75th Berlin Film Festival Winners: Norwegian ‘(Dreams (Sex Love)’ Named Best Film; Rose Byrne, Andrew Scott Receive Acting Honors

Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love) has won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 75th Berlin Film Festival, under a jury led by award-winning director Todd Haynes. This is the the first time a Norwegian feature film has won this award.

The film, about a young girl who falls for her teacher, is the third installment in the Norwegian writer-director’s Dream Sex Love trilogy. Sex premiered last year in the Panorama section of the 2024 Berlin Film Fest, while Love debuted in competition at Venice last summer. The film also won the FIPRESCI Awards, presented by the International Federation of Film Critics, an organization of professional film critics and journalists.

Rose Byrne was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for her work in If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, which premiered to acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival last month (review here). In the film, Byrne plays a mother and wife juggling the demands of a sick child and an absent husband while maintaining her own work as a therapist. A24 will release the film theatrically in the U.S. Andrew Scott won the supporting performance honors for Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon (review here), a telling of the fractured relationship between Broadway composer Richard Rodgers (Scott) as he changes partners from Lorenz Hart (the film’s lead, played by Ethan Hawke) to Oscar Hammerstein. Sony Pictures Classics has the U.S. rights to Blue Moon for release later this year.

Last year, Mati Diop’s Dahomey was named Best Film, Sebastian Stan won for his lead role in A Different Man (for which he would also win the Golden Globe for) and Emily Watson won supporting for Small Things Like These.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 75th Berlin Film Festival.

COMPETITION

Golden Bear for Best Film: Drømmer (Dreams (Sex Love)) by Dag Johan Haugerud, Produced by Yngve Sæther, Hege Hauff Hvattum

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: O último azul (The Blue Trail) by Gabriel Mascaro

Silver Bear Jury Prize: El mensaje (The Message) by Iván Fund

Silver Bear for Best Director: Huo Meng for Sheng xi zhi di (Living the Land)

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: Andrew Scott for Blue Moon

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Radu Jude for Kontinental ’25

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: The creative ensemble of La Tour de Glace (The Ice Tower) by Lucile Hadžihalilović

BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD

Best Documentary: Holding Liat, Brandon Kramer

PERSPECTIVES JURY

GWFF Best First Feature: The Devil Smokes (and Saves the Burnt Matches in the Same Box), Ernesto Martínez Bucio

BERLINALE SHORTS

Golden Bear: Lloyd Wong, Unfinished, Lesley Loksi Chan

Silver Bear: Ordinary Life, Yoriko Mizushiri

PANORAMA AWARDS

Panorama Audience Award: Sorda, Eva Libertad
Second Prize: Lesbian Space Princess, Emma Hough Hobbs, Leela Varghese
Third Prize: Home Sweet Home, Frelle Petersen

Panorama Documentary Audience Award: Die Möllner Briefe, Martina Priessner
Second Prize: Yalla Parkour Sweden, Areeb Zuaiter
Third Prize: Khartoum, Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox

GENERATION AWARDS

Generation International Jury

Grand Prix for Best Film in Generation 14plus: Christy, Brendan Canty
Special Mention: Têtes Brûlées, Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama

Special Prize for Best Short Film in Generation 14plus: Don’t Wake the Sleeping Child, Kevin Aubert

A Bird Flew, Leinad Pájaro De la Hoz
Special Mention: Beneath Which Rivers Flow, Ali Yahya

Grand Prix for Best Film in Generation Kplus: The Botanist, Jing Yi
Special Mention: Seaside Serendipity, Satoko Yokohama

Special Prize for Best Short Film in Generation Kplus: Autokar, Sylwia Szkiłądź
Special Mention: Akababuru: Expression of Astonishment, Irati Dojura Landa Yagarí

Youth Jury Generation 14plus

Crystal Bear for Best Film: Sunshine, Antoinette Jadaone
Special Mention: Playtime, Lucia Murat

Crystal Bear for Best Short Film: Wish You Were Ear, Mirjana Balogh
Special Mention: Sunset Over America, Matías Rojas Valencia

Children’s Jury Generation Kplus

Crystal Bear for Best Film: Maya, Give Me a Title, Michel Gondry
Special Mention: Circusboy, Julia Lemke

Crystal Bear for Best Short Film: Little Rebels Cinema Club, Khozy Rizal
Special Mention: Down in the Dumps, Vera van Wolferen

INDEPENDENT JURY PRIZES

Ecumenical Jury Prizes
Competition: The Blue Trail, Gabriel Mascaro
Panorama: The Heart Is a Muscle, Imran Hamdulay
Forum: Holding Liat, Brandon Kramer

FIPRESCI Jury Prizes
Competition: Dreams (Sex Love), Dag Johan Haugerud
Encounters: Little Trouble Girls, Urška Djukić
Panorama: Under the Flags, the Sun, Juanjo Pereira
Forum: The Memory of Butterflies, Tatiana Fuentes Sadowski

Teddy Awards
Best Feature Film: Lesbian Space Princess, Leela Varghese, Emma Hough Hobbs
Best Documentary/Essay Film: Satanic Sow, Rosa von Praunheim
Best Short Film: Lloyd Wong, Lesley Loksi Chan
Jury Award: If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart into Your Mouth and Smile, Marie Luise Lehner
Special Teddy Award: Todd Haynes

CICAE Art Cinema Award
Panorama: Deaf (Sorda), Eva Libertad
Forum: If You Are Afraid You Put Your Heart Into Your Mouth and Smile, Marie Luise Lehner

Guild Film Prize: Dying, Matthias Glasner

Label Europa Cinemas: Hysteria by Mehmet, Mehmet Akif Büyükatalay

Caligari Film Prize: Fwends, Sophie Somerville

Peace Film Prize: Khartoum, Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox
Special Mention: “Queer as Punk,” Yihwen Chen

Amnesty International Film Award: The Moelln Letters, Martina Priessner
Special Mention: Khartoum, Anas Saeed, Rawia Alhag, Ibrahim Snoopy, Timeea M Ahmed, Phil Cox

Heiner Carow Prize: “Palliative Care Unit,” Philipp Döring

AG-Kino Gilde Cinema Vision 14Plus: Paternal Leave, Alissa Jung
Special Mention: “Têtes brûlées,” Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama

OTHER PRIZES

Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award: The Blue Trail, Gabriel Mascaro

Tagesspiegel Readers’ Jury Award: The Swan Song of Fedor Ozerov, Yuri Semashko

DEVELOPMENT AWARDS

Artekino International Award: Dreamgirl, Kaan Müjdeci, produced byTato Film & Asteros Film

Eurimages Co-Production Development Award: Ibicaba – Visions of Paradise, Andrea Štaka

VFF Talent Highlight Award: March 14th, Alberto Gross Molo

Gen Z Audience Award: 30 Days of Summer, Anastasiia Solonevych

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.

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