AFP

BERLIN: Berlin's 12-day film festival, the Berlinale, opens on Sunday with a screening of the new film Heaven from German director Tom Tykwer, whose previous work Run Lola Run was a worldwide success.

Heaven, a melodrama starring Cate Blanchett, is a German-American co-production, shot in English and Italian. Its mixed heritage shows how much the Berlinale strives to be international, taking its place beside Cannes and Venice as one of the leading film festivals of the world.

A total of 23 films will be competing for the top prize, the Golden Bear, at the Berlinale and nine will be screened alongside them but out of competition. These 32 films represent a total of 20 different c ountries.

There are American blockbusters, including The Royal Tenenbaums, a family saga starring Gene Hackman and Anjelica Huston, and Monster's Ball, a hard hitting Southern drama starring Billy Bob Thornton and Halle Berry.

From France comes 8 Femmes, a murder mystery starring Catherine Deneuve and from Britain Iris, the story of the writer Iris Murdoch's suffering from Alzheimer's disease and starring Judi Dench and Kate Winslet.

Golden Globe winner A Beautiful Mind directed by Ron Howard will be running out of competition.

Besides the competition series, there is also a Panorama programme, which showcases a wide variety of films.

There is also an international forum of new cinema by young and avant-garde directors.

And finally there are programme on children's films, gay cinema and German cinema.