Over the past ten days, the Berlinale has presented cinema’s creative power and diversity, as well as welcomed guests and the public to many discussions and talks about “the seventh art”. With 330,000 tickets sold, attendance set a new record in the history of the Festival.

Today, on Saturday 15, 2014, the 64^th Berlin International Film Festival is drawing to a splendid close with the Award Ceremony. At 7.00 pm, the winners of the Golden Bear and Silver Bears, the Bears for short films and the Best First Feature Award will be presented at the final gala in the Berlinale Palast. Following the ceremony, the winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film will be shown as closing film.

Festival Director Dieter Kosslick and the International Jury under James Schamus will present the awards. Anke Engelke will again host the gala, which will be broadcast live on 3sat at 7.00 pm. The award ceremony can also be watched on www.berlinale.de via live stream.

Some 1.600 guests are expected to attend the Award Ceremony. Besides the members of the International Jury - James Schamus, Barbara Broccoli, Trine Dyrholm, Mitra Farahani, Greta Gerwig, Michel Gondry, Tony Leung and Christoph Waltz – they will include: Meret Becker, David Bennent, Christian Berkel, Alexander Beyer, Hans-Christoph Blumenberg, Christopher Buchholz, Denis Dercourt, Maria Dragus, Hannelore Elsner, Martina Gedeck, Michael Gwisdek, Klaus Hoffmann, Marc Hosemann, Burghart Klaußner, Wolfgang Kohlhaase, Lisa Martinek, Jacob Matschenz, Maxim Mehmet, Nazif Mujic, Jana Pallaske, Jeanine Meerapfel, Helke Misselwitz, Franziska Petri, Christian Petzold, Moritz Rinke, Helma Sanders-Brahms, Andrea Sawatzki, Frieder Schlaich, Volker Schlöndorff, Maria Schrader, Katharina Schüttler, Jasmila Žbanić, among others.

A number of German politicians have also announced their attendance, including: Governing Mayor of Berlin Klaus Wowereit; Governing Mayor of Paris Bertrand Delanoë; the vice presidents of the German Bundestag Edelgard Bulmahn and Claudia Roth; Austrian Chancellery Minister for Media and Cultural Affairs Josef Ostermayer; President of the Berlin House of Representatives Ralf Wieland; Their Excellencies the Ambassadors of Argentina, Austria, Brazil, Denmark, Italy, the People’s Republic of China, Spain and Uruguay; as well as several members of the German federal government and the Berlin Senate.

Among the countless stars who walked the Red Carpet during the Berlinale were: Wes Anderson, Patricia Arquette, Bob Balaban, Christian Bale, Karl Baumgartner, Moritz Bleibtreu, Hugh Bonneville, Pierce Brosnan, Yvonne Catterfeld, Nick Cave, George Clooney, Toni Collette, Jennifer Connelly, Bradley Cooper, Matt Damon, Catherine Deneuve, Jean Dujardin, America Ferrera, Ralph Fiennes, Christophe Gans, Bruno Ganz, Brendan Gleeson, Jeff Goldblum, John Goodman, Benjamin Heisenberg, Hannah Herzsprung, Nick Hornby, Diane Kruger, Shia LaBeouf, Mélanie Laurent, Richard Linklater, Ken Loach, Andie MacDowell, Viggo Mortensen, Cillian Murphy, Bill Murray, Edward Norton, Aaron Paul, Michael Peña, Alain Resnais, Tony Revolori, Sam Riley, Saoirse Ronan, Martin Scorsese, Léa Seydoux, Stellan Skarsgård, Christian Slater, Patti Smith, Florian Stetter, Tilda Swinton, Uma Thurman, Lars von Trier, Jürgen Vogel, Hugo Weaving, Forest Whitaker and Yoji Yamada.

Attendance surged tremendously at this year’s Festival, surpassing even last year’s record: a total of 330,000 tickets were sold. Audiences and fans could also enjoy many events at the newly designed Audi Berlinale Lounge outside the Berlinale Palast: over 30 public events - such as Q&As with the teams of Competition films and discussions from other Berlinale sections – proved to be crowd pullers.

Provisions were also made for the physical well-being of the Festival’s visitors: for the first time, Street Food was offered in cooperation with Markthalle Neun at the heart of the Festival on Potsdamer Platz. The wide range of culinary dishes prepared at the six food trucks, which were stationed in the Joseph-von-Eichendorff-Gasse, was received with delight.

On Sunday, February 16, 2014, Berlinale Kinotag will give audiences a special treat: a number of the films presented in the different sections of the Festival will be screened again for the public at many of the Berlinale’s venues.