Berlinale Summer Special To Take Place As An Outdoor Event In June, Venues Revealed

The Berlin Film Festival has confirmed that it will hold its Berlinale Summer Special (June 9-20, 2021) program as an outdoor event across 16 venues. 

The falling Covid rate in the country and positive noises from government officials have renewed optimism among organizers that the event can go ahead in an outdoor capacity. The event will screen many of the films selected for the festival, which wasn’t able to take place in February due to Covid restrictions.

Hygiene and security plans have been developed and will be coordinated with the venues.

The main venue will be at the Museum Island Berlin, and on June 13, the awards ceremony will take place following the decisions of the official juries already made in March.

In addition, the Berlinale Documentary Award, sponsored by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg and endowed with 40,000 euros, and the GWFF Best First Feature Award, sponsored by the Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten and endowed with 50,000 euros, will also be awarded at the main venue at Museum Island Berlin.

Directors of the Berlinale, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said: “We’re extremely pleased about the new concept for the Berlinale Summer Special, despite having planned it differently at the outset. Audiences will be getting a very special, collective festival experience – something we’ve all been missing for such a long time. The Summer Special is geared towards re-igniting the desire to go to the cinema, and to contributing to the revival of cultural activities with an audience. We’ll be able to present the festival programme to Berlin audiences in almost every part of the city at a total of 16 venues, including a specially created outdoor cinema at the historic Museum Island Berlin as the main venue. The “Kiez-Kino” local cinema screenings will also take place as outdoor events, and be more strongly represented in different parts of the city. Thanks to the generous additional funding by the BKM, Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media Monika Grütters, for the festival’s two-phase format in 2021, and the support of the Berlin Senate, we can now prepare the Summer Special and look forward to welcoming filmmakers and jury members who can make the journey to Berlin in June,” comment the on their recent decision.  

The open-air cinema locations:

 Freiluftkino Museumsinsel

Location: Bodestr. 1-3, 10178 Berlin

 Freiluftkino Friedrichshain

Location: Volkspark Friedrichshain, 10249 Berlin

 Freiluftkino Rehberge
Location: Volkspark Rehberge, 13351 Berlin