From Venice Carnival to Nice Carnival, from Arco Contemporary Art Fair in Madrid to the Pancakes Race in London, or from the Chinese New Year in London to the Berlin Film Festival in Berlin you can take your pick!

With a passion for Cinema we suggest you include Berlin in your trip and be there for one of the film industry’s most prestigious annual events: the Berlinale! The Berlin International Film Festival was started in 1951 as an effort to bring back some of the vibe and culture of the city during the Golden Twenties. Bringing buzz to town for two weeks in February, the Berlinale is today Berlin’s largest cultural event. With a record of 150,000 tickets sold, 16,000 film professionals rocking up and around, 350 movies screened  running for the coveted ‘Golden Bear’ award, this festival features the biggest audience of any film festival in the world! Superb cinemas across the city, including the Arsenal, CinemaxX and CineStar host the films.

Berlin is covered with the official poster series of graphic designer Antonia Neubacher. For this 58th Berlin International Film Festival the responsible for the artwork said that the poster series is a reduced variation of the necessary and the apparently random. One can see the series as a programmatic statement, in which the Berlinale Bear as a visual representative of the festival is in constant motion. The are all over Berlin since January 22, 2008.

If you wish to be on theme and get to know something about Berlin from your own tv screen here a small not exhaustive list of good movies you can deciede to see before you go.

Run Lola Run (1998) by  T. Tykwer
The Sky Over Berlin (1987) by W. Wender
Bourne Supremacy (2004)by  P. Greengrass
Schlinders list (1993) by S. Spielberg
Faraway so close (1993) by W. Wenders
Around the world in 80 days (2004) by F. Coraci
Beyond the Sea (2004) by K. Spacey

For more information on the Film Festival, with programme and the latest news, check out the Berlinale official website. To get a simple central accommodation in Berlin, there is an apposite section in the Berlinale website but no possibilities to book directly online. For other Berlin accommodation listings please see online: there are various bookers. A valid alternative are the Berlin apartments usually very cool and stylish at very affordable prices or consider the cheapest  youth hostels.