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(AP): The Berlin Film Festival 2021, one of the world’s leading gathering points for the international film industry, is expected to be held virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic and rising number of coronavirus cases in the country.
According to details, the Berlin Film Festival, which was initially scheduled to be held between 11 and 21 February 2021, is now expected to be held virtually in March, a month later than usual, with an audience event in June.
The festival, now in its 71st year, occupies a distinct position in the cinema calendar, with its trade component, the European Film Market (EMF), shaping how films and series are sold around the world and launching that year’s co-productions as studio executives meet filmmakers.
The organisers have informed that the film trading event would be held online, depriving Berlin of the traditional show of studio top brass snaking in limos between city centre hotels.
An audience-focused film screening event will be held in the summer, targeting not pros and the press, but the general public. Alone among the major festivals, Berlin admits the public to its screenings.
“We expect to invite the filmmakers and we’ll have one or two stars, but it will be an event for the public and not for the international professional visitors, or for the international press. So it will have a different character,” said festival chief executive Mariette Wissenbeek.