On February 24, the 68th Berlin Film Festival handed out its awards. This time the Golden Bear went to Romanian director Adina Pintilie’s film Touch Me Not. The film tells the story of 50-year-old Laura, who is trying to fight her own phobias and goes through the path of accepting herself and her appearance.
The jury awarded the second most important award – the Grand Prix – to the film “Snout” (“Face”) by the Polish director Malgorzata Szumowska. The film is about a young man who gets into an accident, decides to have a face transplant and tries to move on with his new appearance.
The Silver Bear, the Alfred Bauer Prize for breaking new ground in cinema, went to director Marcelo Martinezi for his film The Heiresses. It tells the story of two women named Chela and Chiquita who live together for over 30 years. They are faced with a lack of money, everyday difficulties and are trying to find a way out of them.
For best director, the Silver Bear was awarded to Wes Anderson, whose cartoon “Isle of Dogs” opened the screening.
Antoine Bayon won best actor for his role in the French film “The Prayer,” and Ana Brun received the “Silver Bear” for best actress in Paraguayan director Marcelo Martinez’s film “The Heiress.”
The “Silver Bear” for the best screenplay was awarded to the authors of the film “Museum” by Mexican Alonso Ruiz Palacios.
Costume designer Elena Okopnaya, who worked on Alexei German Jr.’s film “Dovlatov,” received the “Silver Bear” for her contribution to cinema.
Special mention was given to the debut film “The Elephant is Still Sleeping” by Chinese director Hu Bo from the “Forum” program.
The Ukrainian film “When Trees Fall” by Marysia Nikityuk, which participated in the “Panorama” program, was left without awards.
The 68th Berlin Festival took place in the German capital from February 15. It showed 385 films and had 949 screenings.
24 films took part in the main competition, 19 of which competed for the “Golden” and “Silver” bears. Wes Anderson, Steve Soderbergh, Love Diaz, Benoit Jacquot, Gus Van Sant, brothers Nathan and David Zellner, Christian Petzold, Philip Groening, Mans Mansson and Axel Petersen and others presented their new works.
The president of this year’s jury was director and screenwriter Tom Tykwer.