UPDATE WITH KEY SPEECHES: Hungarian title On Body And Soul takes best film; Aki Kaurismaki, Sebastian Lelio among winners; Insyriated and I Am Not Your Negro scoop Panorama audience awards; 2018 festival dates revealed.
The awards ceremony for the 67th Berlin Film Festival took place this evening (18 Feb) with winners including Ildiko Enyedi, Alain Gomis, Agnieszka Holland and Sebastian Lelio.
Scroll down for full list of winners
Ildikò Enyedi’s Hungarian feature On Body and Soul - the unusual love story of two damaged souls trying to make contact in a harsh world - was the big winner on the night taking home the Golden Bear for best film in the Competition as well as the Ecumenical and FIPRESCI juries’ prizes for best film in the Official Competition and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Award.
Enyedi’s film - which is handled internationally by Berlin-based sales agent Films Boutique and had been hotly tipped for the Golden Bear - is the second Hungarian film to win Berlin’s top award after Márta Mészáros’ Adoption in 1975.
Enyedi, who returned to Berlin from Budapest at the crack of dawn on Saturday to collect her award, is the fifth woman filmmaker in the Competition’s history to garner the Golden Bear after Mészáros, Russian filmmaker Larisa Shepitko with The Ascent in 1977, Bosnia’s Jasmila Zbanic with Grbavica in 2006 and Peru’s Claudia Llosa with The Milk Of Sorrow in 2009.
Before announcing the winner of the golden statuette, jury president Paul Verhoeven told the audience that they would be seeing ¨two people connected in quite an amazing way. The jury fell in love with this movie not only because of its superior craftsmanship, but because it reminds us of one word we use too easily: compassion.¨
¨We wanted to present you a very simple film like a glass of water,¨ Enyedi explained. ¨It was risky, all of my team believed in it, but we couldn’t know if the audience would join us because this film is only approchable with a generous heart.¨
Political notes
Saturday’s awards ceremony in the Berlinale Palast at Potsdamer Platz saw several of the filmmakers making politically charged statements during their acceptance speeches: Esteban Arrangoiz Julien, the winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize for his short Reverie In The Meadow, drew attention to the case of disappeared Mexican students, while Raed Andoni received the first Glashütte Original Documentary Award, endowed with €50,000, for his documentary Ghost Hunting and took the opportunity to remind the audience of the tough conditions often facing Palestinians in Israel.
Bestowing the inaugural documentary prize filmmaker Laura Poitras told the audience that contrary to recent Donald Trump comments the press are not the enemy of the people. “We are enemies of nationalism and exclusion,” she added.
¨We have to fight the dark ages with beauty, with elegance and poetry,¨ said Chilean director Sebastián Lelio when receiving the Silver Bear for best screenplay for A Fantastic Woman and dedicated his award to ¨the courageous and fantastic woman at the centre of this film, Daniela Vega¨, who then joined him and co-screenwriter Gonzalo Maza on stage.
Accepting the Alfred Bauer Prize for her latest feature Spoor, which was co-directed with her daughter Kasia Adamik, veteran Polish director Agnieszka Holland echoed Lelio’s sentiments: ¨We are living in very difficult times right now. We need the new perspectives, we need movies that are brave and touching the subjects that are important for our planet.¨
Festival director Dieter Kosslick drew attention to the case of German-Turkish journalist Deniz Yücel, writer for Die Welt, who was taken into custody in Turkey on Friday and accused of being a member of a terrorist organisation.
The international jury comprised Paul Verhoeven (director), Dora Bouchoucha Fourati (producer), Olafur Eliasson (artist), Maggie Gyllenhaal (actress), Julia Jentsch (actress), Diego Luna (actor) and Wang Quan’an (director).
The Panorama and Generation sections revealed winners including Insyriated and I Am Not Your Negro.
The Berlinale also announced its 2018 dates: February 15 - 25, which is one week later than this year’s edition.
The full list of Berlin 2017 winners
Golden Bear for Best Film
On Body And Soul by Ildiko Enyedi
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
Félicité by Alain Gomis
Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize
Pokot by Agnieszka Holland
Silver Bear for Best Director
Aki Kaursimaki, The Other Side Of Hope
Silver Bear for Best Actress
Min-hee Kim, On The Beach At Night Alone
Silver Bear for Best Actor
Georg Friedrich, Bright Nights
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
Sebastian Lelio, Gonzalo Maza, A Fantastic Woman
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Dana Bunescu, editor, Ana, Mon Amour
Glashutte documentary award:
Ghost Hunting
Best first feature
Summer 1993
Golden Bear for Best Short Film
Small Town
Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film)
Reverie In The Meadow
Audi Short Film Award
Street Of Death
Panorama winners
Panorama Audience Award Winner Fiction Film 2017:
Insyriated
2nd place Panorama Audience Award Fiction Film 2017:
Karera ga Honki de Amu toki wa (Close-Knit)
3rd place Panorama Audience Award Fiction Film 2017:
1945
Panorama Audience Award Winner Panorama Dokumente 2017:
I Am Not Your Negro
2nd place Panorama Audience Award Panorama Dokumente 2017:
Chavela
3rd place Panorama Audience Award Panorama Dokumente 2017:
Istiyad Ashbah (Ghost Hunting)
Generation Kplus winners
Crystal Bear for the Best Film: Piata loď (Little Harbour)
Special Mention: Amelie rennt (Mountain Miracle – An Unexpected Friendship)
Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film: Promise
Special Mention Short Film: Hedgehog’s Home
The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Film: ex aequo
Becoming Who I Was, and Estiu 1993 (Summer 1993)
The Special Prize of the Generation Kplus International Jury for the Best Short Film: Aaba (Grandfather)
Special Mention: Sabaku
Generation 14plus
Crystal Bear for the Best Film: Butterfly Kisses
Special Mention: Ceux qui font les révolutions à moitié n’ont fait que se creuser un tombeau (Those Who Make Revolution Halfway Only Dig Their Own Graves)
Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film: Wolfe
Special Mention Short Film: SNIP
The Grand Prix of the Generation 14plus International Jury for the Best Film: Shkola nomer 3 (School Number 3)
Special Mention: Ben Niao (The Foolish Bird)
Special Prize of the Generation 14plus International Jury for the Best Short Film:
The Jungle Knows You Better Than You Do
Special Mention: U Plavetnilo (Into the Blue)
Independent juries
Prizes of the Ecumenical Jury:
Prize Winner Competition 2017
On Body and Soul
Special Mention:
A Fantastic Woman
Prize Winner Panorama 2017
Tahqiq Fel Djenna
Special Mention:
I Am Not Your Negro
Prize Winner Forum 2017
Maman Colonelle
Special Mention:
El Mar La Mar
Teddy award
Best Feature Film 2017
A Fantastic Woman
Prizes of the FIPRESCI Jury
Prize Winner Competition 2017
On Body and Soul
Prize Winner Panorama 2017
Pendular
Prize Winner Forum 2017
Shu’our Akbar Min El Hob
Click here for the full list of winners in all sections.
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