Sections & Special Presentations

The festival is divided into the following sections and a mutable number of special presentations.

Sections

© Pandora Film / Row Pictures © Palomar 2018

Competition

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

© Stefan Popescu for HBO Max © Stefan Popescu for HBO Max

Berlinale Special

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

© Radiola Films © Radiola Films

Encounters

A platform aiming to foster aesthetically and structurally daring works.

© Bingchi Pictures © Bingchi Pictures

Berlinale Shorts

The short film competition of the Berlinale is a seismograph of the present and reflects it with the means of cinematic art.

© Viking Film © Viking Film

Panorama

Panorama screens extraordinary cinema and is a traditional audience favourite.

© Activ Docs © Activ Docs

Forum & Forum Expanded

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

© Chris Lew © Chris Lew

Generation

Films that matter. For young cineastes and everyone else.

Quelle: Park Circus © 1971, renewed 1999 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Quelle: Park Circus © 1971, renewed 1999 Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Retrospective, Berlinale Classics & Homage

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

Special Presentations

Berlinale Goes Kiez

Brings festival films to art house cinemas.