Berlinale - Berlin International Film Festival

After looking at the website it appears that you can get tickets at the ticket office (opens 2 days in advance). The Berlinale website mentions that you can also buy tickets on their website (but there is no link to do so!) or via another ticket counters or advance ticket outlets (which I cannot find!)

Does anyone have experience getting tickets for this thing? Or perhaps experience with a ticket vendor?

Thanks!

The best way to get tickets for the belinale is to queue up at the tickets outlets (i have always used Potsdammer platz) you can purchase for films 2 days in advance. Yes there are crowds and queues there, but it moves relativly quickly. People always want to see thethe first showing of the film, hence further showing of the same film are easier to get tickets (I think repeat showing you can purchase 3 days in advance)

One of the good things about the belinale is that most of the tickets are sold in this way, hence it is not olny prominent people that attend the festival, but the normal folf who are willinf to queue up to get their tickets.

Thanks for the info. That sounds like a good option...though being in Munich it would be sooooo much easier to buy them online. Do you know anything about buying the tix through the Berlinale website? They give absolutely no info!

I tried a few years ago, I think they offer only something like 10% of the tickets for online sale, again the same rules apply that you can only purchase 2 days in advance for first showing.

I was never sucessful in buying online, but have been about 75% of the time sucessful (always have a back up film in case it is sold out!) buying at the ticket counters as long as you are there early enough.

So who's going to see some films during this festival? As far as I know, they're showing There Will Be Blood which is meant to be huge. Other than that I'm not too sure as to what will be showing.

I've never gone to something like this before so I'm wondering what the ticket situation will be like at this? Do you buy a ticket that you can use for the entire day, or do you purchase tickets for each individual film?

they're announcing the program on tuesday in the morning, at which time the online ticket service and other ticket buying options all become available (according to the website).

The official Berlinale website is at: www.berlinale.de

And some background info:

Editor Bob, thanks for posting the website for info about the film festival.

Ehm... It might look like a stupid question but... is there any kind of dress-code to go to a film at the Berlinale film-festival? It's something like going to the cinema or you need to be elegant?

Thanks

I'm not planning to attend (ain't got time), but it is indeed a good question, Emilka.

I'm also going to try for tickets online once they become available. I won't be getting into Berlin until after the festival begins so online will probably be my best chance. I hope I get lucky!

It seems that you can just buy for individual screenings and not get some special ticket that covers a range of films, pity.

The usual way to buy tickets is to queue up at one of the three different box offices every day!! Be there at least one hour before the box office opens (10.00 am) and have your plan with your favourite films ready (and a number of other films in case your favourite film is already fully booked). You can only purchase two tickets per film per person. Tickets for individual screenings are sold three days in advance, four days in advance if the films is a so called "repetition". If you don't want to buy tickets online as it is a bit more expensive queueing up is the one and only possibility to buy tickets. If you are a member of the Kinemathek you could buy a pass for (I think) 24 screenings of the "Forum" or you can show your membership card at the box office for individual "Forum" films to get the reduction.
Best way to get the tickets you want is to take the whole week off to have enought time for queueing. It is great fun, one can meet up a lot of very interesting people.
If you would like to meet me I could post the titles of the films I am going to see.

Charlotte

My limited experience of it last year was:
you queue and buy tickets for the films you want, just like normal cinema.
there wasnt any special dress code, (though some people were quite smartly dressed, lots of other people were in jeans) even on first nights with directors there etc.
sometimes there are no seat allocations so if you get there 30 mins early you will be in a not too big crush to get in the door.

@ Charlotte, if you know which films you are interested in, please could you post them? If our interests coincide, it would be nice to meet up.

Hi Tibia,

I have already bought tickets for "Corroboree" at the Delphi: 17.02., 7 pm

Tomorrow I will try to get tickets for Saturday, 09.02.:
1 pm at Cubix7: Shahida - 09871
5.30 pm at Colosseum 1: The black balloon - 09372
8.15 pm at Cinestar 3: Eskalofrio - 09232

All films are coded - you need to give the staff at the box office the code of the film you want to see.

Charlotte

Charlotte - Is it easier to write out a list (with all the codes and film times) and just hand it over the counter? Like, do many people do this?

Charlotte, thanks for the list, I shall investigate and get back to you on that!
If anyone else is interested in joining in to make a group outing here???

cheers
Tibia

Yeah I might be interested in that - going to make out a list tonight and then I'll throw it up here. Do all the english language films have german subtitles do you know?

No, i think it really depends, which films have which subtitles.
If you check the link that Editor Bob posted for the Berlinale, then go to the Programme section, theres a .pdf file with what is essentially a timetable of which films show, when and where. If the film has a D in a circle then it will have german subtitles.
Unfortunately the file has no descriptions of any of the films so the official programme would be a better bet, or a bit of tinternet searching.

So just to clarify, if I want to see a film on Friday 15th, I should go to the box office on Tuesday 12th? Just want to make absolutely sure as I'm desperate to see this particular film.

I dont think anyone can tell you whether your film will be sold out if you buy the ticket later, you have to make your own judgement call on it. If its that important then of course you try to buy it as soon as you can.

@Partridge, i think you can indeed just hand over a list of codes at the ticket office.

That is right, all the people at the box offices want is the date of the screening and the codes of the individual film. Every screening has a different code, even it is the same film being shown four times. It will have four different codes. Remember, you can only buy tickets three days in advance, e.g. today they sell tickets for the 9th!! If you want to see a certain film you should keep all dates of all screenings in mind and if you don't get tickets for the first screening you can always try to get tickets for the second or the third or the fourth. It helps a lot to make a plan for all days of the Berlinale and put all the screenings in. Sometimes it can be a bit tricky if you want to see three films per day. You need to take into account how much time you need to get from one cinema to the other.
It would be lovely to go to the Berlinale in a group. I tried to do this last year with some friends of mine but it didn't work out as we all were interested in completely different films. We tried to meet up in between the screenings for coffee instead.

Another good tip - keep in mind that for some non-English films, there might only be one screening with English subtitles. I am missing out on a couple of films due to this.

I got lucky yesterday and got tickets online for everything I want to see on Sunday, the 17th.

Here's my schedule so far:

10:30 - Be Kind Rewind
13:00 - Lake Tahoe
14:30 - Filth and Wisdom
16:00 - Julia
19:00 - Everything is Fine
23:00 - Gardens of the Night

Admittedly, for a couple of my choices (like here between Lake Tahoe and Filth and Wisdom) I didn't leave any real travel time to the next cinema and really just wanted to cram as much as I could on the days I would be there. Are you locked out of a screening if you arrive late?

What I meant was, three days before, does this mean if the film is showing on the Friday, they will be selling tickets at the box office on Tuesday? Or on Wednesday? Sorry about the million and one questions.

Sambam, I think i misunderstood what you were asking; judging from what Charlotte is saying- that today you can buy tickets for the 9th, then on Tuesday they will be selling the tickets for Friday.
Questions are fine.
Still havent looked into which films yet... being a bit disorganised at the moment.

Hi all,

quick question, if I understood the program correctly I can also buy tickets from the venue which will be showing the film (albeit only 2 days in advance) - did I understand this correctly, or will I have to go to a proper ticket office e.g. the one at Potsdamer Platz?
Thanks,
sc

Well, i think you can... I do remember last year buying tickets from the offices in the Urania and Zoopalast, in order to see films at the Urania and Zoopalast.

Thank you very much for all your help, Tibia!

Youre welcome! but I take no responsibility for the accuracy of any information that spews out of my keyboard...

It is true you can buy tickets on the day of the screening itself as the individual cinemas get a certain number of tickets they can sell themselves. Judging from the huge number of people queuing up this morning at the ticket office at the International on Karl-Marx-Allee one hour before it opened it might be a bit hard this year to get tickets. Seems to me that the interest in the Berlinale has grown a lot since last year. I was queuing up for 1 hour and 40 minutes. Surprisingly enough the ticket office at Potsdamer Platz Arkaden doesn't want the film codes but sticks to the old ticket sales system: date - time - cinema. Whereas the people at the International want the film codes. In case you get confused with when to buy the tickets. Today they sell tickets for the 8th, 9th and 10th and for competition repetitions. But don't worry there are signs at the tickets offices that give you the days you can buy tickets for.
In case anybody is interested in coming along on the 10th I have got tickets for:
1 pm: Hey, hey, it's Esther Blueburger - ZooPalast 1
7 pm: Football under cover - Cinemax3
10.30 pm: Sleep dealer - Colosseum 1

How do you know which ones are the competition ones? Is anyone else put off by the fact that There Will Be Blood has german subtitles? Or should I just shut up and put up with it?

The queue was huge this morning in Postdamer Platz. I was 2 hours waiting!

If you look in the programme online or on paper, theres a section marked "Wettbewerb" and they are the competition ones.
German subtitles? Well its a german film festival...
TOMORROW I am going to sort out some tickets and stuff, too chained to work right now. (Er, which is why im here?)

Yeahhhh the film I wanted to see on Sunday totally sold out in 20 minutes. Damn.

Um, no. I find it a little weird that Sony Center shows American movies in English with no subtitles, and get the feeling they're only catering to expats. A movie in English (or French, or Hebrew, or whatever) with German subtitles tells me they actually expect a few Germans to see a film in its original language rather than dubbing it into German, so I'm all for it.

Well they're showing a number of films at the festival in their original language with no subtitles at all, so it was a fair of me to question why they had not done so with the biggest film at it.

Actually it's not. It's an INTERNATIONAL film festival hosted in Germany. Hence 'Berlin INTERNATIONAL Film Festival'. It's actually a big complaint about it, that they sometimes do not show films with English subtitles. People come from all over the world for this, and most of them don't speak any German. Also, when I've gone to buy tickets, the staff didn't speak any english, and couldn't even pronounce the titles of half the English movies. I mean I speak pretty good German but COME ON. I think it just looks bad for visitors to the city. From what I understand Cannes does better.

It doesn't bother me if there are German subtitles on an English movie but as English is the prodominant language of visitors, press and celebrities to the festival I think films not in English or German should be subtitled in English.

I guess the big question, after the first few days is...are the films any good? My thing about film festivals is that I can only take so many low budget period pieces with subtitles by filmmakers that wanted to roll the dice by entering into competition before signing a distribution deal.

But that's just me. I'm a television fan.

If any one wants them i have two spare web bookings for 'gardens of the night' on sunday night at 11pm Urania. I have to be there about 45mins before hand to collect some other tickets for a film at 10:30 (which i hadnt realised clashed for some stupid reason) so i can get these for you from the Internet counter and then piss off into my film.
If anyone would like 'em they are a freebie..

ok, looks like these have been dibbed now then

Anyone catch 32 A this morning? Wasn't totally impressed myself...a few funny moments (exaggerated by the german audience) and of course, me being from Ireland, I could relate to some of the slang and what not. But it was too simple a story for my liking, although I wouldn't be able for a David Lynch film at 11:00.

There is no dress code, smuggling in your own drinks is not a bad idea either depending on how big the crowd is.

Full Battle Rattle for me tonight.

From my experience many germans understand english good enough to see films without subtitles, and there are usually a lot of germans in the OV audiences at Sony centre. Some of my german friends refuse to see films with subtitles because it distracts them from the film.

Yeah Germans don't like subtitles. They'd rather see it dubbed or in original.

Dubbed is just awful. I had to get rid of my copy of Stalingrad because of it.

I didn't used to be a fan but I'm so used to it now. Also it helped me learn German a lot.

Anyone know of anybody getting rid of their tickets to Standard Operating Procedure?

Is there an early bird out there who'd like to come with me to see Filth and Wisdom this Thursday at 10:30 a.m.? I have an extra ticket.

That ticket's now taken.

I've got two tickets (just one of each) for sale:

12.02 L'Age D'Or/Simon Del... 17:00

and

12.02 Viridiana 20:00

Any takers?