Worldwide digitalization has also brought changes to the cinema. Not only are more and more films digitally processed but they are also digitally produced and projected. With the advancement of digital cinema, the Berlin International Film Festival has increasingly turned to using digital projection for its movies. Ten festival cinemas are now equipped with digital projectors. Whereas the Zoo-Palast went digital some time ago, the Berlin International Film Festival has just installed new digital systems in the Delphi, in five cinemas at the CinemaxX as well as in three at the CineStar. This quality improvement has been made possible by our sponsors: Sony, Media & Broadcast T-Systems International, Film-Ton-Technik Rüttgers, Lang Audiovision, Gahrens+Battermann media systems provider, Barco and Dolby.

Sony has provided the Berlinale with three multi-format HD players. Hence in 2004 festival audiences will be able to watch digital cinema for the first time at many venues and high-definition films can now be presented in their original formats.

In addition, T-Systems is making digital cinema possible in three cinemas (CineStar 2, 3 and 7) as well as setting up a local server structure. Barco, Film-Ton-Technik Rüttgers and Lang Audiovision are providing projectors and DigiBeta players, Beta SP and DV players, thus making every digital system playable. And, of course, this commitment to the “Berlinale’s going digital” – an absolute milestone in the festival’s history – also includes the support and assistance of the staffs of these enterprises – and for this we would like to express our sincerest gratitude.

For the second time, Gahrens+Battermann media systems provider is collaborating with the Berlin International Film Festival. And with the Berlinale Talent Campus, which requires everything from large-screen projectors to DVD players, a large number of Berlinale venues with Barco projectors and other equipment for presentations in a variety of technical formats, and the journalists writing room in the Grand Hyatt Hotel with its many PCs and monitors – this full systems provider is living up to its name.

With their ultimate visual fidelity, Barco high-resolution projectors are providing top quality for screenings in all digital formats at the Berlinale’s ten temporary venues. As a result, the Forum, Panorama and Perspektive Deutsches Kino sections as well as the European Film Market have been able to enhance the diversity of their programs considerably.