The 74th Berlinale has come to an end and with it a surprising list of winners, which has echoed the most “unclassifiable” film of the festival, in the words of its director, Carlo Chatrian, and has made history by awarding the Golden Bear for the shortest film, the second documentary to receive it, after last year’s award for On the Adamant by Nicholas Philibert. The closing gala honored the outgoing directors, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian, with whom the presenter, actress Hadnet Tesfai, chatted about their experience at the helm of the festival, whose baton they will pass on Tricia Tuttle (former director of London Film Festival), also present at the event.
The members of the competition jury, chaired by Lupita Nyong’o, then handed out the different awards, with the star of 12 Years a Slave presenting the Golden Bear to Mati Diop for Dahomey. Diop’s film documents France’s restitution to Benin of 26 works of art from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, while giving a voice to young people from Benin to discuss the meaning of this restitution. Nyong’o also handed the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution to DoP Martin Gschlacht, for the period drama The Devil’s Bath (Austria/Germany) directed by Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala. Then, Albert Serra presented the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize to Hong Sangsoo for A Traveler’s Needs (South Korea), starring French actress Isabelle Huppert. Christian Petzold was in charge of handing over to Bruno Dumont the Silver Bear Jury Prize for The Empire.
Mati Diop at Dahomey‘s press conference. Photo: Berlinale.
Ann Hui awarded the Silver Bear for Best Director to Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias, the most unexpected of the evening, for Pepe (Dominican Republic/Namibia/Germany/France). The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance, presented by American actor Brady Corbet, went to Sebastian Stan for his performance in A Different Man by Aaron Schimberg (USA). Emily Watson accepted the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance from the hands of Italian actress Jasmine Trinca, for her role in Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These (Ireland/Belgium), starred by Irish actor Cillian Murphy. Oksana Zabuzhko rewarded Mathias Glasner, the director of Dying with the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay.
The jury of the Encounters section, made up of Lisandro Alonso, Denis Côt and Tizza Covi, awarded the following prizes: Best film to Direct Action, by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell; Best director to Juliana Rojas by Cidade; Campo; Special Jury Award (ex aequo): Khamyazeye bozorg (The Great Yawn of History) by Aliyar Rasti and Kong fang jian li de nv ren (Some Rain Must Fall) by Qiu Yang.
The Devil’s Bath (Severin Fiala & Veronika Franz, 2024).
The Jury of the Berlinale Documentary Award (Abbas Fahdel, Thomas Heise, Véréna Paravel) presented the prize, endowed with €40,000, funded by Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb), to No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, produced by Fabien Greenberg, Bård Kjøge Rønning, and gave a Special mention to Direct Action.
In addition, the Short Film Jury made up of Ilker Çatak, Xabier Erkizia, Jennifer Reeder awarded Un movimiento extraño (An Odd Turn) by Francisco Lezama with the Golden Bear, and Re tian wu hou (Remains of the Hot Day) by Wenqian Zhang with the Silver Bear. The Jury also gave a Special mention to That’s All from Me (So viel von mir) by Eva Könnemann, which was also a candidate for the European Film Awards.
The FIPRESCI jury awarded the following prizes:
Competition: Keyke mahboobe man (My Favourite Cake) by Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha.
Encounters: Dormir de olhos abertos (Sleep with Your Eyes Open) by Nele Wohlatz.
Panorama: Faruk by Aslı Özge.
Forum: The Human Hibernation by Anna Cornudella Castro.
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