60th Berlin international film festival opens: cream of the German cream (21 images)
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A Franco-German-Polish cafebabel team will be bringing you their pick of the crop at this year's Berlin film festival between 11 to 21 February. Shots from the opening gala
(Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
(Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Some cinema fans even camped overnight under the arches of Potsdamer Platz to ensure they got their precious paper pieces of treasure (Image: ©Sebastien Vannier)
The opening gala on 11 February didn't look so glamorous from the outside (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
So thank the Golden Bear God for the glam brought by the Texas-born Bridget Jones' Diary star. The 40-year-old, who has a German grandmother, braved the event in a dress by her favourite designer, the Venezuelan Carolina Herrera. She is judging alongside British star Tilda Swinton (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Your host with the most: it's the Berlinale's director (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
And your hostess with the mostess is the Canadian-born German comedian, 44, who is also the voice of Germany's version of Marge Simpson and a well-known TV presenter (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Opening the ceremony with his cerca 1986 Palast Orchestra, the 47-year-old baritone is a cafebabel favourite for his renditions of Britney Spears and songs like Sex Bomb (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Pictured here with Stephen Daldry, the British director who brought the 19-year-old to fame in The Reader (2008) alongside Kate Winslet (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Shot of the stylised 64-year-old director of Paris, Texas (1984) (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Politics serving slice one: when he's not planning the role of the German army in Afghanistan, the former foreign minister and head of the social democrats, 54, attends glitzy events like this one (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
Politics serving slice two: the mayor of Berlin, pictured with boyfriend, is lauded for having coined the phrase 'Berlin: arm, aber sexy' ('poor, but sexy') (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
The 47-year-old hunk seduced European audiences for his role in the Oscar-winning The Lives of Others (2006) (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
And here's Koch's former leading lady. The Lives Of Others actress from Munich, 48, is here for her part in Oskar Roehler's Jud Süss: Film Without a Conscience, which has its world premiere during the festival (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
You know the Italian-German actor, 69, from his lead role in The Tin Drum (1978) (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
The Chinese actress stars in the film which opens this year's Berlinale: Apart Together (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
The German actor, 79, is a familiar face to western audiences and Hollywood for his role in Ron Howard's sequel to The Da Vinci Code, Angels and Demons (2009) (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
The German actor, 54, mostly works on national television (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
The film director, 49, has been in the news of late with the story of his battle with lung cancer. Pictured with girlfriend Aino Laberenz (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)
More than 20 films are in competition this year and hundreds of others from the likes of Martin Scorcese and Roman Polanski will be premiering over the next ten days of the festival (Image: ©Sebastien Vannier)
Watch this space! (Image: ©Katarzyna Swierc)