Squee!! I got tickets to the Berlinale today!

(Berliner Morgenpost)

[...for a Georgian subtitled film called The Legend of the Fortress Suram.]

Competition for tickets was intense, though. I've never seen such buzz around Potsdamer Platz, which has quickly emerged as Ground Zero of the festival...although, to be fair, it's also V-day (Happy Hallmark card day, everyone!)

Potsdamer Platz is also the site of Berlin's two biggest commercial cinemas, the CineStar and the CinemaxX (and believe me, those names are as much of a mystery to me as are to any English speaker), not to mention the Grand Hyatt and the Ritz-Carlton, favoured by Hollywood stars attending the festival. The CineStar is actually one of the few cinemas where you can see major Hollywood blockbusters *in English*, which is why it's also a popular spot for American expats/tourists.

Films compete for a Golden Bear, which is conveniently also the symbol of Berlin. It's also pretty damn adorable.

(Hamburger Abendblatt)

The Berlinale is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year (did I pick the best year to go to Berlin, or what?), and I am majorly feeling the scale and scope of the whole event and its effect on the city. It's not just the dizzying array of films that's making my movie buff heart beat faster - short films, indie films, films about war, films in Japanese, Nouvelle Vague retrospective films -, there's also been a certain unmistakable energy to the city in the past few weeks, a kind of palpable sense of pride in the legacy of film-making that the city has to offer, and of celebration in what has become a lasting and meaningful/important festival.

Anyway. I was also planning on getting one of those Berlinale messenger bags that everyone who is anyone seems to be toting around, just so I, too, can be insufferable. Unfortunately, this year's bag looks like this:

FUGLY.

Last year's was *so* much cooler:

...and in 2008:

(Süddeutsche Zeitung)

*sigh* What do you think? Should I shell out 20 Euros for a bag this mediocre, even if it is somewhat special??

• Official Berlinale site
• German news coverage of the festival: Berliner Morgenpost, Tip and Zitty.
• A really cool photo retrospective on the history of Potsdamer Platz.

Phew! That took a lot longer to write than I thought it would....good night!