Today, on Saturday, February 16, the 63rd Berlin International Film Festival will come to a splendid close with the presentation of the awards.

1,600 guests are expected to attend the gala, beginning at 7.00 pm in the Berlinale Palast, where the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears, the Prizes of the International Short Film Jury and the Best First Feature Award will be announced. Following the ceremony, the winner of the Golden Bear will be shown as closing film. Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and the International Jury under Wong Kar Wai will present the awards. Anke Engelke will again host the event. Starting at 7.00 pm, the gala will be broadcast live on 3sat.

Besides the members of the International Jury – Jury President Wong Kar Wai, Susanne Bier, Andreas Dresen, Ellen Kuras, Shirin Neshat, Tim Robbins and Athina Rachel Tsangari – many other guests are expected, including: Emily Atef, Christian Berkel, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, Dietrich Brüggemann, Anton Corbijn, Martina Gedeck, Daniel Kehlmann, Alina Levshin, Dani Levy, Lisa Martinek, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helke Misselwitz, Franziska Petri, Christian Petzold, Katja Riemann, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Andrea Sawatzki, Volker Schlöndorff, Lena Stolze, Rosa von Praunheim, among others.

A number of German politicians have also announced their attendance, including: Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit; President of the Berlin House of Representatives Ralf Wieland; Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Austria, Chile, France, Greece, Kazakhstan, Poland, the Republic of Korea, Romania and Slovenia; as well as several members of the German federal government, the Berlinale Senate, the German Bundestag and the Berlin House of Representatives.

This year’s Berlinale has again been very popular with the public. A total of some 300,000 tickets were sold – that is, almost all the tickets available for the Festival. The “Berlinale Goes Kiez” initiative was also received with enthusiasm again: movie-goers used the opportunity to experience the Berlinale, which travelled with the Flying Red Carpet to seven arthouse cinemas in their neighbourhoods.

Among the countless stars and distinguished film artists who attended this year’s Festival were: Matt Damon, Gus Van Sant, John Krasinski, Ulrich Seidl, Thomas Arslan, Shia LaBeouf, Rupert Grint, Til Schweiger, Hugh Jackmann, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hooper, Eddie Redmayne, Amanda Seyfried, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, James Franco, Peter Saarsgard, Isabelle Huppert, Martina Gedeck, Denis Côté, Michael Winterbottom, Richard Linklater, Ethan Hawke, Julie Delpy, Pia Marais, August Diehl, Steven Soderbergh, Jude Law, Rooney Mara, Juliette Binoche, Bruno Dumont, Jane Campion, Holly Hunter, Geoffrey Rush, Jim Sturgess, Giuseppe Tornatore, Ennio Morricone, Bille August, Jeremy Irons, Christopher Lee, Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and many others.

On Sunday, February 17, Berlinale Kinotag, a number of films presented in the different sections of the Festival will be screened again for the public at many of the Berlinale’s venues.