After getting off to a brilliant start with the opening film Hail, Caesar! - with directors Joel & Ethan Coen as well as actors George Clooney, Tilda Swinton, Josh Brolin, Channing Tatum and Alden Ehrenreich in attendance – the spectacular list of stars continues: Pernilla August, Susanne Bier, Daniel Brühl, Daniel Burman, Isabel Coixet, Doris Dörrie, Kirsten Dunst, Colin Firth, Greta Gerwig, Brendan Gleeson, Isabelle Huppert, Julia Jentsch, Denis Lavant, Jude Law, Spike Lee, Laura Linney, Julianne Moore, Cynthia Nixon, Guy Pearce, Michael Peña, Tim Robbins, Gianfranco Rosi, James Schamus, Michael Shannon, Alexander Skarsgård, André Téchiné, Emma Thompson, Wayne Wang, and many more, have all put in appearances during the first half of this year’s Berlinale.
There were standing ovations for Jury President Meryl Streep who - with her co-jurors Lars Eidinger, Nick James, Brigitte Lacombe, Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Małgorzata Szumowska - will award the Berlinale’s main prizes on February 20.
And so far the turnout of visitors at the 66th Berlin International Film Festival has been tremendous. At half time, almost 250,000 tickets have been sold.
“Once more the Berlinale is proving to be a huge crowd-puller. We are very pleased that thousands of people from Berlin and around the globe have again joined us to take a cinematic voyage of discovery,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick.
The Berlinale’s European Film Market (EFM) is also heading for success in 2016. This international platform for trading in film rights and audio-visual content has again registered a rising number of visitors and exhibitors.