Sigourney Weaver, Jeremy Irons, Margaret Qualley, Maryam Zaree, international filmmakers and jury members arrive for opening night, with the shooting casting a shadow over the 70th anniversary celebrations.
Stars walk Berlinale red carpet as Hanau attack casts a pall
The racist killings of nine people in a German town cast a shadow over the Berlin Film Festival on Thursday (February 20), prompting stars to speak out.
Seen as the most political of the major film festivals, the Berlinale has traditionally championed arthouse movies and progressive causes.
Featured filmmakers, some from Germany's minority communities, expressed their shock at the attacks.
At the festival opening, stars including Sigourney Weaver walked the red carpet for "My Salinger Year", an out-of-competition film chose to kick off what should have been 70th anniversary celebrations for the movie bonanza.
But other attendees said the shooting cast a shadow over festivities, with actress Maryam Zaree saying "We don't feel like celebrating tonight." The attacker, who shot dead people in shisha bars in the central German town of Hanau late on Wednesday before killing his mother and himself, published a manifesto online strewn with conspiracy theories and racist views, prosecutors said.
The attack, at least five of whose victims were Turkish nationals, followed October's killing of two by another far-right gunman in an attack on an eastern city's synagogue.
(Production: Martin Schlicht, Fanny Brodersen, Lena Toepler, Lisa Giles-Keddie)