Film

All over Berlin cables are being rolled out, cameras shouldered and mobile catering units set up. Germany's most multifaceted metropolis has advanced to film star status in national and international productions.

Since the fall of the Berlin wall, the German capital has been re-establishing itself as the country's key movie location – not only as a backdrop, however, but also as a production centre.

"Action!" On a cold November morning, residents of a quiet side street off one of Berlin's main shopping streets, the Kurfürstendamm, are rudely awakened by a power generator and floodlights. A couple of blocks away, patients push their way past a film crew which is just making final preparations in the smart period apartment opposite the dentist's surgery in the same building. There's confusion at nearby Savignyplatz: two film productions have had each others' cars towed away by the police. Whoops, a misunderstanding – didn't know there was another movie being shot at virtually the same place.

Four shoots in Berlin, all for completely different productions, and all on just another ordinary day in the classy district of Charlottenburg – a day on which local residents stumble from one stage set into the next. They take it all calmly in their stride, just as they do the show business celebrities who pack out local bars – not only during the Berlinale Film Festival – like the Florian, Adnan, Paris Bar or the Italian restaurant around the corner.

Film sets all over Berlin

Film-making in Berlin is omnipresent at the moment, and is becoming more and more widespread in Germany's most traditional movie metropolis, which already boasted more film studios than any other city back when movie-making was still in its infancy. These days, 300 productions are shot here each year – everything from video clips and TV series to international cinema blockbusters.

Since the fall of the wall, the city has built up a reputation for itself both in Germany and abroad as a star. Its popularity is attributable more than anything else to its multifaceted appearance. With architecture stemming from every conceivable era, concrete jungles and rural idylls, chic loft apartments and scruffy backyards, the city is a paradise for any location scout. What is more, it has developed a strong infrastructure for the industry, offering around 800 film and TV production companies, 50 studios, halls and ateliers, not to mention 15 dubbing firms. The inner-city MediaCity Adlershof at the former GDR television centre has been fully modernized, while the legendary Babelsberg film studios are within easy reach just outside the city limits in the state of Brandenburg. Two film academies, the DFFB in Berlin and Hochschule für Film und Fernsehen "Konrad Wolf" next to the Babelsberg studios, as well as around 35 degree courses in media and communication at local universities, provide a source of upcoming young talent for the growing industry.

From Goodbye Lenin! to V for Vendetta

According to Kirsten Niehuus, director of the Medienboard Berlin film promotion company, the German capital and surrounding region has in recent years "developed a productive, artistic and creative potential whose concentration is virtually unparalleled in Germany." This potential has already resulted in a number of box-office hits, including Run Lola Run, Good Bye Lenin! , Love in Thoughts and Go For Zucker, whose successful producers at X-Filme still hatch out their ideas in the somewhat less than spectacular setting of an office in a rear building in Berlin's Schöneberg district. Boje/Buck at their Kurfüstendamm offices produced No More Mr Nice Guy, Sun Alley, Berlin Blues and NVA. Regina Ziegler, the city's first and now long-serving film producer, brought out Margarethe von Trotta's Rosenstrasse and up-and-coming young producer Hans Weingartner shot The Edukators in Berlin, the first German film to be presented at Cannes for years.

Ever since Jean-Jacques Annaud's Enemy at the Gates, more and more American productions have been shot in Babelsberg and Berlin. Local studios and streets were able to offer the perfect backdrop for Roman Polanski's The Pianist, Kevin Spacey's Beyond the Sea, Ripley's Game with John Malkovich, Around the World In 80 Days with Jacky Chan and The Bourne Supremacy with Matt Damon and Franka Potente. Jody Foster brought Flightplan to Berlin, Oscar award winner Paul Verhoeven filmed Black Book here, and Matrix creators Larry and Andy Wachowski came to the German capital for their film V for Vendetta.

With a 3.1 percent increase in jobs and a 3.6 percent rise in companies last year alone, film and media is one of the most important growth industries in the region, notes Kirsten Niehuus. What is more, she calculates that for each euro invested in funding films, an additional 2.6 euros – for things like local equipment and labour – is generated.

More than 13,000 people in the industry achieve an annual turnover of approx. 800 million euros in Berlin and Brandenburg. Nonetheless, the international market is tough; so far the region has been seen as offering very good value, particularly for American productions, though they have also been known to bypass Berlin and head further east: Cold Mountain, for instance, was shot in Romania, while Roman Polanski chose the Barrandov studios in Prague for his movie version of Oliver Twist. Such decisions are not observed in Berlin without some concern.