Sections

Each year the Berlinale comprises about 400 films of every genre, length and format. The festival is divided into the following sections and a mutable number of special presentations.

© 2019 Courtesy of Focus Features © Palomar 2018

Competition

The festival's centrepiece screens the films that will be talked about.

© Xstream Pictures © Xstream Pictures

Berlinale Special & Berlinale Series

Space for the extraordinary, the glamorous and the festival's special concerns.

© Egil Håskjold Larsen/Sant & Usant © Egil Håskjold Larsen/Sant & Usant

Encounters

A platform aiming to foster aesthetically and structurally daring works.

© Total Refusal © Total Refusal

Berlinale Shorts

The films of Berlinale Shorts are cinema's unsolicitied requests to take the floor and speak.

© Edition Salzgeber | Jünglinge Film © Edition Salzgeber | Jünglinge Film

Panorama

Sexy, edgy, daring. Panorama screens extraordinary cinema and is a traditional audience favourite.

© The Otolith Group © The Otolith Group

Forum & Forum Expanded

Reflection on the medium of film, social and artistic discourse and aesthetic obstinacy.

© Octavio Arauz © Octavio Arauz

Generation

Films that matter. For young cineastes and everyone else.

© Constanze Schmitt | dffb © Constanze Schmitt | dffb

Perspektive Deutsches Kino

Talented directors screen their debut films and bring a fresh impetus to the cinema with their individual styles.

Image courtesy of Park Circus / Sony Image courtesy of Park Circus / Sony

Retrospective, Berlinale Classics & Homage

Discover film history and view it anew in screenings of the highest quality.