The Berlin Film Festival is launching a new section called Perspectives, a competitive strand devoted to international fiction feature debuts. The strand is being launched with an eye on strengthening the breadth of new talent at the festival, which will also discontinue its Encounters strand, first launched back in 2020 under the previous leadership. The new stand-alone competition will include up to 14 fiction debuts from all over the world, with a jury of three deciding on the Best First Feature Award.
The award is endowed with 50,000 euros, funded by GWFF (Gesellschaft zur Wahrnehmung von Film- und Fernsehrechten), a society dedicated to safeguarding film and TV rights. The prize money will be split between the producers and the directors of the winning film. Related Stories News Jacqueline Lyanga And Michael Stütz Appointed Berlinale Co-Directors Of Film Programming Festivals Conflict, Cuts And Identity Crises: How Film Festivals Are Navigating Choppy Waters Films selected for the competition will be curated by Festival Director Tricia Tuttle together with the Co-Directors of Film Programming and the section heads of Panorama, Forum and Generation.
World premieres will be given preference, but films that have already premiered in their country of origin can also be considered at the discretion of the Festival Director. Perspectives emerges from the Best First Feature Award at the Berlinale, run in partnership with GWFF since 2006. Previously nominations were embedded a.
