The stars of Berlin: BERLINALE

The very first International Berlin Film Festival opened on the 6th of June 1951 in the Titania-Palast cinema. The opening film was Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca, starring Joan Fontaine, the most feted guest at the festival. Six years after the end of the Second World War, Berlin yearned for international attention and recognition. Large areas of the city still lay in ruin. Reconstruction had begun, but post-war Berlin was worlds away from the lively artistic centre that it had been in the Twenties.

Today the city is a cosmopolitan centre for culture. In the middle of it all: the Berlinale – not only the city’s largest cultural event, but also one of the most important dates on the international film industry’s calendar. More than 16,000 film professionals, including 3,600 journalists from about 80 countries are accredited for the Berlin International Film Festival every year. The Berlinale is truly a colossal event. It is also a festival of encounters and discussions. With 150,000 tickets sold, the Berlinale is not only a film industry meeting. It also enjoys by far the largest audience of any film festival in the world. For two weeks, art, glamour, parties and business meet at the Berlinale.

The Official Prizes
The most important prizes at the Berlinale are the Golden and Silver Bears. These are awarded by the International Jury to films in the Competition and belong to the most respected awards in the world of film. The International Jury also awards the Alfred Bauer Prize for a film that “opens new perspectives in the art of filmmaking.”

For the first time in 2006, a three-person international jury will award the Best First Feature Award to a debut film in the Competition, the Panorama or the Kinderfilmfest/14plus section. The prize is worth 25.000 Euro and is endowed by the Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten (GWFF).

The International Short Film Jury awards a Golden and a Silver Bear in the Short Film Competition. For three further awards this jury also considers films from the Panorama programme.

The Crystal Bears, the main prizes of Kinderfilmfest/14plus are awarded by a Children’s Jury and a Youth Jury. The International Jury of the Kinderfilmfest awards the prizes of the Deutsches Kinderhilfwerk charity.

The Berlinale awards two official honours. Honorary Golden Bears honour great personalities in cinema. The Berlinale Kamera is usually presented to the personality to whom the Homage is dedicated.

Independent Prizes
A number of independent juries award several different prizes. Several of them focus on a particular section of the festival. The criteria differ in accordance with the special purpose of the award. The independent prizes include the FIPRESCI Prizes, the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, the Peace Film Prize, the Wolfgang Staudte Prize, the Teddy Award and others.

The audience also lets its voice be heard. Every year since 1999 an Audience Award has been presented to a film in the Panorama section in co-operation with the city magazine “tip” and “Radio Eins”.
All Berlinale visitors can cast their vote.