Berlin’s European Film Market (EFM) has added another venue to its existing screening facilities due to the increase in demand for screening slots.

EFM market director Beki Probst confirmed to Screen Daily at the Berlinale’s programme press conference on Tuesday morning that five screens at the Cubix Cinemas at Alexanderplatz will now be available for market screenings.

The five cinemas – with seating capacities ranging from 147 to 724 – are equipped to show 35mm, video screenings and 2K DCP.

As for the 3D screenings at the Astor Film Lounge, there will be a regular shuttle service organized from the EFM’s central venue at the Martin Gropius Bau to the Cubix Cinemas.

Another innovation for holders of the EFM Buyers Badge this year will allow them access to the Generation screenings in the CinemaxX and at the new venue in the House of World Cultures (except for the opening and awards ceremonies). As in previous years, the EFM Buyers Badge gives unrestricted access to all Panorama screenings and to the press screenings of the Forum and Perspektive Deutsches Kino.

To date, 400 exhibitors are registered from 54 countries and 1,421 buyers from 59 countries.  The number of films registered for screenings at the EFM are much higher than last year as is the percentage of market premieres: of the 723 films registered so far, 558 – 80% - are premieres and will be presented in more than 1,000 screenings.

The number of participants accredited so far for the 2011 edition of the EFM – 6,698 – is already 200 more than last year’s final figure of 6,450.

Moreover, no less than 47 films fresh from screening at this year’s Sundance Film Festival are winging their way over to Berlin to be presented in the special market sidebar Straight From Sundance. Films showing include US Dramatic Competition titles Another Happy Day, The Ledge, and Gun Hill Road, Park City At Midnight’s The Troll Hunter, The Catechism Cataclysm, and Hobo With A Shotgun, and World Cinema Dramatic Competition’s Abraxas, Lost Kisses and Restoration

The red carpet at this year’s Berlinale should not be wanting for stars, according to Kosslick who announced that the festival’s opening film True Grit would be attended by the film’s directors Ethan and Joel Coen along with Jeff Bridges, Josh Brolin and Hailee Steinfeld. Also expected in the festival’s 11 days are Ralph Fiennes, Carmen Maura, Colin Firth, Vanessa Redgrave, Paul Bettany, Helena Bonham Carter, Jeremy Irons, Liam Neeson, Moritz Bleibtreu, Kevin Spacey, William Hurt, and Diane Kruger, among many others.

Final embellishments to the Berlinale’s programme include the world premieres of the 4K digitally restored version of Martin Scorsese’s cult film Taxi Driver in Berlinale Special and of the documentary Stuttgart 21 – Think To Remember (Stuttgart 21 – Denk mal!) by first-year film students Lisa Sperling and Florian Klager about the demonstrations against new plans for Stuttgart’s Central Station in Perspektive Deutsches Kino.

In addition, the festival will again be presenting three Berlinale Cameras to film personalities or institutions to which it feels particularly indebted and wishes to express its thanks. This year’s recipients are the Israeli film pioneer Lia van Leer, outgoing ARTE president Jérôme Clément and the Berlin arthouse exhibitors Franz and Rosemarie Stadler of Filmkunst 66.

This year’s edition of the Berlinale will be showing a total of 385 films (2010: 392) from 58 countries in 925 screenings.

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