The 58th Berlinale: Berlin International Film Festival

Once a year Berlin transforms into Hollywood and all the starlets can be seen on the red carpet in Germany’s capital. Goldie Hawn, Keith Richards, Neil Young, Madonna, Scarlett Johannson, Natalie Portman and Mick Jagger are only a few of the stars who’ve been there last week.

The Berlin International Film Festival is one of the most important film festivals worldwide which was founded in 1951. Since 1978 the Berlinale is held annually with 200.000 tickets sold and 400.000 admissions and is therefore the biggest publicly-attended film festival in the world. About 400 films are shown and about 20 of them compete for the awards, the Golden and Silver Bears. This year 5.000 films were handed in, a record number.

However, the stars are not just there to present themselves and their films but also to donate together. The benefit gala “Cinema for Peace” was held and important messages were spread. The most famous cinema stars came, among them Sir Ben Kingsley, Hilary Swank, Catherine Deneuve, Joseph Fiennes and even Sir Bob Geldof came from London to cheer “Germany, continue." It was an important week for the people in Berlin and you should try to be part of this next year.

To book your Berlin Film Festival apartments, you can try a Berlin apartments search.