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The Berlinale and the European Film Market can look back at a successful edition of the festival. “For 65 years now, the Berlinale brings the pubic and trade professionals together to experience film in all of its facets – and, more recently, in new formats. Once again the festival’s internationality rose this year – at the same time the festival has consolidated its position in Berlin. The stars love coming to the Berlinale and appreciate the enthusiasm of moviegoers here,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.
Alongside the works of a number of cinema’s grand masters, new discoveries were among the many highlights of this year’s festival. In addition, the many panel discussions and talks held by the different festival sections attracted large audiences. Once again the festival proved to be a site of important impulses for the culture of international debate. Another huge success with the public, professionals and critics was the expansion of the Berlinale programme and the EFM to include the field of serial formats. The Berlinale is the first A film festival in the world to give serial works a prominent position, and in doing so provides for the growing cultural significance and status of drama series in the film industry.
Star guests on this year’s Red Carpet included: Christian Bale, Juliette Binoche, Cate Blanchett, Sir Kenneth Branagh, Daniel Brühl, James Franco, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Benoit Jacquot, Nicole Kidman, Damian Lewis, Sir Ian McKellen, Helen Mirren, David Oyelowo, Natalie Portman, Charlotte Rampling, Ryan Reynolds, Wim Wenders, Brian Wilson, and many more.
With the Award Ceremony at 7.00 pm on Saturday, February 14, the 65th Berlin International Film Festival draws to a close with a splendid event. At this festive gala, the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears, the Audi Short Film Award as well as the Best First Feature Award will be announced. Directly after the ceremony there will be a screening of winning Golden Bear film.
Anke Engelke will host the event, which will be broadcast live by ZDF/3sat at 7.00 pm. The Award Ceremony is also available via live stream at www.berlinale.de.
Some 1,600 guests are expected to attend the Award Ceremony (see an excerpt from the guest list at the end of this press release).
Yesterday evening (Thursday, Feb. 12) visitors to the Berlinale had bought 310,000 tickets. A new festival record appears to be in the making.
The many different events at the Audi Berlinale Lounge outside the Berlinale Palast were a fantastic bonus for audiences and fans: these over 30 public events were crowd-pullers; they included Q&As with film teams from the Competition and discussions with guests from other Berlinale sections.
On Sunday, February 15, 2015 is Berlinale Kinotag, another special treat for the public: many of the festival films from the different sections will be rescreened at Berlinale venues.
Once again there was a huge flurry of activity at the European Film Market of the 65th Berlin International Film Festival: with some 8,500 trade professionals (2014: 8,396) from 100 countries, of which 1,568 were buyers (2014: 1,499) the EFM again registered an increase in participants over the previous year. Sales were good and included the Competition films Elser, Taxi and Knight of Cups. Numerous US distributors also made lucrative deals for Hollywood titles, e.g., Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge or Freeheld with Julianne Moore.
On the nine days of the EFM, a total of 748 films were shown in 1,014 screenings at the EFM’s 38 venues. 532 of them were market premieres - new cinematic works at the industry’s first international marketplace of the year for film rights and audiovisual content.
The response to the EFM’s many long-established events, as well as to new initiatives and event series was also exceedingly positive. In all, 1,200 visitors turned out for the three EFM Industry Debates presented by the IFA.
A special attraction were the Drama Series Days of the EFM, held for the first time this year in cooperation with the Film- und Medienstiftung NRW. The two panel discussions on the topic of “high-quality international and national drama series” were completely booked out; and the market screenings of the eleven selected series, well-attended. Also the pitching of drama series at the Berlinale Co-Production Market - where six serial projects were presented – went over well with producers, distributors, authors and creators.
For the first time the EFM also had a special programme focussing on Asia. In partnership with “Bridging the Dragon” and to the keen interest of market participants, different events were held on current developments in the Chinese media world.
Market participants greatly appreciated another new EFM initiative: the EFM Start-ups, organized in cooperation with the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg and Startup Germany e.V.
EFM Director Matthijs Wouter Knol and EFM President Beki Probst can look back at a successful EFM. Matthijs Wouter Knol: “Nowadays the market hardly differentiates between formats, it just seeks high-quality content – that is, in addition to the individual cinema films presented at the EFM. Apparently we have responded right to this trend.”
Some of the guests expected at the Award Ceremony on February 14, 2015 are:
Ken Adam, David Bennent, Christian Berkel, Anna Brüggemann, Andreas Dresen, Hannelore Elsner, Matthias Habich, Hannah Herzsprung, Marc Hosemann, Vanessa Jopp, Carla Juri, Udo Kier, Burghart Klaußner, Naum Kleiman, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Maren Kroymann, Aino Laberenz, Heike Makatsch, Jeanine Meerapfel, Ursela Monn, Jannis Niewöhner, Ulrike Ottinger, Jana Pallaske, Franziska Petri, Rosa von Praunheim, Saskia Rosendahl, Marc Rothemund, Andrea Sawatzki, Jenny Schily, Volker Schlöndorff, Katharina Schüttler, Miriam Stein, Florian Stetter, Ula Stöckl, Sasha Waltz, Franziska Weisz, Wim Wenders, Ronald Zehrfeld, and many more.
A number of prominent German politicians have also announced their attendance. They include Governing Mayor of Berlin Michael Müller, Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection Heiko Maas, President of the Berlin House of Representatives Ralf Wieland and former Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit, as well as the ambassadors of several countries.