Accreditation A-Z

1. Create / reactivate account

Go to “My Account” and log in with your user name and password in order to access the accreditation application form. If you already have an account from last year, your login information is still valid. Contact if you forgot your user name. If you do not yet have an account, you can create one here.

2. Apply for accreditation

Once you have an account, you can submit an application for accreditation under My Accreditation. Please fill out all the required fields of the application form. You may need to upload professional supporting documents and, if this is your first online application, an electronic passport photo.

3. Confirmation and payment

The Berlinale will contact you by e-mail as soon as possible to inform you whether your application was accepted. The Festival reserves the right to decline applications. You will receive further information about your accreditation along with the approval of your application. Please note that online payment of the accreditation fee is only possible by credit card. If you prefer to pay by bank transfer, please send an e-mail sufficiently in advance to .

To apply for Festival Accreditation or EFM Registration you need a personal account. Only one application per account is possible.

If you had an account in the past, please continue to use it. If you have forgotten your user name, you can retrieve it by contacting the Web Support team:
Tel. +49 • 30 • 259 20 • 800
Email

Your personal account can be set up on the EFM or Berlinale website. Your account can be reused every year. You may choose your own user name. Your password must be at least 6 characters long and contain one special character or one number.

You only need one account for all Festival and EFM services. In your account you will find the accreditation application and various Online Services corresponding to your type of accreditation.

An application can be submitted online. It contains your personal data and possibly information about your company or media outlet. Here you can apply for a Festival or Press Accreditation or EFM Registration and pay.

The accreditation fee depends on which accreditation you need and when your application is submitted. All dates and times are based on Central European Time (CET). Applications received after January 6, 2013 may not be considered.

Payment

Until January 31, 2013 the Berlinale offers online payment with one of the following credit cards: EuroCard/MasterCard, American Express, VISA. Until January 20, 2013 a payment by bank transfer is also possible. If you wish to do so, please send an e-mail sufficiently in advance to . If you pay online you will receive your receipt via e-mail. You can fill in the billing address yourself.

After January 31, 2013 the fees can only be paid on site at your accreditation counter.

Cancellation

Attendance can be cancelled free of charge and with no reason given until February 17, 2013. Please contact .

Members of a national professional association that is a Berlinale cooperation partner should contact their association before filling out the Berlinale online accreditation form and request an "association code", which proves their professional status as a filmmaker or representative of the film industry. No further proof of professional affiliation is required.

The Berlinale cooperates with the following national professional associations:

• Spitzenorganisation der Filmwirtschaft (SPIO) ()
• Berliner Film- und Fernsehverband ()
• Bundesverband der Fernseh- und Filmregisseure ()
• Bundesverband Filmschnitt Editor ()
• Bundesverband kommunale Filmarbeit ()
• Bundesverband Jugend und Film ()
• Bundesverband Kamera ()
• Bundesverband Produktion ()
• Cinélibre ()
• Filmbüro Bremen ()
• Filmbüro Niedersachsen ()
• Filmbüro NW ()
• Film- und Kinobüro Hessen ()
• Filmverband Brandenburg ()
• Filmverband Sachsen ()
• Kulturelle Filmförderung Schleswig-Holstein ()
• SFK Verband ()
• VeDRA ()
• Verband Deutscher Drehbuchautoren ()

You will find detailed information about conditions for access at the links below:

Festival / Student Accreditation
Market Badge
Press accreditation
EFM Multiple Day Pass (only available on site)
EFM Daily Pass (only available on site)

The European Film Market issues a Buyers Badge only if you:

• order a Market Badge and
• click "Acquisitions" of your respective "Primary Working Sector" on the application form and
• have been verified as a Buyer as defined by the Participation Guidelines

The list of Buyers at the European Film Market will be available here at the beginning of January and will be updated regularly until the Market.

Attendance can be cancelled until February 17, 2013 free of charge and with no reason given. Please contact .

A Festival, Press or Student Accreditation gives you access to the Festival screenings in each section, though not at all times or at every venue. When you pick up your accreditation badge, you will receive an information sheet about the kind of access that comes with your accreditation.

Some screenings require tickets, but at no additional charge. These tickets are available at ticket counters reserved for accredited participants and must be picked up in person by showing your badge. They are issued according to availability and are intended for personal use only. Tickets for accredited participants are available for the current and following day.

No advance reservations are possible. There is a maximum of one ticket per person per screening. There is a time-out between films.. Note that there is no guarantee of obtaining tickets for certain events or films or of obtaining a particular number of tickets.

Tickets for accredited Festival guests are only valid in combination with an accreditation badge, which must be displayed at the cinema entrance.

If the Berlinale has accepted your application you can confirm your attendance online and pay for the badges.

For technical questions please contact:

Web Support
Tel. +49 • 30 • 259 20 • 800
E-mail

Please contact the press office if you have questions about press accreditations. For questions about Festival Accreditation and EFM Registration please contact the accreditation office.

Careful handling of your private data is important to the Berlinale! Please make sure that no unauthorised persons have access to your personal account. In the Participation Guidelines, you will find all relevant information on how your data is handled. Please submit further questions pertaining to data protection in writing to the data protection officer at .

Berlinale online accreditation for EFM participants works in the same way as it does for all other Berlinale participants. Market Badges and Festival Accreditation badges must both be ordered over the online portal. The Market Badge can be purchased independently of a Festival Accreditation.

Daily Passes and Multiple Day Passes can only be purchased on location at the EFM Registration Counter.

You can find more information about the EFM on the EFM website.

As in previous years, EFM exhibitors will receive a certain number of Market Badges & Festival Accreditations. Further information will be sent to exhibitors in October.

EFM exhibitors can order Visitor Passes by e-mailing and Staff Badges by emailing .

See Accreditation Fees.

The Festival’s invited guests and film delegations are not accredited via the Berlinale online accreditation. The Festival contacts these guests individually.

Once your application has been accepted, you will have access to the Berlinale partner hotels. You can make booking enquiries and reservations directly on the Berlinale or EFM website. The partner hotels set aside a limited number of rooms at special prices for the Berlinale. These hotels tend to book up quickly, so we recommend reserving your room early.

If you lose your accreditation badge, please report the loss to your accreditation counter immediately. The re-print of a new badge can take up to 24 hours and is subject to a 50 EUR charge. Multiple Day Passes, Daily Passes and Visitor Passes cannot be replaced.

After your application has been accepted and you have confirmed your attendance respectively, you will be granted access to our Online Services in your personal account. Depending on the type of accreditation you purchased you can use the following services on the Berlinale and EFM websites.

As soon as your application for Festival Accreditation / EFM Registration has been approved, you will receive a confirmation e-mail with information on how to pay. After we have received your payment, you will be able to access the Berlinale online services as they become available. You can make your payment by one of the following methods:

• Online credit card payment
  Until January 31, 2013, you can use your credit card to pay the accreditation fee online. We accept EuroCard/MasterCard, American Express and VISA. Once we have received your online payment, we will e-mail you a receipt. Please provide the billing address for the credit card when you make your payment. A few minutes after you make your payment you will be able to access the online services provided for accredited participants.
• Bank transfer
  Until January 20, 2013, you can make your payment by bank transfer. Please send an e-mail sufficiently in advance to if you wish to do so.
  Please discuss collective bank transfers with the accreditation office. Bank transfers can take several days to process.
• In person
  After January 31, 2013, the accreditation fee can only be paid during the Festival at the appropriate accreditation counter by credit card (only EuroCard/MasterCard and VISA) or in cash. We are not able to accept 200 and 500 Euro bank notes.

Cancellation

Prepaid badges can be cancelled free of charge and with no reason given until February 17, 2013. Please contact .

You must upload a photo before you submit your application. The digital portrait photo (passport photo) must

• clearly identify you (no sunglasses, etc.)
• be no more than 5 years old
• be in a 3:4 format (portrait orientation)
• be no larger than 2 MB (minimum 300x400 pixels; maximum 3000x4000 pixels)
• be uploaded in JPEG file format

If you do not submit a photo that meets these criteria, the Berlinale reserve the right to reject your application.

About one week before the beginning of the festival the Berlinale will inform you about when and how to pick up your accreditation badge by e-mail. You will receive an accreditation pick-up ticket, which you will need to show at the accreditation counter. Another person may pick up your accreditation in your name if they show written authorisation. Accreditation is personal and non-transferable.

For film-related courses and departments, universities can request for an allotment of accreditations directly from the Berlinale. Requests for an allotment can only be submitted by the university administration or by professors and teaching staff for their students. To do so, please send a short course outline or description of the main topic covered in the course and send the number of desired accreditations to .

After checking a request, the university’s applicant will receive the required number of “student codes” to be passed on to the students who must enter them when they fill out the online application form. Students are not required to provide any further evidence of their film-related activities, since they can provide legitimation with their code. Students cannot apply for a Market Badge.

Please note:

• students may only be accredited for the Berlinale through their school once
• students must show their student ID when picking up their student accreditation

We cannot accept individual requests from students. Interested students should contact an official representative of their university who can then get in touch with us.

“Student codes” are intended exclusively for use by students and not by university administration staff or professors and teaching staff. These persons may apply for accreditation as industry professionals online without having to apply for a code and may request a Festival Accreditation and/or a Market Badge.

Industry professionals and accredited members of the press may transfer their prepaid accreditation to another validated representative of the same company / institution. To do so, please contact the appropriate accreditation office.

Once we have processed your accreditation application, we will send you an official e-mail with the ID number of your Festival badge in the subject header of the e-mail. In order to apply for a visa at the responsible German embassy or consulate office, you will need a printout of this e-mail and proof of international travel health insurance for the duration of your stay in Berlin. The Festival will also inform the embassy or consulate of your participation at the Berlinale beginning mid-December in order to ensure smooth processing of your visa application.

More information and downloadable application forms

Industry professionals, students and members of the press will be given an entry in Who’s Where, the directory of Berlinale participants. You can edit this entry in your account under "My Who’s Where details". Who’s Where can only be viewed by professionals with accreditation and is published about one week before the Festival begins. You can choose what contact details and information about your stay in Berlin are listed in your entry, but your last name, first name, main area of activity and country are always included.

In order to receive accreditation, you must first provide proof of your professional affiliation.

The following criteria must be met:

Press/Berlinale journalists

At Press Accredititation you will find detailed information on how you can get accredited for the Berlinale as a member of the press.

Industry professionals

Even if you are a regular visitor you need to proof your current professional activity. Here is a short list of the kind of proof or documents you can use as an industry professional:

• upload of your company profile
• list of recent projects the company is working on
• filmography / cv
• official letter from the company proving that you work for them
• for EFM Exhibitors: Stand Rental Confirmation

For company representatives / members of organizations this proof of professional activity can also be in the form of an up-to-date company website.

Students and members of film associations are not required to provide proof of professional activity, because they can do so with their corresponding code. You will receive your association or student code from your respective association or university / film school. Please find more information at “Students” and “Accreditation for associations”.