Once again, several Forum directors will be involved in this year's Talent Campus: Thunska Pansittivorakul will be taking part in "As Queer as it gets" disussion on 16.2, while Przemysław Wojcieszek will be participating in the "Critics meet Filmmakers" event on 17.2

Music legend Genesis Breyer P-Orridge, protagonist of Marie Losier's documentary The Ballad of Genesis and Lady Jaye, will be presenting his own work Ghosts#9 on 14.2 and 15.2 which draws on material by William S. Burroughs. P-Orridge will also be performing with Tony Conrad at HAU 2 on 19.2.

In light of current events, a monitor has been set up in the Filmhaus foyer showing video letters from Egypt in order to show the festival guests how filmmakers are getting involved in the protests. A film programme has been organised for Friday, February 18th, which will be showing film and trailers by independent filmmakers from Egypt.

As an act of solidarity, the Berlinale will be showing a range of films by acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi, who was invited to serve on this year's jury but has been prevented from attending the festival by the Iranian authorities. The Forum will be showing Crimson Gold on Saturday.

The 6th edition of Forum Expanded begins on 9.2. with the Parallel Worlds group exhibition at the Salon Populaire. Annika Larsson's video installation Blind at P88 opens on 10.2., with Guy Maddin's Hauntings and the bar and installations in the Filmhaus to follow on 11.2.

The houses of this residential estate in western Sweden are all made of pale wood and are surrounded by neat hedges. The carports, children's playgrounds and woods that lie just beyond the Lidl supermarket car park are likewise an eloquent affirmation of the middle-class "quality of life" ideal. An eleven-year-old whose head is rumbling with brutal thoughts is growing up here. Sebastian is an only child living with his mother. He observes the not-quite-so-young men in his neighborhood with the avidness of a detective. There's Jimmy, who always carries his little son around with him and has had to go back to living with his parents, who deny him his own key to the house. And then there's Anders, who always jogs until his fleece jacket is dripping with sweat. Like a seismograph the boy picks up on the inner turmoil of those around him. It's midsummer, the neighbors are having parties on their terraces and things begin to get scary.

The Forum programme is now available online. Detailed information and screening dates of all films can be found via the Program menu point.

The Best First Feature Award was set up by the Berlinale in 2006 in order to promote new filmmaking talent. Ten films from the Forum program have been nominated for this year’s prize.

Winter's Bone, which was shown in the last year's Forum programme, has been nominated in a range of different categories including Best Film at the 2011 Oscars. "Dogtooth" by Yorgos Lanthimos, whose previous film Kinetta was shown at the 2006 Forum, was also nominated for 'Best Foreign Language Film'.

In this year's Forum Expanded 42 artists, filmmakers, performers and musicians from 16 countries will present cinematic works in exhibitions, screenings, radio broadcasts and on stage.