World premieres of new films by Sweden's Fredrik Edfeldt and Germany's Lars Büchel are among the first 13 titles selected for Generation, the Berlinale's section for children and young people.

The section is in its first edition under the direction of Maryanne Redpath who succeeded Thomas Hailer earlier this year.

The films confirmed so far for the Generation Kplus competition include the selection of a documentary, The Inheritors, for the first time.

Meanwhile, the Berlinale has announced that it is collaborating with the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Deutsche Kinemathek on a special sidebar entitled 'After Winter Comes Spring; Films Presaging the Fall of the Wall'.

The sidebar will celebrate the end of the Cold War and the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Among the films already confirmed are: Krzysztof Kieslowski's A Short Film About Killing; Rashid Nugmanov's The Needle; Vera Chytilova's Prefab Story; Michael Klier's The Grass Is Greener Everywhere Else; Helke Misselwitz's documentary After Winter Comes Spring; and Yuri Norstein's animated film Tale Of Tales.

In addition, the festival organisers have revealed that veteran French film composer Maurice Jarre will receive an honorary Golden Bear for his lifetime achievement.

The award will be presented to Jarre on February 12, 2009.

List of films selected for Generation Kplus:

It's Not Me, I Swear! (C'est Pas Moi, Je Le Jure!) by Philippe Falardeau (Canada);

Lippels Traum by Lars Büchel (Germany), world premiere;

Mamma Moo & Crow (Mamma Mu & Kråkan) by Igor Veyshtagin (Sweden/Germany/Hungary);

Max Embarrassing (Max Pinlig) by Lotte Svendsen (Denmark), international premiere;

The Bogeyman (Mommo) by Atalay Ta s diken (Turkey), world premiere;

The Girl (Flickan) by Fredrik Edfeldt (Sweden), world premiere; and

The Inheritors (Los Herederos) by Eugenio Polgovsky (Mexico).

Generation 14plus

In addition to hosting the German premiere of Bosnian filmmaker Aida Begic's feature debut Snow, the Generation 14plus section will also present:

Cherrybomb by Glenn Leyburn and Lisa Barros D'Sa (Great Britain), world premiere;

Katia's Sister (Het Zusje Van Katia) by Mijke de Jong (Netherlands);

Lala's Gun (Gun Lala De Qiang) by Ning Jingwu (People's Republic of China), world premiere;

Miao Miao by Cheng Hsiao-Tse (Hong Kong/Taiwan); and

My Suicide by David Lee Miller (USA), world premiere.

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