BERLIN (AFP) ― Next month’s 63rd Berlin film festival will comb through the “collateral damage” of the global economic crisis with Hollywood movies and independent releases vying for prizes, organizers said Monday.

The Feb. 7-17 Berlinale, the first major European film festival of the year, will showcase 24 pictures from 22 countries in the main program, with a total of more than 400 movies screened in its sprawling sidebar sections.

A jury led by Chinese director Wong Kar Wai will choose among 19 films in competition for the Golden and Silver Bear top prizes, to be awarded at a gala red-carpet ceremony Feb. 16.

Oscar-winning actor Tim Robbins, New York-based Iranian filmmaker Shirin Neshat, Greek producer Athina Rachel Tsangari, Danish Academy Award-winner Susanne Bier, German director Andreas Dresen and U.S. camerawoman Ellen Kuras round out the panel.

Festival director Dieter Kosslick told reporters as he unveiled the full program that the Berlinale was continuing its tradition, begun during the Cold War, of featuring politically charged cinema from big names and upstarts.