76th Berlin Film Festival Awards: ‘Yellow Letters’ Wins Golden Bear for Best Film; ‘Queen at Sea’ Nabs Two Among Festival Unrest Over Politics
In a festival ripe with political controversy and heated debate, Yellow Letters from German-Turkish filmmaker İlker Çatak, has won the Golden Bear for Best Film of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival.
The film tells the story of Derya and Aziz, a celebrated artist couple from Ankara, lead a fulfilling life with their 13-year-old daughter Ezgi who find themselves targeted by the state and lose their jobs and their home. It’s the first German film to win the top award at Berlinale since 2004’s Head-On from Faith Akin, another co-production of Germany and Turkey.
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize went to Salvation by Emin Alper while Queen at Sea won two awards, or three technically. Lance Hammond’s story of an octogenarian couple where one is struggling with dementia, won the Jury Prize as well as a shared supporting performance award for Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall as the couple at the center of the film. This is Courtenay’s second Silver Bear for performance, he previously won Best Actor (before the festival moved to non-gendered acting categories) for 2015’s 45 Years. Grant Gee won Best Director for Everybody Digs Bill Evans, about legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans and starring Anders Danielsen Lie, Bill Pullman and Laurie Metcalf.
Sandra Hüller won the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for her titular turn in Rose, about a woman who disguises herself as a male soldier in 17th century Germany. This is Hüller’s second Silver Bear; she won 20 years ago for her festival debut, Requiem.
During the press conference for the Main Competition jury ahead of the festival, jury president Wim Wenders, in response to a question about the festival’s government-based funding and its official response to the ongoing Gaza genocide in comparison to its full support to Ukraine and Iranian democratic protests, stated that the jury “has to stay out of politics”. The statement created controversy in the opening days of the festival, resulting in withdrawal of the films The Dislocation of Amber (1975) by Sudanese filmmaker Hussein Shariffe and Sad Song of Touha (1972) by Egyptian filmmaker Atteyat El Abnoudy, as well as the writer Arundhati Roy, who was scheduled to appear with a restoration of the Indian film In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones (1989). Roy said that “To hear them say that art should not be political is jaw-dropping. It is a way of shutting down a conversation about a crime against humanity even as it unfolds before us in real time—when artists, writers and film-makers should be doing everything in their power to stop it.”
Several actors during their films’ press conferences, including Ethan Hawke, Neil Patrick Harris and Channing Tatum, either pushed back on questions about the rise of fascism and the war on Gaza, or refused to acknowledge them. On February 17, more than 80 directors, actors and producers including Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, Adam McKay and Mike Leigh signed an open letter criticizing the festival for “censoring artists who oppose Israel’s ongoing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza and the German state’s key role in enabling it”, the letter urges the Festival to condemn the ongoing massacre of civilians in a similar position adopted to the ongoing massacre of civilians in Ukraine and Iran.
Tricia Tuttle opened the awards ceremony addressing the journalists questioning of actors, directors and creatives during the press conference process saying, “This Berlinale has taken place in a world that has felt raw and fractured and maybe people arrived carrying a lot of grief and anger and some urgency about the world we’re living in right now and that takes place outside of the cinema walls as well as inside the cinemas.” She continued, “We here you and we’ve also been publicly challenged this year and that’s good. It doesn’t always feel good but it is good.”
The festival, featuring 276 films from 80 countries, opened with German-Afghan drama film No Good Men by Shahrbanoo Sadat. During the opening ceremony, Malaysian actress Michelle Yeoh was awarded the Honorary Golden Bear. Yeoh’s refusal to comment on the U.S. government’s ongoing mass deportation program was also met with further controversy.
Last year, Dag Johan Haugerud’s Dreams (Sex Love) was the Golden Bear winner while performance wins went to Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You and Andrew Scott for Blue Moon. Byrne turned her win into nominations from Critics Choice, Screen Actors Guild and BAFTA, with wins from the Golden Globes and Spirit Awards. She is nominated for Best Actress at the Academy Awards. Scott wasn’t able to translate his Berlin win into a major awards run but his lead co-star Ethan Hawke did, nominated by Critics Choice, Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild, BAFTA and the Academy Awards.
Here is the complete list of winners of the 76th Berlin International Film Festival.
MAIN COMPETITION
Golden Bear for Best Film: Yellow Letters, İlker Çatak
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: Salvation, Emin Alper
Silver Bear Jury Prize: Queen at Sea, Lance Hammer
Silver Bear for Best Director: Grant Gee for Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: Sandra Hüller for Rose
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance (tie): Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall for Queen at Sea
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Nina Roza, Geneviève Dulude-De Celles
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Yo (Love is a Rebellious Bird), Anna Fitch and Banker White
PERSPECTIVES COMPETITION
GWFF Best First Feature Award: Chronicles From the Siege, Abdallah Alkhatib
Special Mention: Forest High, Manon Coubia
BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD
Best Documentary: If Pigeons Turned to Gold, Pepa Lubojacki
Special Mentions: Tutu, Sam Pollard; Sometimes I Imagine Them All at a Party, Daniela Magnani Hüller
SHORT FILM COMPETITION
Golden Bear for Best Short Film: Someday a Child, Marie-Rose Osta
Silver Bear for Best Short Film: A Woman’s Place is Everywhere, Fanny Texier
Berlinale Shorts Filmmaker Award: Kleptomania, Jingkai Qu
PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARDS
Audience Award (Fiction): Prosecution, Faraz Sharia
First Runner-up: Four Minus Three, Adrian Goiginger
Second Runner-up: Mouse, Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson
Audience Award (Documentary): Traces, Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk
First Runner-up: The Other Side of the Sun, Tawfik Sabouni
Second Runner-up: Bucks Harbor, Pete Muller
GENERATION COMPETITION
International Jury
Grand Prix for the Best Film in Generation Kplus: Gugu’s World, Allan Deberton
Special Mention: Atlas of the Universe, Paul Negoescu
Special Prize for the Best Short Film in Generation Kplus: Spi, Navroz Shaban
Special Mention: Under the Wave off Little Dragon, Luo Jian
Grand Prix for the Best Film in Generation 14plus: Sad Girlz, Fernanda Tovar
Special Mention: Matapanki, Diego Mapache Fuentes
Special Prize for the Best Short Film in Generation 14plus: “The Thread, Fenn O’Meally
Special Mention: Memories of a Window, Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar
Youth Jury
Crystal Bear for the Best Film in Generation Kplus: Gugu’s World, Allan Deberton
Special Mention: Not a Hero, Rima Das
Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film in Generation Kplus: Whale 52 – Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale, Daniel Neiden
Special Mention: Under the Wave off Little Dragon, Luo Jian
Crystal Bear for the Best Film in Generation 14plus: Sad Girlz, Fernanda Tovar
Special Mention: A Family, Mees Peijnenburg
Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film in Generation 14plus: Memories of a Window, Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar
Special Mention: Nobody Knows the World, Roddy Dextre
TEDDY AWARDS
Best Feature Film: Ivan & Hadoum, Ian de la Rosa
Best Documentary: Barbara Forever, Brydie O’Connor
Best Short Film: Taxi Moto, Gaël Kamilindi
Jury Award: Trial of Hein, Kai Stänicke
Special Award: Céline Sciamma
FIPRESCI AWARDS
Competition: Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars, Mahamat-Saleh Haroun
Perspectives: Animol, Ashley Walters
Panorama: Narciso, Marcelo Martinessi
Forum: AnyMart, Yusuke Iwasaki
ECUMENICAL JURY AWARDS
Competition: Flies (Moscas), Fernando Eimbcke
Panorama: Bucks Harbor, Pete Muller
Forum: River Dreams, Kristina Mikhailova
LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS AWARD
Four Minus Three, Adrian Goiginger
PRIZE OF THE GUILD OF GERMAN ARTHOUSE CINEMAS
Yellow Letters, İlker Çatak
Special Mention: The Loneliest Man in Town, Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel
READERS’ JURIES
Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Award: Flies (Moscas), Fernando Eimbcke
Tagesspiegel Readers’ Award: I Built a Rocket Imagining Your Arrival, Janaína Marques
CALIGARI FILM PRIZE
If Pigeons Turned to Gold, Pepa Lubojacki
PEACE FILM PRIZE
Tutu, Sam Pollard
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARDd
What Will I Become?, Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos
HEINER CAROW PRIZE
Prosecution, Faraz Shariat
PRIZE AG KINO – GILDE – CINEMA VISION 14PLUS
What Will I Become?, Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos
Special Mention: Sunny Dancer, George Jaques
C.I.C.A.E. Art Cinema Award
Prosecution, Faraz Shariat
On Our Own, Tudor Cristian Jurgiu
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