73ª Berlinale: Awards

The 73rd Berlin International Film Festival has finished, in a particularly interesting edition, where the hand of Carlo Chatrian has brought us more and more pleasantly surprising proposals. For the press, the awards were a betting pool that kept us in suspense for days, given the eclectic nature of the official section jury, chaired by actress Kristen Stewart and formed by Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, director Valeska Grisebach, Romanian director Radu Jude, producer Francine Maisler, the Catalan director who won the Golden Bear at the last edition, Carla Simón, and director Johnnie To.

Afire (Roter Himmel, Christian Petzold, 2023)

• Golden Bear for Best Film: On the Adamant (Sur l’Adamant), by Nicolas Philibert.

Surprisingly, the most important award went to a documentary, in this case a social documentary, on a very sensitive subject such as mental health. On the Adamant shows us how the day center of the same name, a floating structure on the Seine, welcomes and treats adults with mental disorders.

• Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize Afire (Roter Himmel), by Christian Petzold.

The filmmaker of Phoenix and Ondine directs a film framed by forest fires, as a small group of friends, played by Thomas Schubert, Paula Beer, Langston Uibel and Enno Trebs weave a minimalist, intimate drama during their vacation in the Baltic.

Bad Living (Mal viver, Joao Canijo, 2023).

• Silver Bear Jury Prize: Bad Living (Mal viver) by João Canijo.

This French-Portuguese co-production shows how pain can cross generations, unable to love or show affection. Five women who run an old hotel struggle against decay and ruin, as resentment and the need to free themselves from toxic chains absorb them.

• Silver Bear for Best Director: The Plough (Le grand chariot) by Philippe Garrel.

The veteran director, whose real family is the protagonist of this film full of love for such a romantic profession as puppeteering, sees his mastery aknowledged.

Sofía Otero in (20.000 especies de abejas, Estibaliz Urresola, 2023).

• Silver Bear for Best Leading Perfomance: Sofía Otero in 20,000 Species of Bees (20.000 especies de abejas).

The eight-year-old girl, protagonist of Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren‘s film, moved the Berlin audience and convinced the jury, which was overwhelmed by her natural performance. The debatable convenience of awarding prizes to children or non-professional actors has not been an obstacle for little Sofia to bring recognition to a film that already figures in the history of the awards.

• Silver Bear for Best Supporting Perfomance: Thea Ehre in Till the End of the Night (Bis ans Ende der Nacht).

Thea Ehre shines in Christoph Hochhäusler‘s thriller, where a gay cop infiltrates a drug ring and finds himself involved in a relationship with a trans offender on parole.

• Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Music by Angela Schanelec.

• Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Disco Boy, for Hélène Louvart‘s cinematography.

Director Giacomo Abbruzzese’s debut full-length feature film, starring Franz Rogowski, has involved the extraordinary collaboration of the French Louvart, whom we admired in The Invisible Life of Euridice Gusmão (Karim Aïnouz, 2019) or The Lost Daughter (Maggie Gyllenhaal, 2021).

Encounters

Bst Film: Here (Bas Devos).

Best Director: The Echo (Tatiana Huezo).

Special Jury Award (ex aequo): Orlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado) and Samsara (Lois Patiño)

Documentary

Berlinale Documentary Award: The Echo (Tatiana Huezo)

Special Mention: Orlando, My Political Biography (Paul B. Preciado).

Berlinale Shorts

Golden Bear and candidate for the European Film Awards: Les Chenilles (Michelle Keserwany, Noel Keserwany).

Silver Bear: Dipped in Black, (Matthew Thorne, Derik Lynch).

Special Mention: It’s a Date (Nadia Parfan).

The Survival of Kindness (Rolf de Heer, 2023).

Fipresci Awards

Competition: The Survival of Kindness (Das Überleben der Freundlichkeit) by Rolf de Heer.

Encounters: Here by Bas Devos.

Panorama: The Quite Migration (Stille Liv) by Malene Choi.