The two most important German language film events on the West coast - San Francisco based Berlin & Beyond Film Festival and the Los Angeles German Currents Film Festival - are uniting to create a single German language film festival in the Fall of 2010. This was announced by the Goethe-Institutes in San Francisco and Los Angeles after Ms. Ingrid Eggers, festival director of Berlin & Beyond, who was instrumental in the inception of Berlin & Beyond, retired from the Goethe-Institute San Francisco earlier this year, at the same time retiring as festival director.

From 2010 onwards the sister branches of the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles and San Francisco and their partners in the US and German speaking countries will organize a festival that takes place in both cities concurrently. This will enable the organizers to bring an even larger and better selection of contemporary German language films to the West Coast."

The synergies we are creating will benefit both locations", says Rudolf de Baey who heads the Goethe-Institut San Francisco and serves as the President of Berlin & Beyond.

"Sharing resources will permit us to present audiences in both cities with more films, more talent, and a wider variety of programs", adds Annette Rupp, the director of the Goethe-Institut in Los Angeles.