BERLIN: Hollywood was out in force to kick off the Berlin film festival with Meryl Streep joining George Clooney and the Coen brothers for the event where Europe’s refugee crisis will also play a starring role.

The festival became embroiled in the debate about diversity in the movie industry, with jury president Streep dismissing questions about the all-white panel by telling reporters that “we’re all Africans really.”

Streep said she was committed to equality and inclusion “of all genders, races, ethnicities, religions.” The seven-member jury will choose the winners of the Golden Bear and various Silver Bear awards at the first of the year’s major European movie festivals.

“This jury is evidence that at least women are included and in fact dominate this jury, and that’s an unusual situation in bodies of people who make decisions,” Streep said. “So I think the Berlinale is ahead of the game.”

Asked by an Egyptian reporter whether she understood films from the Arab world and North Africa, Streep said that while she didn’t know much about the region, “I’ve played a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures.”

“There is a core of humanity that travels right through every culture, and after all we’re all from Africa originally,” she added. “Berliners, we’re all Africans really.”

The 11-day Berlinale, one of the top three cinema showcases in Europe along with Cannes and Venice, started with a gala screening of “Hail, Caesar!,” Joel and Ethan Coen’s tribute to Tinseltown’s 1950s golden age.

Streep, who is serving as this year’s jury president in judging 18 contenders from around the world, underlined the tough task ahead in picking one film above another.

“It’s going to be difficult but it’s a necessary lift for one, because it makes all rise,” she told journalists at the opening of the festival.

Streep’s team will hand out the Golden Bear top prize on Feb. 20. Last year it went to Iranian dissident filmmaker Jafar Panahi for “Taxi,” which he made in secret.

As Europe endures the largest refugee influx since World War II, with 1.1 million asylum seekers arriving in Germany last year, the theme of migration will be omnipresent at the festival.

Italian documentary director Gianfranco Rosi, who picked up top honors in Venice three years ago, will enter the competition with “Fire at Sea” about Lampedusa, a Mediterranean island on the front line of the crisis.