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Experiencing Cinema through the Berlin Film Festival

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Aanchal Mohta
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Berlin Film Festival

The Berlin Film Festival, one of the Big Five is more than just about a film award show. Read on to find out what makes it so special!

Berlinale also known as, the Berlin Film Festival or Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin in German is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany since 1951. This film festival falls under the “Big Five” alongside Venice Film Festival in Italy, the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and the Sundance Film Festival in the United States.  Dr. Alfred Bauer was its first director and held the position until 1976. The current executive director is Mariette Rissenbeek while the Artistic Director is Carlo Chatrian since 2019.

The Berlinale lasts for six days with feature lectures and panel discussions addressing issues in filmmaking by professionals. Workshops, excursions, personal tutoring, coaching, and training of participants from different fields of work also take place in the programme. It happens once in a year mostly in the month of February. Around 300,000 tickets sold and 500,000 admissions are taken each year making it the largest public attendance of any annual film festival. Almost 400 films are shown in various sections across different cinematic genres and the top 20 films compete for the top awards of Berlinale, the Golden Bear and Silver Bears. The jury of The Berlin Film Festival has 9 members who are film specialists in various genres.

Also read: All the sizzling celebrities that graced the beginning of the Cannes Film Festival 2019

Pushpendra Singh's Laila Aur Satt Geet, Prateek Vats Eeb Allay Ooo!, Akshay Indikar's Sthalpuran - Chronicle of Space and Rang Mahal of Prantik Basu are some of the Indian films that have made their marks in the Berlin Fim festival.

Other trivia film festivals that have established their prestigious marks are Venice Film Festival in Italy, the Cannes Film Festival in France, the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and the Sundance Film Festival in the United States

Take a look at 2020 Berlinale:

big five berlinale Berlin film festival films golden bear