Also referred to as Berlinale, the Berlin International Film Festival, is an annual event that takes place in Berlin, Germany in February. The event was founded in 1951 and took place originally in West Berlin. This is considered to be one of the “Big Three” film festivals, along with Cannes Film Festival and the Venice Film Festival. Typically this event pulls in about 500,000 every year, which makes it the annual film festival with the largest attendance. This festival shows up to 400 films shown across various genres.
The current pandemic situation has put the usual February event on hold. However, they have created a plan that allows them to still hold some type of event to honor these films. The new format has an online portion that will take place in March for industry members. Then, in June, they will hold a summer event where they will do live showings of films for the public. These films will be shown in both cinemas and at outdoor events. The point of breaking this up is to ensure that this event can be enjoyed by both the film industry markets and the public audience. The health of the audience is the highest priority for event organizers, which is why they created this 2-part festival.