(or How We Almost Couldn’t Get Tickets to the Berlinale)
Some of the reasons I always avoided the Tribeca Film Festival in New York had to do with the unbelievable amount of time and effort required just to buy a ticket. For some reason, I was under the mistaken illusion that the Berlinale (also known as the Berlin International Film Festival) would be different. But. No.
Our first mistake was that we were late in even considering attending the Berlinale. Let me back up a bit. Last weekend, we had plans to participate in a Kohlfahrt in Bremen, which was sadly cancelled a few days prior because of the terribly frigid weather. (What? Pulling around a wagen full of alcohol and playing drinking games at every bend in the road for several hours in subzero temperatures on your way to a restaurant to eat green cabbage and Pinkel doesn’t sound like a great cultural experience to you? If not, you’re totally missing out.) So anyway, with a cancelled Kohlfahrt, we suddenly had a free weekend ahead of us, and thought, hey, Berlinale!
By this point, the tickets for the weekend films had already gone on sale and the limited number of online tickets were already sold out. So I gave mein Schatz a list of preselected films, and he agreed to swing by one of the ticket counters (open from 10am-8pm) on his way home from work. This was mistake number two. Apparently, unless you are willing to give up your entire morning to standing in line for tickets, you have limited chances of getting any tickets at all, let alone the tickets you want. What was left by the time he made it to the ticket counter shortly before closing (after having stood in line for an hour), was extremely limited. Then the guy at the counter couldn’t get mein Schatz’s EC-card to work (mistake number three: having no cash on hand), so we were totally thwarted in our efforts to score tickets for a film (any film) that weekend.
Not wanting to be defeated so easily, I searched the Berlinale website and saw that for some reason, tickets for the final day of the festival (a week later) were already on sale (normally tickets go on sale only 3-4 days before the film shows) and were half price. So I looked around for the “best of the rest”, so to speak, and found a film showing in the “experimental and new filmmakers” category on the 19th that still had tickets available online. Not exactly what we were hoping for, but at least we had tickets to something!
A few days later, in an effort to redeem myself, I decided to give one last long shot at scoring online tickets to one of the films up for an award that same weekend. The online tickets go on sale at 10am. My film and showing of choice immediately gave me an error message saying that tickets weren’t available for online booking, so I moved on to my second choice, but it was too late. Even though it was only 10:02am by that point, my second choice was already sold out and so were the other films in the “competition” category. Thwarted again!
On a complete whim about 20 minutes later, I decided to see what else was on sale for that day. And lo and behold! My first choice film for Saturday evening, which gave me an error message earlier, suddenly had tickets available! I didn’t hesitate. Once I was done with the purchase, I checked again and saw that within the time period where I entered my payment information, even that film had sold out. I have no idea explanation for why those tickets weren’t accessible earlier, or why I decided to have one last look at the website — but I will definitely accept it as a stroke of very good fortune!
At the end of the day, we ended up with tickets to two films, both for this weekend. (Reviews to follow next week, of course).
My lessons learned for next year’s Berlinale:
- Plan ahead!
- Don’t bother with the online ticket purchases, unless you’re a sucker for stress and anxiety. (Update: See Jen‘s tips in the comment section below about how she successfully purchases tickets online!)
- Take the morning off work and stand in a long line at a ticket counter, or find someone willing to do it for you.
- Bring cash!
- Although we were limited to weekends because of my work schedule, next year’s Berlinale might be a good chance to try to work from Berlin for a week or so and catch some films during the week too.
- And finally, be flexible on the movies you see. Part of the fun of the film festival is experiencing new and upcoming filmmakers from all over the world that you wouldn’t normally get to know.
Do you have any other film festival tips to share? Do you find it’s worth all the hassle?
Great job scoring tickets! I’m glad that you got some. Yeah, unfortunately getting tickets to the Berlinale can be somewhat of a hassle – there needs to be a guide or something for tips on how to do it. :-) To me, it’s definitely worth it. I think the Berlinale is very accessible for us normal folks, and it’s cool to see films from around the globe. I love that after many of the films, the filmmakers and some of the cast have a Q&A session. It’s so cool to see them in person.
Though I wouldn’t say not to bother with online tickets – we were able to get tickets for eight showings (over four days). I go through the list of films the night before the tickets go on sale and then I write down 3-4 choices and in various time frames. Then, right at 10 I’m ready and logged in – and go right for my top choices. I think the reason your top choice was suddenly available again is that when someone selects a film and goes through the payment process, the ticket is held for 15 minutes. If it’s not paid by then, it goes back into the pool. So, after I pay for my top choices right at 10, I check again 15-20 minutes later to see what else has been released back into the pool.
And you’re right – you need to have some flexibility in what you want to see. The big budget films can be hard to get tix for (and you can usually get them on Lovefilm or whatever later), but I usually pass those over and go for films that I otherwise would never have the chance to see.
The day of the film, you can also try going directly to the theater itself to get any leftover tickets they may have. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.
Make sure you arrive at the theater about 30 minutes before the film time to get in line. There’s a big push to get in once the doors open and if you want seats together, the further up in line you are, the better.
And those, folks, are my Berlinale tips. Enjoy! :-)
@Jen: Thanks for all the tips! It’s good to hear it’s not impossible to purchase online, because that’s definitely the most convenient. And that completely makes sense with the 15-minute hold and re-release — I’ll definitely have to keep that in mind for next year. Also good to know that we should be at the theater so early — especially since we’re going to have to figure out how to get to there on Saturday without U-Bahn, bus or tram. What an adventure. :) Hope you have a great time too!
Wow – that sounds stressful but I’m glad you got tickets!! Can’t wait to hear about the movies!