As the Berlinale's "Industry Event" comes to an end, the jury has revealed the Golden and Silver Bears winners. The awards ceremony will follow in June.
The Berlin Film Festival's Golden and Silver Bear awardsImage: Berlinale 2020/Sandra Weller
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Berlinale's Golden Bear goes to 'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn'
Along with Radu Jude's Golden Bear-winning film, find out more about the Silver Bear winners of the Berlin International Film Festival's competition.
Image: Silviu Ghetie/Micro Film 2021
Golden Bear for 'Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn'
Definitely not safe for work: Its opening scene is a homemade sex tape. But for Radu Jude, finding this material more obscene than society's racism, anti-Semitism and nationalism is what's perverse. The Romanian director had won a Silver Bear in 2015 with "Aferim"; this film is for those who enjoy transgressive experiments — like the jury, who praised the way it captures the pandemic's zeitgeist.
Image: Silviu Ghetie/Micro Film 2021
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: 'Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy'
Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi's film is built in three episodes centering on female characters. A coincidental love triangle, an unsuccessful seduction trap, and an encounter emerging from a mix-up: The short stories mirror each other, and the work shines through its exquisitely slick mise en scène.
Image: 2021 Neopa/Fictive
Silver Bear Jury Prize: 'Mr Bachmann and His Class'
Maria Speth's documentary is nearly four hours long, but the half-day class is a captivating learning experience. In a multicultural German town, the 64-year-old teacher Dieter Bachmann leads a group of children with roots in 12 countries. "Mr Bachmann and His Class" is a hopeful take on how education can change everything in the thorny concept of integration.
Image: Madonnen Film
Silver Bear for Best Director: 'Natural Light'
Hungarian filmmaker Denes Nagy explores the human soul through this slow-paced World War II drama set in 1943. Instead of being driven by the action of the conflict, the film focuses on the moral dilemma of a Hungarian soldier, allied with Nazi Germany, who is reluctantly called to take command of his company following an ambush.
Image: Tamás Dobos
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: 'A Cop Movie'
The police force is one of the most controversial institutions in Mexico. Director Alonso Ruizpalacios explores what it means to be a cop in Mexico City in this Netflix production. Combining documentary and role-playing scenes, this is definitely not your typical "cop movie." The Berlinale jury recognized Yibran Asuad's exceptional editing work in this film.
Image: No Ficcion
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: 'I'm Your Man'
Director Maria Schrader, renowned for the series "Unorthodox," explores how a rational woman (Maren Eggert) deals with a three-week experiment in which she lives with a humanoid robot programmed to be her perfect romantic partner (Dan Stevens). While most critics praised Stevens for perfectly impersonating an AI man, the jury was most impressed by Eggert's subtle performance.
Image: Christine Fenzl
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: 'Forest – I See You Everywhere'
"Forest – I See You Everywhere" by Hungarian director Bence Fliegauf is composed of a series of vignettes. The first one centers on a girl who confronts her father, accusing him of being responsible for her mother's death. The members of the jury were enchanted by Lilla Kizlinger's performance, which they found "especially strong and memorable."
Image: Akos Nyoszoli and Matyas Gyuricza
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: 'Introduction'
Even though story of "Introduction" is relatively simple, the jury was charmed by its efficient storytelling, through which "a hidden truth of human life is suddenly revealed, bright and lucid." Revered South Korean director Hong Sangsoo shot a part of his black-and-white 66 minute film in Berlin.
Image: Jeonwonsa Film Co.Production
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The winner of the Golden Bear for Best Film, the Berlin International Film Festival's top award, is Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, by Romanian Radu Jude. A daring pick: The film, which opens with a hardcore sex scene, divided critics. It was also the only work in the main competition that directly portrayed the current pandemic.
The jury described the film "as a wild one, clever and childish, geometrical and vibrant, imprecise in the best way. It attacks the spectator, evokes disagreement, but leaves no one with a safety distance," and also praised the work for capturing "the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time."
Director Radu Jude had already won a Silver Bear in 2015 with 'Aferim!'Image: Tim Brakemeier/dpa/picture alliance
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy by Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, while the Silver Bear Jury Prize went to the German documentary Mr Bachmann and His Class, by Maria Speth.
The Silver Bear Jury Prize is a newly-named award category. Formerly known as the Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize, it was suspended in 2020 as new findings exposed that Alfred Bauer, who was the first Berlinale director, was a high-ranking Nazi.
New, gender-neutral categories for acting
Following the festival's decision to eliminate the Silver Bears for Best Actor and Best Actress, two gender-neutral categories were also introduced: the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance, which went to German actress Maren Eggert in Maria Schrader's I'm Your Man, and the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance, awarded to Lilla Kizlinger for her performance in Forest - I See You Everywhere, by the Hungarian Bence Fliegauf.
Maren Eggert won the first Silver Bear for Best Leading PerformanceImage: Christine Fenzl
The Hungarian filmmaker Denes Nagy was honored with the Silver Bear for Best Director for his World War II drama, Natural Light.
South Korean director Hong Sangsoo also obtained a nod for the screenplay of his film Introduction; and Yibran Asuad, the editor of Mexican entry A Cop Movie, by Alonso Ruizpalacios, was recognized for his outstanding artistic contribution.
Critics' favorites snubbed
A few works that had gathered the critics' praise left empty handed, including Celine Sciamma's Petite Maman and Alexandre Koberidze's What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?. The magical realism present in both the French and the Georgian films apparently didn't unanimously charm the jury members.
In Germany, Dominik Graf's Fabian – Going to the Dogs, based on a 1931 novel by beloved author Erich Kästner, was also among the festival's favorites, but the Weimar-era work failed to win one of the coveted Bears.
There was a strong German presence in the competition; along with directors Schrader, Speth and Graf, actor Daniel Brühl was also in the selection with his directorial debut, Next Door, which however didn't grab an award.
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A particular jury for an unusual year
The selection was made by a jury of six directors, all of them past Golden Bear winners — "an exceptional jury for an exceptional year," said the festival's artistic director, Carlo Chatrian, at the beginning of the online awards announcement.
Nadav Lapid (Israel), Adina Pintilie (Romania), Ildiko Enyedi (Hungary), Gianfranco Rosi (Italy) and Jasmila Zbanic (Bosnia and Herzegovina) were in Berlin for their jury task, as the festival organized distanced theater screenings for them. Dissident Iranian filmmaker Mohammad Rasoulof, who has been banned from leaving the country, screened the works from home and joined the jury's discussions through a video link.
They could enjoy the films in an actual cinema: Jury members Gianfranco Rosi, Ildiko Enyedi, Jasmila Zbanic, Adina PintilieImage: Berlinale 2021/Alexander Janetzko
Awards ceremony to follow in June
There were 15 works vying for the Golden and Silver Bear awards in the main competition this year, a notable reduction from the selection of around 20 titles. Leaving five films out might have improved the overall quality of the competition, as the streamlined selection was generally praised by critics.
With the pandemic disrupting all types of cultural events, the Berlin International Film Festival opted for an event in two stages. Held digitally from March 1-5 and restricted to film professionals and the press, its "Industry Event" is to be followed by a public event in June, the "Summer Special," which will allow audiences and stars to celebrate cinema on the red carpet and movie theaters.
Meet the 2021 Berlinale jury
There will be no jury president this year, and all six Berlin International Film Festival jurors are past winners of the Golden Bear award.
Image: Berlinale 2021
Mohammad Rasoulof
His film "There Is No Evil" won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2020, but Mohammad Rasoulof could not pick up the award himself. The Iranian director has been banned from traveling abroad and has also been sentenced to prison in his home country. Rasoulof will therefore take part in the festival via a remote video link from Iran.
Image: Cosmopol Film
Nadav Lapid
The other five directors will watch and discuss the films together in Berlin. Nadav Lapid is an Israeli filmmaker who won the Golden Bear in 2019 with his third feature film, "Synonyms," a semi-autobiographical drama about an Israeli expatriate in Paris who is wrestling with his identity. Lapid has already been a juror for international film festivals in the past, including Locarno and Cannes.
Image: Alexander Janetzko / Berlinale 2019
Adina Pintilie
Adina Pintilie's film "Touch Me Not" — an experimental exploration of sexuality and intimacy combining fiction and documentary — divided critics at the Berlinale in 2018, but nevertheless convinced the jury. The Golden Bear-winning Romanian filmmaker is also an experienced film curator, as she is the co-founder of the Bucharest International Experimental Film Festival.
Image: Dirk Michael Deckbar / Berlinale 2018
Ildiko Enyedi
After winning the Golden Bear in 2017, the Hungarian director's eighth feature film, "On Body and Soul," went on to be nominated for a Foreign Language Academy Award. Ildiko Enyedi was already on the Berlinale jury once, in 1992, and has served as a juror for many other international film festivals since.
Image: Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2016
Gianfranco Rosi
After winning the Golden Bear in 2016, Rosi's documentary "Fire as Sea," about the dangerous crossing of the Mediterranean undertaken by migrants to reach Europe, was nominated for an Oscar. Three years previously, the Italian-American director also picked up Venice's Golden Lion, making him the only documentary filmmaker to have won two of the three major European film festivals' highest awards.
Image: Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2016
Jasmila Zbanic
The Bosnian film director won the Golden Bear in 2006 with "Grbavica," a film which deals with the impact of systematic rapes of Bosnian women by Serbian soldiers during the Bosnian War. Her latest film from 2020, "Quo Vadis, Aida?" has now been shortlisted for the Oscars as best foreign film. For the first time this year, the Berlinale's six-member jury will not be headed by a president.
