Once again, the Berlinale is getting ready for a summer tour: film lovers in Berlin, Cologne and Düsseldorf will have the opportunity to watch a selection from this year's festival programme under wide open summer skies. The "Summer Berlinale" will kick off in Berlin, hosted for the sixth time by the Friedrichshain Open Air Cinema (July 17 -20). Like last year, Berlinale films will subsequently be presented in Cologne in the old velodrome, while in Düsseldorf the event will be hosted by Open Air Cinema "Vier Linden" 

In the eighth selection round of the World Cinema Fund (WCF), five film projects from Lebanon, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey and Columbia have been proposed for production funding as well as one documentary film from Jordan for distribution funding. In addition, the next World Cinema Fund Spotlights will be held in July in Yerevan, Armenia at the Golden Apricot Film Festival and in November at the Damascus International Film Festival in Syria 

On June 23, 2008, the shoot for My Super Sea Wall began in north Alaska. The film is one of five projects that made it to the final selection for the Berlin Today Award 2009 – the short film competition of the Berlinale Talent Campus. Gina Abatemarco from the USA will realize the short film with Anna Wendt Film Production from Berlin 

Dieter Kosslick has appointed Maryanne Redpath the new Director of Generation, the children’s and youth film section. She will take over on May 1, 2008. Ms. Redpath, who is currently Co-Director of the section, has worked for the festival since 1993, and has been the Berlinale delegate for Australia and New Zealand since 2005. Florian Weghorn, who has assisted Generation’s management since 2002, will succeed Maryanne Redpath as Co-Director 

The Berlin Today Award, supported by Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg as the short film competition of the Berlinale Talent Campus since 2003, has nominated five short film projects as finalists in the upcoming round 

At the Oscars awards ceremony on February 24, 2008 five of the coveted awards went to stars and films from the programme of the Berlin International Film Festival. “We are delighted and warmly congratulate Marion Cotillard, Daniel Day-Lewis and director Stefan Ruzowitzky to their Oscars,” says Festival Director Dieter Kosslick to the presentation of the prestigious trophies Sunday night