First festival During the peak of the
Cold War in 1950,
Oscar Martay, a film officer of the Information Service Branch of the American
High Commissioner for Germany stationed in
West Berlin, proposed the idea of a
film festival in West Berlin. The proposal was put through a committee, which included members of the
Senate of West Berlin and people from the
West German film industry, on 9 October 1950. Film historian Dr. Alfred Bauer was the festival's first director, a position he would hold until 1976. Alfred Hitchcock's
Rebecca opened the first festival at the
Titania-Palast in
Steglitz on 6 June 1951. The festival ran from 6 to 17 June,
Cinderella, which won the Golden Bear for a Music Film, also won the audience award. Prior to the erection of the
Berlin Wall in 1961, a selection of the films were also screened in
East Berlin. In 1963, two years after the Berlin Wall had been erected, a daily show of the Berlinale was shown on television in East Germany, with five films in competition broadcast. Controversy arose in 1964 with the rejection by Bauer, on insistence from the church, of
Vilgot Sjöman's second film,
491, from the competition.
Werner Herzog's first feature film,
Lebenszeichen, premiered at the festival in 1968.
1970s The
20th edition of the festival in 1970 was cut short and awards not issued following controversy over the showing of
Michael Verhoeven's anti-war film
o.k.. The jury, headed by American film director
George Stevens, decided after a 7–2 vote to remove the film from the competition, justifying their decision by citing a
FIAPF guideline that said: "All film festivals should contribute to better understanding between nations". Stevens claimed that the film, which includes a
gang rape of a Vietnamese woman by American soldiers during the
Vietnam War, was
anti-American. One jury member,
Dušan Makavejev, protested against this measure, stood up for the film and supported Verhoeven and producer
Rob Houwer. Verhoeven defended his film by stating in these terms: "I have not made an anti-American film... The biggest part of the American people today is against the war in Vietnam". Other directors taking part in the festival withdrew their films in protest, and the jury was accused of censorship and eventually disbanded, so no prizes were awarded and the competition was suspended. This scandal had such a big effect that it was unclear if the festival would continue to take place the next year. The following year, the
festival was re-formed and a new International Forum for New Cinema was created. who gave German films higher priority. That festival, the
28th edition, saw the jury award the Golden Bear to Spain for its contribution to the festival rather than a specific film. The 1978 festival also saw the start of the European Film Market
1980–2000 Donner was followed by
Moritz de Hadeln, who held the position from 1980 until director
Dieter Kosslick took over in 2001. In 1981, de Hadeln only nominated one (West) German film for the competition,
Der Neger Erwin, and other West German producers and directors called for his resignation and proposed a boycott although no boycott took place. In June 2018, it was announced that Mariette Rissenbeek would serve as the new executive director alongside artistic director Carlo Chatrian. They assumed their posts after Kosslick's final edition in 2019. Rissenbeek became the first woman to lead the Berlinale. A shortened
71st festival took place virtually in March 2021 due to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
73rd Berlin International Film Festival held in February 2023, was the first completely in-person Berlinale since
the 70th in 2020.
Tricia Tuttle took over as the new artistic director in April 2024; the 75th Berlinale 2025 was her first festival. ==Description and governance==