After two weeks of films and wurst, the bears were let free. The Berlin jury, headed by perambulator extraordinaire Werner Herzog, gave its top prize of the Golden Bear to Semih Kaplanoglu’s Bal (Honey). The Turkish film mined a favorite theme of the festivals–fathers and sons–in its story of a young boy who goes into the woods to find his beekeeper dad. Bal also snagged the Ecumenical Jury Prize. Roman Polanski won the best director Bear for The Ghost Writer. Regardless of what anybody thought of the thriller’s merits, he was a clear sentimental favorite.
Other notable winners include the Romanian prison drama Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), which won the Silver Bear and Alfred Bauer Prize. Sight & Sound‘s Nick James damned the film with faint praise, saying the “well-regarded, -made and -acted” film was marred by a “predictable storyline.” Lisa Cholodenko’s The Kids Are All Right went from Sundance to Berlin acclaim and was named the best film by the Ted Queer Film Awards. Winning two prizes for acting and cinematography was Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom, the new film from Road to Koktebel director Alexei Popogrebsky. It’s a two-hander set in an isolated Arctic station. Mohamed al-Daradji’s Iraqi odyssey Son of Babylon also won a pair of prizes.
Lucy Walker’s documentary Waste Land, about an artist finding inspiration in the scrapheaps of Brazil, won the Panorama Audience Award and the Amnesty International Prize. It was also a good week for James Franco, whose short film The Feast of Steven won the Best Short Film Teddy Queer Film Award (phew!). Derived from an NYU course, the five-minute film adapts a poem by Anthony Hecht. The complete list of winners continues after the jump. Click on the titles for more info and to watch trailers.
Golden Bear: Bal (Honey) (Semih Kaplanoglu)
Silver Bear – The Jury Grand Prize: Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle) (Florin Serban)
Silver Bear – Best Director: Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer
Silver Bear – Best Actress: Shinobu Terajima in Caterpillar
Silver Bear – Best Actor (shared): Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis in Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer)
Silver Bear – Best Screenplay: Tuan Yuan (Apart Together), written by Wang Quan’an and Na Jin
Silver Bear – Artistic Contribution: Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer), cinematography by Pavel Kostomarov (Russia)
Alfred Bauer Prize: Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle) (Florin Serban)
Best First Feature Award: Sebbe (Babak Najafi)
Panorama Audience Award 2009: Waste Land (Lucy Walker, Joao Jardim & Karen Harley)
2nd place: Budrus (Julia Bacha)
3rd place: Daniel Schmid – Le chat qui pense (Pascal Hofmann, Benny Jaberg)
Ecumenical Jury Prize
Competition: Bal (Honey) (Semih Kaplanoglu)
Panorama: Kawasakiho ruze (Kawasaki’s Rose) (Jan Hrebejk)
Forum: Aisheen [Still Alive in Gaza] (Nicolas Wadimoff)
FIPRESCI Prizes:
Competition: En Familie (A Family) (Pernille Fischer Christensen)
Panorama: Parade (Isao Yukisada)
Forum: El vuelco del cangrejo (Crab Trap) (Oscar Ruiz Navia)
Label Europa Cinemas: Die Fremde (When We Leave) (Feo Aladag)
Teddy – Queer Film Award
Best Feature Film: The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko)
Best Documentary Film: La bocca del lupo (The Mouth of the Wolf) (Pietro Marcello)
Best Short Film: The Feast Of Stephen (James Franco)
Teddy Jury Award: Open (Jake Yuzna)
Peace Film Award: Son Of Babylon (Mohamed Al-Daradji)
Amnesty International Film Prize: Son Of Babylon (Mohamed Al-Daradji)
ex aequo: Waste Land (Lucy Walker, Joao Jardim, Karen Harley)
Prizes of the Berlin Talent Campus
Berlin Today Award: Bryn Chainey for Jonah and the Vicarious Nature of Homesickness
Score Competition: Camilo Sanabria
Crystal Bears and Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk Awards in Generation Kplus
Crystal Bear for the Best Film: Shui Yuet Sun Tau (Alex Law)
Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film:: Franswa Sharl (Hannah Hillard)
Tags: A Family, Aisheen [Still Alive in Gaza], Alex Law, Apart Together, Babak Najafi, Bal, Benny Jaberg, Berlin Film Festival, Budrus, Camilo Sanabria, Caterpillar, Crab Trap, Daniel Schmid - Le chat qui pense, Die Fremde, El Vuelco del Cangrejo, En Familie, Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Feo Aladag, Florin Serban, Fluier, Franswa Sharl, Grigori Dobrygin, Hannah Hillard, Honey, How I Ended This Summer, If I Want To Whistle I Whistle, Isao Yukisada, Jake Yuzna, James Franco, Jan Hrebejk, Joao Jardim, Jonah and the Vicarious Nature of Homesickness, Julia Bacha, Kak ya provel etim letom, Karen Harley, Kawasaki’s Rose, Kawasakiho ruze, La bocca del lupo, Lisa Cholodenko, Lucy Walker, Mohamed al Daradji, Na Jin, Nicolas Wadimoff, Open, Oscar Ruiz Navia, Parade, Pascal Hofmann, Pavel Kostomarov, Pernille Fischer Christensen, Pietro Marcello, Roman Polanski, Sebbe, Sergei Puskepalis, Shinobu Terajima, Shui Yuet Sun Tau, Son of Babylon, The Feast Of Stephen, The Ghost Writer, The Kids Are All Right, The Mouth of the Wolf, Tuan Yuan, Wang Quan’an, Waste Land, When We Leave
