German co-producers of international co-productions compete for the CineCoPro Award which is sponsored by FFF Bayern and comes with a prize of €100,000.

[7] This section showcases stories that are larger than life - grand emotions, lavish production design, big names in front of and behind the camera, traditionally crafted movies by acclaimed, experienced directors as well as by outstanding, lesser-known filmmakers.

Up and coming filmmakers vie for the German Cinema New Talent Awards in the categories Best Director, Best Production, Best Actor & Actress and Best Screenplay.

Many well-known German film directors such as Sönke Wortmann (Alone Among Women [de]), Oskar Roehler (Silvester Countdown), Marcus H. Rosenmüller (Grave Decisions) and Rainer Kaufmann (Talk of the Town) launched their careers with the winning films of this section.

Various Academy Award-nominated films such as Beyond Silence by Caroline Link and The Story of the Weeping Camel by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni had their world premieres in this section.

The retrospectives of famous filmmakers have included: Sergio Leone (1986), Im Kwon-taek (1990), Lars von Trier (1991), Hal Hartley (1992), Nagisa Ōshima (1992), Stanley Donen (1992), Nanni Moretti (1994), Michael Haneke (1994, 2009), Nelson Pereira (1995), Nicolas Roeg (1995), Robert Wise (1996), Ron Bass (1996), Roman Polański (1999), Miloš Forman (2000), Aki & Mika Kaurismäki (2004), Alan Parker (2004), Barry Levinson (2006), Mike Figgis (2006), Richard Linklater (2007), Werner Herzog (2007), Herbert Achternbusch (2008), Julie Christie (2008), Stephen Frears (2009), Ulrich Seidl (2010), Tom DiCillo (2011), Todd Haynes (2012), Alejandro Jodorowsky (2013), Walter Hill (2014), Alexander Payne (2015), Christian Petzold and Bahman Ghobadi (both 2016), Sofia Coppola (2017), Lucrecia Martel (2018), Bong Joon Ho and Mads Brügger (both 2019).

Previous recipients have included John Malkovich, Michael Haneke, William Friedkin, Julie Christie, Alan Parker, D.A.

Pennebaker, Claude Chabrol, Susan Sarandon, Jules Dassin, Melanie Griffith and Michael Caine, Isabelle Huppert and Udo Kier, Jean-Jacques Annaud and Rupert Everett, Ellen Burstyn and Bryan Cranston, Emma Thompson and Terry Gilliam, as well as Antonio Banderas and Ralph Fiennes.

Recent tributes: Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Julie Delpy, Nicolas Winding Refn, Willy Bogner and Philip Gröning.

Former topics include: Cats, Masters of Disaster, Pirates, Rock ‘N’ Roll, Surfing, Dance, Las Vegas, Jazz, Skate films.