57th Berlinale A Major Success
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Monday, February 19----The 57th Berlin International Film Festival came to a successful close this past weekend, reaching its climax on Saturday night with the Berlinale Awards Ceremony. Sixteen hundred guests crowded the Berlinale Palast for the awards gala, which was hosted by Charlotte Roche and broadcast live on 3sat. In addition to the prize-winners, the film crew of the closing film ANGEL (director François Ozon, Susanna Antunes, Amanda Davis, Olivier Delbosc, Oriana Elia, Michael Fassbender, Romola Garai, Amélia Guyader, Sue Latimer, Marc Missonnier, Sam Neill, Lucy Russell and Tanya Segatchian) attended the glamorous event.
Other illustrious guests attending that evening included: Berlinale Career Achievement Tributee Arthur Penn, Andreas Dresen, Volker Schlöndorff, Fatih Akin, Detlev Buck, Valeska Grisebach, Romuald Karmakar, Meret Becker, Jan Josef Liefers, Heike Makatsch, Nadja Uhl, Martina Gedeck, Hans-Christian Schmid, Jessica Schwarz, Oskar Roehler, Wim Wenders, Sibel Kekilli, Hannelore Elsner, Sandra Hüller, Diane Kruger, Jamie Bell, and Gregory Nava, amongst others.
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Interest in the Berlinale among visitors from both the film industry and the general public has been greater than ever. More than 19.000 accredited visitors from 127 countries, including 4.000 journalists, attended the festival. Approximately 430.000 cinemagoers attended the 10-day long screening event, including roughly 200.000 members of the general public. The newly-added Cubix cinema screens at Alexanderplatz were extremely well received by audiences. Altogether, 373 films were shown in 1,190 screenings. As a further treat for the public audiences, the final Sunday was dedicated to the public. The annual Berlinale Kinotag (Berlinale Cinema Day) presented an exhaustive selection of the highlights of this year's Festival, including almost all of the top prize winners.
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The European Film Market, the parallel professional event for the attending film industry, broke records this year. At two top locations – the elegant historical Martin-Gropius-Bau with its spacious market booths, and the ultra-modern office building at Potsdamer Platz 11 containing the EFM’s Business Offices – 259 film companies from 46 countries presented themselves at 115 booths. A total of 702 films were scheduled, and 878 buyers from around the world were accredited.
Planning already is beginning on the 58th edition to be held from 7 – 17 February 2008. See you there.
Sandy Mandelberger, Berlin Online Dailies Editor
