Focus on German capital as Berlinale begins

Europe’s first major film festival of the year began today as stars headed to Germany’s capital for the 64th Berlinale film festival, which opened with the world première of Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel.

The film – which will also open the Glasgow Film Festival later this month – is among twenty in the race for the prestigious Golden Bear prize, the top accolade at the eleven-day festival.

The star-studded ensemble cast of Anderson’s eighth feature film includes Ralph Fiennes, Bill Murray, F. Murray Abraham, and Tilda Swinton, as well as notable up-and-comer Saoirse Ronan and young Tony Revolori.

The Monuments Men and Nymphomaniac Volume I are among the high-profile films which will be screened at the festival out of competition.

God’s Pocket, one of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s final films, will also be screened. Though Hoffman’s sudden death on Sunday has cast a dark shadow on the première, jury president James Schamus said the festival would “provide a place to remember, mourn and celebrate” his legacy.

Festival director Dieter Kosslick, who has headed the Berlinale since 2001, also promised that this year’s ‘daring’ festival programme would unearth new talent, warning neues deutschland that a festival “loses its appeal when it relies only on established names”.

A total of over 400 films from around the world will be screened this year.