The Berlinale will again be unrolling its Flying Red Carpet at selected neighbourhood cinemas in 2011. With this series, it wants to express its thanks to Berlin's movie fans and to those who put together the programmes of these cinemas. "Berlinale goes Kiez" was launched last year for the Festival's 60th anniversary and proved to be an absolute favourite among Berliners.

Once again the Berlinale wants to support this passion for the cinema:

On seven evenings from Saturday, February 12 to Friday, February 18, 2011, one neighbourhood movie theatre in a city district - from Friedrichshagen to Wilmersdorf - will serve as an additional Berlinale venue. Each evening, two films from different sections of the Festival will celebrate their neighbourhood premieres at these locations and so bring the Festival's atmosphere right to people's doorsteps. Like last year, one well-known Berlin film personality will act as patron of each of these cinemas and be on hand to welcome guests to our Flying Red Carpet. In 2011 the patrons are Leander Haußmann, Senta Berger, Michael Verhoeven, Tom Tykwer, Marc Rothemund, Marie Bäumer, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg and Maren Ade. Many of them have a very special personal connection to these "Kiez" (neighbourhood) cinemas and will tell audiences about them.

Members of the respective casts and crews will also be attending many of these screenings.

Saturday, Feb. 12, Die Kurbel, Charlottenburg: The "Berlinale goes Kiez" series will open with the Forum entry En terrains connus (Familiar Ground, dir: Stéphane Lafleur). It will be followed by Tropa de Elite 2 - o inimigo agora é outro (Elite Squad 2 - The enemy within, dir: José Padilha) from the Panorama programme. Cinema patron for this evening will be Marie Bäumer.

Sunday, Feb. 13, Toni & Tonino, Weißensee: The Berlinale has also invited two films to this cinema: Amnistia (Amnesty, dir: Bujar Alimani) from the Forum section and the Competition film Schlafkrankheit (Sleeping Sickness, dir: Ulrich Köhler). Patrons are Senta Berger and Michael Verhoeven.

Monday, Feb. 14, Passage, Neukölln: The following films will be shown here: Red Dog (dir: Kriv Stenders) from Generation 14plus and Almanya - Willkommen in Deutschland (Almanya, dir: Yasemin Samdereli) from the Competition. Hans-Christoph Blumenberg will be the patron of this cinema.

Tuesday, Feb. 15, Union Filmtheater, Friedrichshagen: The Perspektive Deutsches Kino entry Vaterlandsverräter (dir: Annekatrin Hendel) will be followed by the film Die Vaterlosen (The Fatherless, dir: Marie Kreutzer) from the Panorama programme. Cinema patron is Leander Haußmann.

Wednesday, Feb. 16, Yorck-Kino, Kreuzberg: Following a selection of five short films from the Berlinale Shorts section, the film Lollipop Monster (dir: Ziska Riemann) from Perspektive Deutsches Kino will be presented to the audience. Tom Tykwer will be the patron of this evening.

Thursday, Feb. 17, Adria, Steglitz: The Flying Red Carpet will be rolled out here for films from the Competition and Forum programme: The Future (dir: Miranda July) and Dreileben - Etwas Besseres als den Tod (dir: Christian Petzold). Patron will be Maren Ade.

Friday, Feb. 18, Eva Lichtspiele, Wilmersdorf: At this cinema the "Berlinale goes Kiez" will come to a close with Wer wenn nicht wir (If Not Us, Who, dir: Andres Veiel) from the Competition section followed by the Panorama film Über uns das All (Above Us Only Sky, dir: Jan Schomburg). Patron of Eva-Lichtspiele is Marc Rothemund.

"Berlinale goes Kiez" is supported by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg.

For updates, go to http://www.berlinale.de/. Advance tickets are on sale since February 7, 2011 at the Berlinale's Central Ticket Offices, online at http://www.berlinale.de/ and at the ticket counters of the cinemas where the films are showing.

Press Office

February 8, 2011