Berlinale 2025: A New Screening Venue and a Festival Hub at Potsdamer Platz for the 75th Anniversary Edition of the Festival

The Berlinale is revitalising the festival’s home at Potsdamer Platz with two new venues close to the Berlinale Palast and the CinemaxX and in close proximity to the European Film Market at Gropius Bau.

The Stage Bluemax Theater at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz will become a new premiere screening venue for the next edition. Once adapted, the venue will offer a seating capacity of approximately 500 seats, and will host screenings over the entire festival period. The new venue will become the home of the newly created Perspectives first feature competition, as well as hosting key premieres from other Berlinale sections.

In addition, with the Berlinale HUB75, a temporary festival hub will be built at Marlene-Dietrich-Platz. HUB75 will host a series of free morning talks and events for public audiences, as well as providing a networking space for industry and filmmaker guests. More details on the public and industry programme schedules will be announced in January.

“Since the closure and redevelopment of key cinemas in 2022, Berlinale has missed some of its former presence and buzz around our centre in Potsdamer Platz. These new venues are part of our longer term plans to recreate a more readily walkable festival heart, and inject additional energy and visibility back into this central hub,” says Tricia Tuttle, Festival Director.

With the closure of some key screens in the area and with the reduction in capacity at other venues, the festival has lost approximately 150,000 screening seats around Potsdamer Platz. These seats could be compensated for by other Berlinale venues, but the goal remains to offer more options on the square again.
The new plans will facilitate professional work and networking for Berlinale’s industry audiences, while also creating new access for public audiences.

Now that the construction work around the Berlinale Palast has been almost completed, the festival can make better use of the square in its new design. The redesign enables more opportunities for encounters.

All venues of the Berlinale 2025 will be published in December.