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Source: Beta Cinema

‘Berlin Alexanderplatz’

Berlin Alexanderplatz by Burhan Qurbani is the big winner at the 2020 Stockholm International Film Festival, taking the Bronze Horse for best film and also the best actor prize for Welket Bungué.

Mexican director Fernanda Valadez’s Identifying Features was also a double winner for best director and best debut.

His compatriot Michel Franco was presented with this year’s Stockholm Impact Award (with $115,0000) for his film New Order. Gunda, by Victor Kossakovsky, won the Bronze Horse for best documentary.

Katherine Waterston won best actress for The World To Come. Best cinematography went to Benjamín Echazarreta for Memory House. Kaouther Ben Hania won best script for The Man Who Sold His Skin. 

The Zalando Rising Star 2020 honours went to Lancelot Ncube, who has acted in Caliphate and King of Atlantis.

Director Jo Widerberg won the 1km film scholarship for her film Litegrann and an honorary mention went to SaraKlara Hellström for Tvagning. Best short was The Name of the Son by Martina Matzkini

The FiPRESCI prize went to The Woman Who Ran by Hong Sang-soo.

New talents support from Wild Card

Also during the festival’s industry programme, the Swedish Film Institute announced the two winners of its annual Wild Card funding.

They are Elsa Rosengren with her film The Volcano Lover (working title), a love story that starts in a village in Sweden in the 19th century and ends in modern-day Berlin; and Sebastian Johansson Micci with The Earwig, about a famous artist who makes a fool of himself and also transforms into a human-sized earwig.

Each project receives $46,000 (SEK 400 000) for development.

Now in its third year, Wild Card is a development subsidy from the Swedish Film Institute that backs first features from recent film school graduates.

Berlin-based writer/director Rosengren was born in Goteborg and attended Rhode Island School of Design and The German Film and Television Academy Berlin (DFFB). Her graduation film I Want to Return Return Return won third prize at Cannes Cinéfondation 2020.

Micci is a director, screenwriter and editor who graduated from HDK-Valand - Academy of Art and Design in Goteborg. His shorts include The Drowning Goat and Cancel.

The festival continues until Nov 22.

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