THE BERLINALE

Name: The Berlinale
Start: 2027-02-10
End: 2027-02-21
Location: Berlinale Palast

February · Berlinale Palast, Berlin · Twelve Days · Since 1951 · Film

Arranged by the Court

An actress in a black gown turning for the photographers on the red carpet beneath the Berlinale Palast sign at The Berlinale — I · The Red Carpet

Dates: 10 to 21 February 2027
WhereBerlin
DressLounge suit
AdmissionOpen to the public
The weatherIn February Berlin reaches about 5°C by day and minus 1°C at night, and rain or snow falls on about one day in four.
The tableThe Court dines afterwards at Borchardt, Französische Strasse 47, Berlin (borchardt-restaurant.de).
In companyA member who means to go says so to the Secretary, and the Court seats its members together where the engagement allows.RSVP tells the Secretary that a member means to attend. Send passes the engagement’s name, its date and the address of its page to whomever the reader chooses, or, on a computer, copies the address; the Court itself sends and keeps nothing.RSVP

The Berlinale is twelve days of film in February and the most public of the three great festivals. Between two and three hundred films across nine sections, twenty of them competing for the Golden Bear.

Cannes admits only the accredited, and Venice sells a limited number of tickets. Berlin sells them to anyone who wants one, and in 2026 it sold three hundred and fifty thousand.

A director holding up the Golden Bear on stage as the jury and cast applaud at the award ceremony of The Berlinale — II · The Golden Bear

The Showcase

The festival was the idea of an American army officer.

Oscar Martay was a film officer with the United States military in West Berlin after the war. In 1950 he assembled a committee of Berlin senators, German film people and a journalist, and they set the first festival for June 1951.

The city was still largely in ruins. The purpose was stated frankly: Berlin was to be a showcase of the free world, and a film festival was a cheaper way of demonstrating that than most of the alternatives.

It opened at the Titania-Palast with Hitchcock’s Rebecca, and Joan Fontaine was in the room. The prizes were given at the Waldbühne, an open-air arena, and it sold out.

The bear is Berlin’s heraldic animal, and has been for some seven hundred years.

A film’s cast and crew gathered in evening dress for a portrait under the Berlinale Palast sign at The Berlinale — III · The Premiere

The Public

For its first four years the international producers’ federation refused to let the festival award jury prizes. The Berlinale’s answer was to let the audience decide. Between 1952 and 1955 the Golden Bear was determined by public vote.

That accident set the festival’s character. It was properly accredited in 1956 and given the status Cannes and Venice already held, but it never stopped being a festival the city attends.

The politics came with it. In 1970 the competition collapsed in an argument over a German film about American conduct in Vietnam, and out of that came the Forum, a section for political and experimental work that runs still.

It moved from June to February in 1978, and to Potsdamer Platz in 2000.

A winning director holding the Golden Bear out to the cameras outside the lit Berlinale Palast at The Berlinale — IV · The Winner

What to Know

Tickets go on sale to the public a few days before the festival opens, and a great many sell within hours. There are queues before dawn and they are part of the thing.

The European Film Market runs alongside, with more than a thousand screenings in the cinemas around Potsdamer Platz. That is the trade half and it is closed.

Nine sections. The Competition is twenty films. The Forum and Panorama are where the interesting work usually sits, and the Retrospective is as carefully programmed as any season of old cinema in Europe.

Berlin in February is cold, wet and dark by four. Nobody dresses for a red carpet in that weather and nobody is expected to.

The mistake is comparing it with Cannes. Cannes is a market with a festival attached, and it is closed. Berlin is a city watching films, and the tone follows from that.

Questions

When is the Berlinale in 2027?

The 77th Berlin International Film Festival runs from Wednesday 10 to Sunday 21 February 2027, opening a day earlier than before. The awards ceremony is on Friday 19 February, and the first two Audience Days, the Berlinale Publikumstage, follow on 20 and 21 February. The European Film Market runs from 10 to 16 February.

How do you get tickets for the Berlinale?

At the 2026 festival, tickets were sold online through Eventim, each screening going on sale three days ahead at 10am and remaining on sale until it began, two tickets per person per event. Screenings are for those aged 18 and over, except Generation. The 2027 arrangements are to follow on the festival’s Ticket Info page.

How much are Berlinale tickets?

At the 2026 festival a ticket cost 15 euros, or 10 reduced, and 20 euros, or 13 reduced, at the Berlinale Palast and the gala premieres. Generation screenings cost 9 euros. Cine25 tickets, for those aged 18 to 25, cost 6 euros for a selection of films. The 2027 prices are to follow.

Is there a dress code at the Berlinale?

The Berlinale publishes no dress code for public screenings, those at the Berlinale Palast included. Large bags and backpacks are not allowed into the venues. The Court wears a lounge suit.

A full house in a red-panelled theatre for the Teddy Award ceremony at The Berlinale — V · The Teddy Award

The Court

The Berlinale is not the Court’s own. Tickets, premieres and places at the industry receptions are sought on a member’s behalf, and the Court arranges the whole of it: getting there, where to stay, and the table afterwards.

How one becomes a member is set out under Admission.