People are wrapped in thick layers on their way to work on this arctic cold February morning. Shocking 20°C below zero (-4°F) makes work even harder for the road sweepers of Berlin who remove the last bits of what’s left from the fulminant night before when the big award show crowned the 62nd Berlin Film Festival the Berlinale. Back to usual now? No way!

I’ve come to Berlin during my semester break to work for a Berlin based Design firm and landed right in one of the busiest weeks of the year for Berlin.

 

Image Source: Reuters

 

Immediately after the über-cool Mercedes Benz Fashion week took place the Berlinale attracted stars and movie afficionado’s from all over the world to the heart of the “new” Berlin, the Potsdamer Platz. A place where not too long ago wasteland divided by a 12ft high wall dominated the scene the hip crowd come together to celebrate on of the most influential film festivals beside Cannes and Venice. It may have been insanely cold this time but nevertheless over 300.000 film fans showed up to see celebs like Jake Gyllenhaal, Robert Pattinson, Indian superstar Shah Rukh Khan or Meryl Streep who won a Golden Bear for her lifetime achievements. Here on Potsdam Square, designed by Italian star architect Renzo Piano by the way, crowds gather in the cold after they persevered for hours in line just to score tickets for one of the many international movies shown here. This is the best proof of how passionate people are here when it comes to escape everyday land for an hour or two into the world of film.