1951

The first Berlin International Film Festival is opened on June 6 with Alfred Hitchcock's "Rebecca", starring Joan Fontaine, the first Hollywood star to be celebrated at the Berlinale.

1954
Three "goddesses" of the silver screen grace the city with glamour and style: Sophia Loren, Gina Lollobrigida and Yvonne de Carlo.

1955
The Golden Bear is awarded to a German production for the first time: Robert Siodmak's "Die Ratten" ("The Rats"), an adaptation of Gerhart Hauptmann's tragicomedy.

1956
The Berlin Film Festival is given the so-called "A-status" by the International Federation of Film Producers (FIAPF), formally placing the Berlinale on an equal level with the festivals in Cannes and Venice.

1957
The Zoo Palace theater is opened near the main train station and becomes the center of gravity for the Berlinale for the next four decades. The motto of the 7th Berlinale: "The Film Festival in a new Berlin".

1962
The Berlinale is staged for the first time in a divided city. Nevertheless, the presence of James Stewart, Shirley MacLaine, James Mason and Jean-Paul Belmondo provides welcome distraction from the international crisis.

1970
Crisis. Michael Verhoeven's "O.K.", depicting the rape and murder of a Vietnamese girl by US soldiers, unleashes a wave of protest, heated debate and the resignation of the Jury. For the first and only time, no awards are given.

1971
Following the scandal of 1970, the "International Forum of New Film" is founded alongside the Competition "to inform avant garde and progressive developments in film in all countries as well as to support these developments."

1975
After turning down invitations for years, East Germany (GDR) sends a film into the Competition: Frank Beyer's "Jacob the Liar" (later remade with Robin Williams). On the whole, socialist nations do quite well. A Hungarian film ("The Adoption") wins the Golden Bear, and Silver Bears go to the USSR and the GDR.

1976
The Office of the District Attorney, suspecting that the Forum might break federal law by publicly displaying a pornographic film, confiscates Nagisa Oshima's "In the Realm of the Senses". The investigation plods on for five months before it's finally dropped.

1978
Following years of debate, the Berlinale is rescheduled. Once a summer event, it's now a winter festival. Berlinale Director Wolf Donner argues that "the international film world needs the great turbulent fair in Cannes," but Berlin will be dedicated to "artistic cinema."

1979
Vietnam scandal, the sequel. After Michael Cimino's "The Deer Hunter" is screened, several socialist countries pull their films from the Competition and go home. A tough initiation for the new director of the festival, Moritz de Hadeln (Wolf Donner had resigned to become a culture editor at DER SPIEGEL).

1985
A film from the GDR, Rainer Simon's "Die Frau und der Fremde" ("The Woman and the Stranger") wins the Golden Bear for the first and only time.

1986
Reinhard Hauff's "Stammheim", based on DER SPIEGEL editor Stefan Aust's book chronicling the trial of Red Army Faction leaders, wins the Golden Bear. Jury President Gina Lollobrigida breaks her pledge of secrecy - an unprecedented act in the Berlinale's history - and announces, "I was against this film."

1990
Just three months after the fall of the Wall, the Berlinale takes place at venues in both halves of the city. Julia Roberts and Sally Field pose for photos with East German guards at the Brandenburg Gate.

1999
Gerhard Schröder becomes the first German chancellor to attend the opening of the Berlinale. The last Golden Bear to be awarded in the Zoo Palace theater goes to Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line".