The Berlinale Camera awards will be presented at this year's festival as part of the Berlinale Special section to Hungary's Marta Meszaros, the Italian documentary filmmaker Gianni Mina, and Dorothea Moritz and Ron Holloway, publishers of KINO German Film.

Announcing this year's programme at a press conference on Tuesday morning in Berlin, festival director Dieter Kosslick said that the presentation to Meszaros would be followed by a screening of her 1975 film Adoption, which was the first film by a woman to win the Golden Bear in Berlin, while Mina will be honoured with the screening of two documentaries which resulted from conversations with Fidel Castro: Cuban Memories: Un Dia Con Fidel and Cuban Memories: Fidel Cuenta El Che. The award to Moritz and Holloway will be followed by a screening of the 1994 portrait Paradjanov - A Requiem about the late Armenian director Sergei Paradjanov.

Meanwhile, European Film Market director Beki Probst revealed that 702 films have been registered to date for a total of 1,072 market screenings, of which 91 films are titles being presented in the official festival sections open to the public.

The market has now accredited 878 international buyers from more than 50 countries - up from 761 in 2006 - and around 70 companies have set up shop in suites at various hotels in the vicinity of Potsdamer Platz such as the Grand Hyatt, Ritz Carlton and Maritim. The companies operating out of hotels include Arclight Films, Global Cinema Group, Lionsgate Entertainment, Nu Image/Millennium Films, Pathe Pictures International, Summit Entertainment and Telepool.

'We will mention these companies in our catalogue because they are part of our market and many have also booked screenings,' Probst noted, adding that business at the EFM would be in full swing from the very first day of the festival before the screening of La Vie En Rose as opening film. 'It is quite remarkable: we had always tried to convince people that the first day is a good day, but they always said 'No, we just arrive and first collect our accreditation'. This year, though, all cinemas are fully booked from 11.00 to 20.00 on the 8th.'

Speaking about the EFM's main venue in the Martin Gropius Bau, Probst explained that 'a very detailed questionnaire' had been issued to the market participants after last year's event, leading to 'some cosmetic improvements' such as better heating and ventilation in the museum building.

Asked about the talent expected to come to the Berlinale to support their films, Kosslick promised that there would be 'enough star power' on the red carpet again this year and revealed that among those confirmed for the Competition films were Jennifer Lopez, Matt Damon, Ben Kingsley, Cate Blanchett, Lauren Bacall, last year's jury president Charlotte Rampling, and Clint Eastwood. In addition, Sharon Stone would be coming as to support Ryan Eslinger's When A Man Falls In The Forest, an independent feature co-produced by the Wuppertal-based private film investment company Torati Active Filmproduktion.

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