The very first International Berlin Film Festival opened on the 6th of June 1951 in the Titania-Palast cinema. The opening film was Alfred Hitchcock’s Rebecca starring Joan Fontaine the most feted guest at the festival. Six years after the end of the Second World War Berlin yearned for international attention and recognition. Large areas of the city still lay in ruin. Reconstruction had begun but post-war Berlin was worlds away from the lively artistic centre that it had been in the Twent