Organisers of the 2023 Berlin International Film Festival, also known as the Berlinale, have said that 267,000 tickets have been sold ahead of the final stages of the event.
The total is up 70% on last year’s edition, which was still impacted by COVID-19 and sold 156,472 tickets for the entire festival. However, the 2023 event has still failed to match the figure produced by the 2020 edition, which took place just before the onset of the pandemic.
The 73rd edition of the Berlinale opened on February 16 with the premiere of the film ‘She Came to Me’, directed by Rebecca Miller, and will run until February 26.
Organisers are hoping to get close to the 330,681 tickets sold for the 70th edition in 2020. In 2021, the film festival took place as a special summer event and saw 57,962 tickets sold for 130 films.
Festival directors Mariëtte Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian said: “We’re very pleased to see that the cinemas are at full capacity, that audiences are once again able to experience cinema together and that the festival is once again a place for exciting experiences, inspiring encounters and vivacious exchange.”
Organisers also said that the new Berlinale venue Verti Music Hall had been very well-received by audiences.
On the Berlinale Publikumstag (public day) on Sunday, there will be an encore for audiences which will see numerous films from the festival repeated.
Tickets for the Berlinale Publikumstag have been available since February 13.