Child’s Pose wins Berlin’s Golden Bear

• Scroll down for full list of winners

Child’s Pose, a Romanian social drama directed by Calin Peter Netzer, has won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 63^rd Berlin International Film Festival. It is the first Romanian film to win the Golden Bear in the Berlinale’s history.

In her acceptance speech, producer Ada Solomon recalled that the EU’s MEDIA Programme and Romania’s national CNC film fund had been instrumental in the making of this film.

However, she pointed out that “the situation [in Romania] is harder and harder, and if we would start this film in Romania today, we would not be able to do it at the same level due to the fact that we don’t have this kind of support anymore.

“I think Romanian politicians should pay much more attention to the kind of ambassador Romanian cinema is for our country around the world.“

The film, which stars Luminita Gheorghui and was produced by Parada Film, centres on the relationship between a domineering mother and the son she tries to protect after he hits a child in a car accident.

It also won the FIPRESCI prize for best Competition film. Sales outfit Beta Cinema sold rights to X Verleih for Germany, Austria and Switzerland during the EFM.

Before announcing the winner of this year’s Golden Bear, jury president Wong Kar Wai said that the jury also wanted to make special mention of two films – Layla Fourie and Gus Van Sant’s Promised Land - “for the integrity of their vision and their conviction that cinema can make a difference”.

Runner-up was Danis Tanovic’s docudrama An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, which was awarded the Silver Bear Jury Grand Prize.

The true life story, shot in Bosnia-Herzegovina, also saw Nazif Mujic win the Silver Bear Award for Best Actor – a role in which he re-enacted an episode from his own life.

This was the second year in a row that a non-professional actor had picked up one of the acting Bears after Rachel Mwanza from Congo won a Silver Bear last year for her performance in Kim Nguyen’s War Witch.

The film also gained a special mention from the Ecumenical Jury.

Gloria, a Chilean drama directed by Sebastian Lelio, scored three trophies including the Silver Bear Award for Best Actress Paulina Garcia.

Garcia, who plays a 58-year-old divorcee looking for love, helped make the film one of the buzz titles of the festival.

It also won the Ecumenical Jury award for best Competition title and the Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas.

Prince Avalanche, a remake of Icelandic film Either Way, saw David Gordon Green win the Silver Bear for Best Director.

The film, which stars Paul Rudd and Emile Hirsch as road workers who confront solitude and each other in the aftermath of a Texas wildfire, was the only US film to win a prize.

Accepting the award, Green recalled that he had first visited Berlin 13 years previously with his first feature film George Washington

Vic + Flo Saw a Bear, a lesbian revenge drama from Canadian director Denis Cote, won the Alfred Bauer Prize (a Silver Bear named after the festival’s founder for a feature that “opens new perspectives”).

Closed Curtain saw writer and co-director Jafar Panahi win the Silver Bear Award for Best Script. The Iranian film-maker remains under house arrest and directed the drama in secret with Kamboziya Partovi.

The award was collected by Partovi from the hands of the fellow Iranian, video artist and film-maker Shirin Neshat.

Harmony Lessons, from Kazakh writer-director Emir Baigazin, saw cinematographer Aziz Zhambakiyev win the Silver Bear Award for Outstanding Artistic Contribution.

It the first film from Kazakhstan to be invited to screen in the Berlinale Competition.

In his acceptance speech, Zhambakiyev thanked producer Anna Katchko and Kazakh Film Studios president Yermek Amanshayev “for his wisdom and trust in young cinema people“ as well as mentioning the World Cinema Fund’s managers Sonja Heinen and Vincenzo Bugno.

The Rocket won the biggest financial prize of the festival. The Laos-set drama saw Australian director Kim Mordaunt win the Best First Feature Award, which includes a cash bursary of $67,000 (€50,000).

The film also won the Crystal Bear for Best Film in the Children’s Jury Generation Kplus awards, and the Amnesty International Film Prize.

In his acceptance speech, Mordaunt pointed out that the film had been “a really brave and heartfelt collaboration“ between Australia, Laos and Thailand.

“This [the prize] is going to make people see the film and is dedicated to the people of Laos,“ Mordaunt said.

In a previous ceremony on Feb 14 in the Generation 14plus section, Polish film-maker Kasia Rosłaniec won the Youth Jury’s Crystal Bear for her second feature Baby Blues and a special mention from the newly appointed International Jury who awarded their Grand Prix, sponsored by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (bpb), to Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland’s debut Shopping.

PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY

GOLDEN BEAR for the Best Film
Child’s Pose
Călin Peter Netzer

JURY GRAND PRIX (Silver Bear)
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker
Danis Tanović

ALFRED BAUER PRIZE (Silver Bear)
Vic+Flo Saw a Bear
Denis Côté

AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR (Silver Bear)
David Gordon Green for
Prince Avalanche

AWARD FOR BEST ACTRESS (Silver Bear)
Paulina García in
Gloria by Sebastián Lelio

AWARD FOR BEST ACTOR (Silver Bear)
Nazif Mujić in
An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker by Danis Tanović

AWARD FOR BEST SCRIPT (Silver Bear)
Jafar Panahi for
Closed Curtain by Jafar Panahi, Kamboziya Partovi

AWARD FOR AN OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION IN THE CATEGORIES CAMERA, EDITING, MUSIC SCORE, COSTUME DESIGN OR SET DESIGN (Silver Bear)
Aziz Zhambakiyev for the camera in
Harmony Lessons by Emir Baigazin

SPECIAL MENTIONS
Promised Land, Gus Van Sant
Layla Fourie, Pia Marais

BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD (€50,000)
The Rocket
Kim Mordaunt

SPECIAL MENTION
The Battle of Tabatô, João Viana

PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM JURY

GOLDEN BEAR for the Best Short Film
The Runaway
Jean-Bernard Marlin

THE JURY PRIZE (Silver Bear)
Remains Quiet
Stefan Kriekhaus

BERLIN SHORT FILM NOMINEE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS
Mystery
Chema García Ibarra

DAAD SHORT FILM AWARD
Ashura
Köken Ergun

PRIZES OF THE JURIES GENERATION

Children’s Jury Generation Kplus

CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Film
The Rocket
Kim Mordaunt

SPECIAL MENTION
Satellite Boy
Catriona McKenzie

CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Short Film
The Amber Amulet
Matthew Moore

SPECIAL MENTION
Hedgehogs and the City
Ēvalds Lācis

International Jury Generation Kplus

THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY (€7,500)
Mother, I Love You
Jānis Nords

SPECIAL MENTION
Satellite Boy
Catriona McKenzie

THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION KPLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best short film (€2,500)
Cheong
Kim Jung-in

SPECIAL MENTION
Hedgehogs and the City
Ēvalds Lācis

Youth Jury Generation 14plus

CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Film
Baby Blues
Kasia Rosłaniec

SPECIAL MENTION
Pluto
Shin Su-won

CRYSTAL BEAR for the Best Short Film
Rabbitland
Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak

SPECIAL MENTION
The Date
Jenni Toivoniemi

International Jury Generation 14plus

THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION 14PLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best feature film (€7,500)
Shopping
Mark Albiston, Louis Sutherland

SPECIAL MENTION
Baby Blues
Kasia Rosłaniec

THE GRAND PRIX OF THE GENERATION 14PLUS INTERNATIONAL JURY for the best short film (€2,500)
The First Time
Anders Hazelius

SPECIAL MENTION
Barefoot
Danis Goulet

INDEPENDENT JURIES
PRIZES OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY

Competition
Gloria, Sebastián Lelio

Special Mention: An Episode in the Life of an Iron Picker, Danis Tanović

Panorama
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer

Special Mention: Inch’Allah, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

Forum
Circles, Srdan Golubović

Special Mention: Roots, Kaoru Ikeya

PRIZES OF THE FIPRESCI JURY

Competition
Child’s Pose, Călin Peter Netzer

Panorama
Inch’Allah, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette

Forum
Hélio Oiticica, Cesar Oiticica Filho

PRIZE OF THE GUILD OF GERMAN ART HOUSE CINEMAS
Gloria
Sebastián Lelio

C.I.C.A.E. PRIZES
Panorama
Rock the Casbah
Yariv Horowitz

Forum
In Bloom
Nana Ekvtimishvili, Simon Groß

LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Felix Van Groeningen

TEDDY AWARD
Best Feature Film W imie… (In the Name of), by Małgośka Szumowska
Best Documentary/
Essay Film Bambi (Bambi), by Sébastien Lifshitz
Best Short Film Ta av mig (Undress Me), by Victor Lindgren
Teddy Jury Award Concussion (Concussion), by Stacie Passon

MADE IN GERMANY - PERSPEKTIVE FELLOWSHIP (€15,000)
Jan Speckenbach for The Sound of Stones

FGYO-AWARD DIALOGUE EN PERSPECTIVE (€5,000)
Two Mothers, Anne Zohra Berrached

Special Mention
Chiralia, Santiago Gil

CALIGARI FILM PRIZE
Hélio Oiticica, Cesar Oiticica Filho

NETPAC PRIZE
When I Saw You, Annemarie Jacir

PEACE FILM PRIZE
A World Not Ours, Mahdi Fleifel

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM PRIZE
The Rocket, Kim Mordaunt

CINEMA FAIRBINDET PRIZE
Art/Violence
Udi Aloni, Batoul Taleb, Miriam Abu-Khaled

HEINER CAROW PRIZE
Naked Opera, Angela Christlieb

READERS’ JURIES AND AUDIENCE AWARDS

PanoramaAudienceAward PPP - fiction film
The Broken Circle Breakdown
Felix Van Groeningen

PanoramaAudienceAward PPP - documentary film
The Act of Killing
Joshua Oppenheimer

BERLINER MORGENPOST READERS’ PRIZE
Harmony Lessons
Emir Baigazin

TAGESSPIEGEL READERS’ PRIZE
Father’s Garden - The Love of My Parents
Peter Liechti

SIEGESSÄULE READERS’ AWARD
In the Name of
Małgośka Szumowska

PRIZES OF THE BERLINALE TALENT CAMPUS

VFF TALENT HIGHLIGHT PITCH AWARD (€10,000)
Geordie Sabbagh (Canada)
for Two Guys Who Sold the World

ARTE INTERNATIONAL PRIZE (€6,000)
Petar Valchanov (Bulgaria)
for The Lesson

DOLBY® SOUND MARK AWARD
Rutger Reinders (Netherlands)