At the end of this year's edition last weekend, the International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) announced that its 2010 dates will be Wednesday January 27 to Sunday February 7 which could overlap with the Berlinale if the German festival opens on Thursday February 4 next year.
The Berlinale could possibly put its opening back a week until February 11, but that would then clash with the pre-Oscar events and Oscar ceremony if that is held on Sunday February 21.
An AMPAS spokesperson told Screen that a decision on the date for the 2010 Academy Awards would not be made until 'late March/early April.'
IFFR's press officer Bert-Jan Zoet revealed to Berlinale ScreenDaily that his festival had 'of course, contacted our Berlinale colleagues before announcing our 2010 dates.'
'Rotterdam has always been an 'end of January & first week of February' festival and not a January festival,' said Zoet. 'Secondly, for logistic reasons, the festival does not want to start closer to the Christmas/New Year's Eve-period than it did for the past 38th edition.
'Thirdly we have had to set the 2010 dates in our commitments to our regular festival venues and, finally, the IFFR wants to avoid a complete overlap with Sundance which has already set its 2010 dates [January 21 - January 31]. If Rotterdam didn't move, we would even start one day before Sundance 2010!'
Berlinale director Dieter Kosslick confirmed that he had been in contact with Rotterdam about the 2010 dates and said that a decision would be made 'by the end of the Berlinale'.
'There are in fact only two possibilities: February 4 or 11. Both dates have advantages and disadvantages for us,' he noted. 'We don't want to overlap with Rotterdam. It's not something I would recommend because, particularly in the independent area, we are both appealing to the same clientele and have a common project 'The Berlinale - Rotterdam Express'.'
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