Berlinale!

Still trying to catch up with everything that happened at Sundance? Well you better hurry up because the festival circuit waits for noone. Up next is the Berlin Film Festival. Founded in 1951 and held annually in February since 1978, the Berlin Film Festival, or Berlinale as it is commonly reffered to, has become the world's largest publicly-attended festival with over 450,000 admissions last year.

This year it will be held from February 12th to the 21st where over 400 films will be competing for a bevy of awards:

Golden Bear (Goldener Bär, Top Prize)

Best Motion Picture
Lifetime Achievement ("Honorary Golden Bear")
Silver Bear (Silberner Bär)

Jury Grand Prix
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Screenplay
Best film music
Extraordinary achievement by a single artist
Grand Prize of the Jury (Short film award)
Others

Panorama Publikumspreis, the Audience Award
Berlinale Camera, a special award for services to the Festival
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the 14plus section of the Generation Competition
A Crystal Bear for the Best Film in the children's section of the Generation Competition
Teddy Award for films with LGBT topics
Shooting Stars Award for young European acting talent, awarded by European Film Promotion


This year, the tough job of doling out these awards, has been assigned to Werner Herzog, who will presiding over a very well-rounded jury.

I am also proud to say that two of Menemsha's films will be shown - Jan Hrebejk's Kawasaki's Rose, which will be the opening film of the Panorama Section, as well as Shameless, another one of Hrebejk's recent films.