More than twenty-four hours in Berlin and I’ve not gotten lost again. Safe to say, I’m enjoying retracing my steps from opposite Bulowstrasse, where my hotel is based, up Potsdamer Strasse to Potsdamer Platz. Gradually a mental map of this bit of Berlin is being drawn up and laid down in my brain. Thank you, synapses, for still firing up correctly.

The first thing I did yesterday was go down into the basement of Berlinale Palast, after I’d picked up my press badge at the Hyatt Hotel. In the basement, you can pick up your Katalog Berlinale – a veritable bible of all the different films that are screening here. It’s particularly useful for information about a film’s cast and crew, and how you can get in contact with the filmmakers after the festival. You never know when you might need the email address of a director or screenwriter if you’re trying to organise a Q&A or two in Cambridge at the Arts Picturehouse later in the year! Also on offer in the basement of the Palast is the very attractive Festival Bag. Cannes had a bit of a peculiar shiny gym bag thing going on last year. Edinburgh had a very sturdy tote bag (which I still find myself using for shopping). Berlinale’s is a robust hessian creation, with the Berlin Bear doing its bear-like thing on it. Very handy for carrying that Katalog around in.

Before I’d even seen any films in screens at the festival, I was off up to the fifth floor of the Palast for an interview with MISFITS director, Jannik Splidsboel. Full of excitement at my first activity at Berlinale, I popped my iPhone down on the table and got chatting. I’ll most likely transcribe the interview after I’ve finished writing this. It all went well and I found Jannik very easy to talk to. I’m trying to work out if it’s more fun to make a film and bring it to Berlinale, or to come here as part of the press and have the opportunity to attend lots and lots of screenings, and speak to loads of fascinating new people.

I bumped into my friends Alicia (now of the East Dulwich Picturehouse) and Dan (of the Clapham Picturehouse) as they were leaving a morning screening of MR HOLMES, starring Ian McKellen as Sherlock Holmes. There’s no way I can fit this film in to my schedule at Berlinale, as it’s on at times that clash with events I’m already attending. They both seemed to like it though, so I’ll have to have a look out for it when it hits the UK cinema circuit later in the year. After a coffee together, I headed back to the Palast to watch Terrence Malick’s KNIGHT OF CUPS – a film I am very much looking forward to, as I love all of the films of Malick’s I have seen so far.

No more than one minute after I left Alicia and Dan, I felt a tap on my shoulder and a friendly voice said “Hello, Jack!”. It was my friend Eshan Khoshbakht, an Iranian architect and film academic, whom I have the pleasure of bumping into at every film festival I’ve visited. Anyone who came along to Mohammad Ali Talebi‘s Q&A screening of BAG OF RICE last year in Cambridge will recognise Eshan as Mr Talebi’s interpreter. He was heading to see the film too, so we walked in, queued together, and I found out he knows everyone who’s anyone in the film industry here. As we watched KNIGHT OF CUPS, I was aware that I fidgeted far more than normal, and I could see in my peripheral vision Eshan glancing down at his watch on numerous occasions. What was wrong with the film? Well, you’ll have to read my review to find out my thoughts, but upon the credits rolling, a member of the audience shouted out “One more card!” in a sarcastic reference to the tarot card structure of the feature. I’d had my fill of this latest cinematic output from, one of my absolute favourite directors. So it’s with a heavy heart that it gets the Roger Ebert thumbs down from me. If the rumours are true, we may shortly have another Malick film to contend with at Cannes, as apparently two were filmed at the same time, with different casts. Here’s hoping the second one is better.

Feeling mildly deflated after the KNIGHT OF CUPS screening, I wandered down to Bulowstrasse to check in to my hotel. I promptly crashed out and fell asleep for two hours. Was it the Malick that did it to me? We’ll never know… The evening turned into a very special affair, though, as I headed out to the Kickstarter campaign launch night of my friend (and Cambridge Film Festival programmer), Verena Von Stackelberg’s new cinema, Wolf Kino. Loads of familiar faces appeared out of the dusk of a Berlin evening: friends from Cannes, friends from London; and guests we regularly welcome to the Cambridge Film Festival. The atmospheric was electric. I even shook the hands of Verena’s Mum and congratulated her on all her daughter was doing. There was a lot of top-notch German beer on offer too – always a plus!

I got back to my hotel at about 1am, and planned out my day ahead. I’m aiming for four films on Monday. German, Czech, Spanish and Thai are the countries of origin as I’m trying to watch as much as possible that won’t necessarily make it over to the UK straight away. We’re right in the middle of Awards Season in the UK cinema circuit, and while there are some cracking big films on offer, it’s a real pleasure to experience a wider palette of cinema to the extent that a film festival like Berlinale can offer. Anyone who’s visited the Cambridge Film Festival before can attest to this feeling, I’m sure. Time is precious and culturally-loaded with far more cinematic delicacies to try at a film festival. It’s bloomin’ marvellous!