LEAD: Stars line up to walk Berlin Film Festival's red carpet

By Andrew McCathie Jan 31, 2012, 16:02 GMT

Berlin - The Berlin Film Festival opens next week with the organizers saying Tuesday they expect a big lineup of stars to walk the red carpet during the 10-day movie marathon.

This includes Twilight leading man Robert Pattinson as well Hollywood's Angelina Jolie, Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the hottest new star of the moment Michael Fassbender.

Headed by British film director Mike Leigh, the festival's eight-member jury will have to select from a total 18 films - all world premieres - when awarding Berlin's top honours - the coveted Golden Bear for best film.

The jury also includes French-British actress Charlotte Gainsbourg and Hollywood's Jake Gyllenhaal, who shot to international fame following his role as Jack Twist in Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain.

Held during Berlin's freezing cold winter, the Berlinale brings a touch of glitz and glamour to the German capital.

Also due in Berlin is US actress Meryl Streep, who is to be honoured at the festival with a lifetime achievement award.

The festival is also expecting Uma Thurman, Keanu Reeves, Charlotte Rampling, Christian Bale and Salma Hayek.

Speaking at a press conference, festival director Dieter Kosslick said many of the 400 movies to be screened across the festival's main sections would show 'the world in the grip of change'.

The main competition includes movies from global motion powerhouses such as China and the US as well as films from burgeoning movie region's like south-east Asia.

This includes Indonesian filmmaker Edwin's Kebun binatang (Postcards from the Zoo) about a young girl raised in a zoo by giraffe trainer.

Leading Filipino director Brillante Mendoza's Captive, which stars France's Isabelle Huppert, is also part of the race for Berlin's prestigious Golden Bear. It tells the story of a foreign aid worker who is kidnapped.

Films telling stories about Africa also have a strong presence across all the Berlinale's sections. Senegalese-born director Alain Gomis's Aujourd'hui (Today) about a man with 24 hours to live is also part of the main competition.

Other films in the main competition include veteran Italian filmmaking brothers Paolo and Vittorio Taviani's Cesare Deve Morire (Caesar Must Die), which tells the story of mounting a Shakespearean play at a Rome prison.

From the US comes actor-director Billy Bob Thornton's Jayne Mansfield's Car. A drama set against the Vietnam War, it stars Robert Duvall, John Hurt and Kevin Bacon.

A last-minute entry for the competition is Chinese director Wang Quan'an who returns to Berlin with latest film, Bai lu yuan (White Deer Plain). Wang takes his audience on a 210 minute cinematic journey through the twists and turns of Chinese history.

Launching this year's festival will be French director Benoit Jacquot's Les Adieux a la Reine (Farewell My Queen), which set in part inside Marie Antoinette's bedroom as the French Revolution gain ground. It stars German actress Diane Kruger.

Now in its 62nd edition, the Berlinale is one of the world's top film festivals. But since the last festival 12 months ago, the world has been through some dramatic and turbulent times.

With this mind, festival organizers have assembled a selection of movies telling the story of last year's Arab spring, which paved the way for democratic change in nations like Tunisia, Eygpt and Libya.

This year's festival will also presents movies from Japanese directors exploring the aftermath of their nation's devastating earthquake and Tsunami in March.

At the same time, the festival digs deeper into history with movies looking at the violence surrounding the Group of Eight meeting in Genoa in 2001.

The Berlinale is also mounting a retrospective documenting the relationship between the German and Soviet film industries in the 1920s and 30s.