The Berlinale has always been considered a public festival. The decision to start the 71st Berlin International Film Festival in March without an audience and only digitally was all the more decisive.
The second part, the Berlinale Summer Special, will follow from June 9th to 20th. Low infection numbers and the organization as a Berlin pilot project make it possible. There are a few things to consider beforehand so that the Berlinale becomes a lavish (film) festival.
The 16 venues are spread over the whole city: In addition to large open-air cinemas such as the one in Hasenheide or in Volkspark Friedrichshain, small locations such as the Frischluftkino @ Studentendorf in Dahlem also show Berlinale films. This should bring the festival even closer to the audience.
The focus is on the open-air cinema set up specifically for the film festival on Museum Island. The Berlinale Summer Special will be officially opened here on June 9, and this is where the winners will receive their Golden and Silver Bears on June 13.
A total of 60,000 tickets were available – even for competition films there were still tickets to be had shortly before the start. You are exclusive available from the respective venues. All tickets are personalized, in most venues two people are allowed to sit next to each other.
A negative corona test must be presented for admission. A self-test is not permitted as evidence. Vaccinated or convalescent visitors must submit appropriate evidence. Wearing an FFP2 mask is compulsory in the venues and can only be removed at the seat.
The announcement of the winners of the bears was rather lackluster in March. The audience award for the competition films, which was awarded for the first time this year, therefore promises a bit of excitement and glamor. Does the audience have other favorites than the jury? Ballot papers and ballot boxes are provided at the venues.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Goldener Bär für “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”
“Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” begins drastically: a teacher makes a sextape, which soon makes the rounds in her school and calls the moralists to the scene. The Romanian director Radu Jude (2015 Silver Bear for Best Director) mixes his story with static images like in a video installation – and is rewarded with the Golden Bear.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Grand Jury Prize
Ryusuke Hamaguchi sees his film “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy”, which he tells in three acts, as an homage to women. The Japanese director stages the scenes almost exclusively within a room with only two actors. The Berlinale jury awarded him the Grand Prize for his profound dialogues.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Best Director
The short films and documentaries by the Hungarian director and screenwriter Dénes Nagy have won awards. With “Natural Light” he presented his feature film debut at the Berlinale: He accompanied Hungarian soldiers through the Soviet Union in search of partisans during the Second World War and describes their moral abysses. The jury was particularly impressed by the directorial work.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Prize of the jury for long-term documentaries
Director Maria Speth won the jury award with her long-term documentary “Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse”. At a school in Hesse, Speth accompanies the teacher Dieter Bachmann, whose 12 to 14-year-old students sometimes do not speak German. With patience and empathy, Bachmann helps the children integrate and shows how important education is.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Best Leading Role
What is happiness and what do you need to be happy? Can artificial intelligence and robots help? Maren Eggert is skeptical in the lead role of Maria Schrader’s “I am your person”. During the film, her character Alma gradually opens up and shy of her desires. Maren Eggert convinced the jury as the best actress in a leading role.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Best Supporting Role
For the Hungarian episode film “Forest – I See You Everywhere”, director Bence Fliegauf had hardly any financial means available. The cast therefore consists of amateur actors in addition to professional actors. Lilla Kizlinger also makes her film debut here – and is immediately honored with the Silver Bear for Best Acting Performance in a Supporting Role.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Best Screenplay
The one-hour contribution “Introduction” by the South Korean director Hong Sang-soo is also told episodically. The protagonists talk past each other in black and white pictures in cloudy weather and always fall back on irrelevant empty phrases. Hong Sang-soo already received the directing bear in 2020, and now the jury has chosen him for the best screenplay.
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Berlinale 2021: The winners of the Golden and Silver Bears
Silver Bear: Artistic Achievement
Alonso Ruizpalacios received the Silver Bear for best screenplay in 2018. His current film “A Cop Movie” is a hybrid of documentary and feature film. Two actresses step into police uniforms and thus also into the ambivalent role that the police play in the field of tension between violence, corruption, crime and protective functions in Mexico. The jury praised the “innovative cinema work”.
Author: Torsten Landsberg
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The audience award for the competition, like the traditional audience award, will be awarded in the panorama section on June 20th.
The European Shooting Stars will be honored on June 14th.
Across all disciplines, 16 films from the sections Competition, Berlinale Special, Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation and Perspektive Deutsches Kino have been nominated for the Documentary Award, which will be awarded on June 13th.
There are also a couple of real premieres: With “French Exit” with Michelle Pfeiffer, “Best Sellers” with Michael Caine and “The Mauritanier” with Jodie Foster, highly anticipated films can be seen for the first time. They were not made available for viewing in the first part of the Berlinale. “The Mauritanian” tells the true story of the Guantanamo prisoner Mohamedou Ould Slahi and will open the summer special.
In normal Berlinale years, autograph hunters run the risk of getting frostbite in February while waiting for their idols on the red carpet. Summer promises a more pleasant endurance: On June 10, the ensemble of Dominik Graf’s “Fabian or The Walk to the Dogs” will walk the red carpet on Museum Island. Daniel Brühl and the bear winners have also announced their arrival at the Berlinale.
