The Golden Bear at this 76th Berlinale went to Yellow Letters (Gelbe Briefe) by İlker Çatak, a Berlin-based director of Turkish origins (nominated for an Oscar for The Teachers’ Room).
This year’s edition was atypical, and according to many industry experts, it didn’t shine in terms of the quality of the films, and the festival was accused, in an open letter signed by filmmakers and actors associated with the Berlinale, including Tilda Swinton and Javier Bardem, of censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide in Gaza (jury president Wim Wenders chose not to comment on the political situation, stating that “cinema is the opposite of politics,” and actress Michelle Yeoh did the same, saying at the Golden Bear for Lifetime Achievement award ceremony, “it’s better not to talk about something you don’t know well and focus on cinema”).
Festival director Tricia Tuttle, after responding to the accusations in the pages of Screen International (read here), reiterated during the awards ceremony that “the voices of the Berlinale may be contradictory, but they reflect a diversity of perspectives. A festival cannot resolve global conflicts, but it can provide space for complexity, for listening, for mutual humanization. These voices may seem silent, but they speak through cinema.”
And the top prize, indeed, went to a story about the state’s repression of a family of artists. Yellow Letters, which will be distributed in Italy by Lucky Red, also won the Guild Film Prize.
The Best First Feature, awarded the GWFF Best First Feature Award worth €50,000, is the Algerian-French co-production Chronicles from the Siege, competing in the Perspektives section, directed by Palestinian director Abdallah Al-Khatib. The Best Short Film is the Lebanese film Yawman ma walad (Someday a Child), by Marie-Rose Osta, who, remembering her protagonist, a child with superpowers, said: “In reality, the children of Gaza, of all Palestine, and of my Lebanon, do not have superpowers to protect them from Israeli bombs.” (photo © Richard Hübner)
The substantial absence of Italian cinema, repeatedly emphasized, was partially refuted by two awards, for which co-productions deserve thanks. Nina Roza, written and directed by Geneviève Dulude-de Celles (a director and producer who previously won the Crystal Bear at the Berlin Film Festival with the film Une Colonie in 2019, photographed by Alexander Janetzko), won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay. Also starring Chiara Caselli, Nina Roza is an international co-production by Colonelle Films (Canada), Echo Bravo (Belgium), Ginger Light Films and Premiere Studio (Bulgaria), and the Italian company UMI Films, led by Lorenzo Fiuzzi and Bardo Tarantelli.
Premiata anche Indyca, co-produttrice (con la rumena Libra Films) di De capul nostru (On Our Own) di Tudor Cristian Jurgiu, sostenuto anche da Emilia- Romagna Film Commission (leggi qui): si è aggiudicato il Cicae Art Cinema Award nella sezione Forum.
The Grand Jury Prize, the Silver Bear, went to Kurtuluş (Salvation) by director Emin Alper, who remembered the Palestinians of Gaza, the Iranians, the Kurds of Rojava and the political opponents in Turkey: “you are not alone”.
The Silver Bear went to Laurence Hammer’s Queen at Sea, which also earned Anna Calder-Marshall & Tom Courtenay the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance. Best Performance in the main role is instead that of Sandra Hüller, protagonist of Rose by Markus Schleinzer.
Best Director went to Grant Gee for his Everybody Digs Bill Evans, while the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Anna Fitch and Banker White, directors of Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird).
For the Panorama section, the Cicae Art Cinema Award went to the Korean film Staatsschutz (Prosecution) by Faraz Shariat, which also won the Audience Award and the Heiner Carow Prize.
The film awarded Best Documentary (with 40 thousand euros), If Pigeons Turned to Gold by Pepa Lubojacki, is also the winner of the Caligari Prize.
Double prizes also went to two films by Generation KPlus (the Crystal Bear of the International Jury went to Feito Pipa (Gugu’s World) by Allan Debertonche, also awarded as best film by the Children’s Jury, and both mentions went to Under the Wave off Little Dragonby Luo Jian) and Generation 14Plus (Chicas Tristes by Fernanda Tovar brought together the Youth Jury and the International Jury).
The Teddy Awards: Best Feature Film to Ian de la Rosa’s Iván & Hadoum; Best Documentary/Essay Film to Barbara Forever by Brydie O’Connor; Best Short Film to Taxi Moto by Gaël Kamilindi.
It should be noted that Golden Bear winner İlker Çatak was present at the Berlinale’s co-production market, with a project (The Granddaughter) in the Co-Pro Series (read here).
