Today the 60th round of the International Berlin Film Festival, Berlinale (11-21 February) opens, writes Samir Farid from Germany, with no Arab premieres on any of its programmes. Only two previously screened films are featured on the Panorama fringe programme: the Iraqi filmmaker Mohammad Al-Darraji's Son of Babylon (which premiered in the Abu Dhabi Film Festival official competition); and the Moroccan filmmakers Swel and Imad Noury's The Man Who Sold The World. The festival director Dieter Kosslick has managed to obtain for the festival the first world premiere of two highly anticipated major films this year: Martin Scorsese's Shutter Island, which is being screened outside the competition; Roman Polanski's Ghost Writer, which is one of two films representing French cinema in the official competition. Kosslick, who has been in charge since the turn of the century, has helped Berlin stand up to competition with its older and more prestigious counterpart in Venice and its greater, larger scale counterpart in Cannes. To celebrate the 60th round Kosslick organised an unprecedented event, with a festival sticker including the titles of 15,000 films screened at the Berlinale over 60 years, a historical programme of 40 films, a children's film festival curated by the British critic David Thomson, an exhibition of photos on the festival stars, a feature- length documentary on the festival, and several books and picture books around the event and its history including, notably a book by the British film historian Peter Cowie.