The 67th Berlin International Film Festival (February 9-19, 2017) opens with a musical biopic. The debut film of French director Etienne Comar tells the story of the legendary jazz and swing musician, Django Reinhardt.

There are 18 films competing this year for the festival's top awards. Three German works are on the list, including Volker Schlöndorff's "Return to Montauk," starring Nina Hoss (pictured). There are also six German co-productions in the run.

Another German highlight is "Beuys," a documentary about famous German artist Joseph Beuys. Director Andres Veiel is known for his films dealing with political and social issues. His latest documentary is vying for the Golden Bear, going up against feature films.

The directorial debut of the actor Josef Hader, the dark comedy "Wild Mouse," is bound to become an audience's favorite among the competing films. Hader's performance in the lead role in "Stefan Zweig: Farewell to Europe" (2016) was critically acclaimed.

This British dark comedy is also one of the headliners of the festival. "T2 Trainspotting" is the sequel to the cult drug trip directed by Danny Boyle in 1996 and stars the original cast, 20 years later. "T2" will screen out of competition.

Feature films are set against documentaries and animated films in the Berlinale competition. The Chinese animated feature "Have a Nice Day," by Liu Jian, tells a gangster story.

The festival's section called Forum includes 43 films this year, including documentaries and several feature films, such as "Barrage." This French production deals with the relationship between three generations of women in a family.

The program of the section Panorama is once again colorful and diverse: It would be impossible to find just one overarching theme to define it, though Panorama traditionally features many films about homosexuality. Jochen Hick's documentary "My Wonderful West Berlin," about the campaigns of the gay community in the 1980s, is one of them this year.

Beyond the traditional sections of the program, the Berlinale Special series highlights recent works by contemporary filmmakers. Among them is the film "The Young Karl Marx," depicting Marx (August Diehl, right) and Friedrich Engels (Stefan Konarske). The film was directed by Haitian-born filmmaker Raoul Peck.

In 2015, the Ukrainian filmmaker and activist Oleg Sentsov went on trial in Russia, accused of "plotting terrorist acts." Human rights observers described it as a politically motivated case. Despite strong international solidarity with Sentsov, he was sentenced to 20 years in a Siberian prison. The documentary "The Trial: The State of Russia vs Oleg Sentsov" is being shown during the Berlinale.

Through 14 shorter and longer films, the upcoming generation of German filmmakers is featured in the series Perspektive Deutsches Kino (Perspective on German cinema). One of the most original titles is certainly "Self-Criticism of a Bourgeois Dog," by Julian Radlmaier.

The Generation series aims to attract younger movie-goers to the festival. The German-Italian co-production "Mountain Miracle - An Unexpected Friendship" tells the story of a 15-year-old girl called Amelie, who suffers from life-threatening asthma, but decides to run away from her doctors and concerned friends and family.

The section Culinary Cinema presents films dealing with nutrition, ecology, agriculture and haute cuisine. The documentary "At the Fork" explores how farm animals are raised for our consumption. Going beyond the usual clichés on the topic, the film introduces viewers to real people: America's farmers, grappling with the moral issues of their work.

Films are not only made by actors, directors, producers and cinematographers. This is what this year's Honorary Golden Bear aims to underline by paying tribute to the work of the Italian costume designer Milena Canonero. The winner of four Oscars has often worked with Stanley Kubrick, but she also designed the costumes on Sofia Coppola's "Marie Antoinette."

This year's Retrospective section looks back at the past to show cinema's vision of the future. Among the most original works to be featured is "Warning from Space" (1956) by Japanese director Kōji Shima.

Festival-goers won't need to wear their warmest clothes to face the frost, thanks to the Berlinale section NATIVe. It focuses this year on indigenous cinema from the Arctic. The film "Angry Inuk" by Alethea Arnaquq-Baril provides insight into the consequences of the seal hunting debate for the Inuits of the North of Canada.

Those fearing a zombie apocalypse might prefer to avoid George A. Romero's "Night of the Living Dead." A restored version of the cult film from 1968 is to be screened in the section Berlinale Classics, along with other masterpieces of film history.

Throughout the week's series of workshops held at the Berlin theater Hau Hebbel am Ufer, some 250 young talents from 71 countries will be networking with professionals in the film industry. This year's focus, "Courage: Against All Odds," will lead them to discuss fearlessness in an increasingly challenging film industry.