When Dieter Kosslick became Director of the Berlinale, one of his stated goals was to increase the profile of German Cinema at the festival, and strengthen its awareness by the international audience. But it needed to be more than just a matter of making sure one or two more German films were in included in the Competition, and it was decided to create a new section specifically devoted to up-and-coming German filmmakers 

The first patent for synchronous sound was already filed in 1907, but it took the superstar power of Al Jolson starring in the Jazz Singer in 1927 to make the conversion to sound seem like a viable idea. And even then, it took another few years and a few different formats before we worked out the basis for the system we use today. Similarly, Sony was already demonstrating HD projection in Japan in the mid 80's. They’d even created a prototype pre-fab theater where the “movie” would be beamed from a 3/4" U-matic deck programed for automatic “reel” changes from one cassette to another