Cinestar at Berlinale

Source: Birgitte Dummer c. Berlinale 2011

Neither the CineStar nor the IMAX venues are available this year. 

The Berilnale’s European Film Market (EFM) has added four further screens to its roster of screening facilities to replace the loss of eight screens in the Cinestar complex at the Sony Center and the neighbouring IMAX screen for the February 2020 event.  

In addition to the seven screens at the Delphi Lux – close to the Zoo Palast cinemas and the Delphi – the EFM has secured the Russian House of Science and Culture in Friedrichstraße which has a 189-seat cinema. It is  two U-bahn stops from Potsdamer Platz and a short walk from the Stadtmitte station.

Furthermore, closer to the festival’s centre of activities at Potsdamer Platz are two screening rooms located at the Staatsbibliothek (State Library) – immortalised in Wim Wenders’ 1987 film Wings Of Desire – with seating for 400 and 80.

A second studio category cinema – the new ‘dffb 2’ - has been installed in the basement of the Filmhaus next to the Arsenal cinema with seating for 50, to complement the film school’s cinema with seating for 65 people on the ninth floor, which is also used for EFM market screenings.

The EFM also has a new screening venue for presenting VR content. The EFM VR Cinema is at a new address – Am Park 4 – close to the Berliner Freiheit and the Marriott Hotel.

In addition, the festival’s Generation sidebar is moving from the House of World Cultures this year due to renovation work.

The Urania was the main venue for the Kinderfilmfest, as the section was called before Kosslick took over reins, until 1999 and has seating for 866 and 320 in the Humboldt-Saal and Kleist-Saal, respectively.