Film Festive

Berlinale’s Best Bashes: The Parties Not To Miss At The 2013 Berlin International Film Fest

The first major event of the annual European film calendar kicks off tonight in Berlin with the opening of the 63rd Berlinale, better known as the Berlin International Film Festival.

Always packed with gay content (much of which competes for the esteemed Teddy Awards), the eclectic but high octane fest runs for a busy eleven days this year, with screenings at theaters mostly clustered around Potsdamer Platz in Berlin’s Mitte neighborhood.

But man cannot live on celluloid alone, and wild and wonderful Berlin awaits. So here are our tips for the best Berlinale-related parties happening over the next fortnight or so across the German capital.

berlinale - partysaneFriday, February 8
PARTYSANE
SchwuZ
Towering (literally, at 6’5”) Berlin drag demi-diva Gloria Viagra presents the Teddy Award jury at this edition of her souped-up monthly dance club in Kreuzberg.

Saturday, February 9
Propaganda Meets Berlinale
Goya
One of Berlin’s biggest dance parties, the monthly Propaganda club celebrates the film fest right on Nollendorplatz in the city’s historic gayborhood of Schöneberg.

Sunday, February 10
Café Fatal
SO36
Iconic Kreuzberg club SO36 hosts this special Teddy-themed version of Café Fatal, the weekly gay dance classroom for everything from ballroom to disco.

Wednesday, February 13
Soirée Diversité
Hotel Adlon Kempinski
After 26 years, the Teddy Awards are finally adding a lifetime achievement prize to the mix, and it’ll be presented at this black tie dinner and gala for 250 at the schmancy Adlon Kempinski Hotel.

berlinale - mattachineThursday, February 14
Teddy Award Opening Party
Connection
One of Schöneberg’s cruisiest dance bars celebrates tomorrow’s Teddy Awards with this opening party. Free entrance between 9 and 11pm.

Mattachine
Monster Ronson
On the fifth anniversary of the birth of John Cameron Mitchell’s infamous Mattachine party (at New York City gay bar Julius), Mitchell and crew (including PJ DeBoy and Paul Dawson from the film Shortbus) bring the first-ever European incarnation of Mattachine to Berlin, at hip mixed/gay karaoke palace Monster Ronson.

Friday, February 15
Teddy Award Gala
Station Berlin
As every year, the Berlinale’s blowout gay climax is the Teddy Awards ceremony, presenting what’s been called the most important queer film prize in the world. This year the gala is headlined by Ameri-Canadian chanteur Rufus Wainwright. Tickets are still available here – but act soon, they’re selling fast.

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