German filmmaker Wim Wenders, production designer Ken Adam, screenwriter Alessandro Baricco and Lia van Leer, founder and director of the Jerusalem Cinematheque and Israel Film Archives are the first industry figures recruited by the Berlinale Talent Campus.

The five-day training programme (February 10-14),.which is organised in co-operation with Filmboard Berlin-Brandenburg and the UK's Film Council for some 500 young filmmakers from all over the world, will cover the whole spectrum of filmmaking. Individual days will be dedicated to philosophy (Feb 10), pre-production (Feb 11), production (Feb 12), post-production (Feb 13) and promotion (Feb 14).

According to the organisers, hundreds of applications to participate have already arrived from over 50 countries, including Canada, USA, Australia, Argentina, Israel, Syria, Iceland, Nigeria, Asia, and Germany.

Young authors, producers, directors, cameramen and actors can still apply to participate until December 6, so long as they have already worked on a film and are fluent in the English language. Moreover, part of the application is a one-minute film which will be shown during the Talent Campus' five days.

During the Berlinale itself (6-16 February 2003), Bosnian director Danis Tanovic's Oscar and Golden Globe-winning drama No Man's Land will be given a special screening as part of the "Cinema For Peace" initiative which was staged for the first time this year with Catherine Deneuve as patron.

The film, which received the Audience Award at the 2001 Filmfest Cottbus and the Prix de la Jeunesse award at the French Film Days in Tuebingen last month, will be shown in Berlin's Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt ahead of a gala evening attended by prominent figures from the world of entertainment and high society.

No Man's Land, which will then be released theatrically in Germany by Arsenal Film on 20 February, was not sold to Germany until a year after its premiere in the 2001 Cannes Film Festival. As the film's French-based producer Cedomir Kolar recently observed at the "Connecting Cottbus" industry forum during the FilmFest Cottbus, "Germany was the last territory to sell'after Thailand and Taiwan."

Meanwhile, growing pressure on the Berlinale's finances has forced it to hike the accreditation fees for film industry professionals wanting to attend the 2003 event.

The general accreditation fee doubles from Euros 25 to Euros 50 (press accreditation will cost Euros 30) while those wanting to have access to the market screenings at the European Film Market will be required to stump up another Euros 190 for a market badge.