February, in the midst of Berlin’s icy winter doldrums, the city’s most prestigious cultural event sends another kind of shiver through its streets. The star-studded Berlinale International Film Festival (www.berlinale.de, February 9-19) serves up a smorgasbord of world premieres (10 this year) and lots of opportunities for celeb sightings. Established in 1951, shortly after Berlin was split into East and West, the festival is enmeshed in the city’s tumultuous history.
Today, industry and avant-garde types from all corners of the globe jet into Berlin for two weeks of frantic hobnobbing in and around Potsdamer Platz, and morning-to-night screenings throughout the city. (Here’s a list of the venues.) Their goal is to sell or buy the next sleeper hit at the European Film Market (closed to the general public)–or at private meetings on the sidelines.
To kick-start this wheeling and dealing, long-time Berlinale director and local celebrity, the bespeckeled Deiter Kosslick, selects films that offer daring political themes that don’t shy away from controversial issues. He also appeals to the more glamorous aspects of the industry by selecting films starring Hollywood A-listers like George Clooney, Kate Winslet, and Brangelina.
Unlike Berlin’s French (Cannes) and Italian (Venice) counterparts, the Berlinale doesn’t shun the average movie-goer. Though there are plenty of events and screenings that are off limits to non-industry festivel-goers, the public is free to attend most Berlinale screenings–as long as they shell out between 8-12€ for a ticket.
Will you be there? The Zeitguide to the Berlinale Film Festival tells you everything you need to know about ticket-buying, star-gazing and eating between screenings.
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