20-02-2012

FNE at Berlinale 2012: Prize winners: Golden Bear goes to Taviani Doc

By

    BERLIN: The 62 Berlinale awarded its highest honour to a to a documentary by the veteran Italian directing team Paolo and Vittorio Taviani for their docu-drama Caesar Must Die about a group of criminals performing Shakespeare in a prison. Taviani's also picked up the Ecumenical Jury prize.

    In a year that critics agreed presented an outstandingly high level of films in competition the second highest honour went to Hungarian auteur Bence Fliegauf for Just the Wind. Fliegauf's drama about a day in the life of a Roma family and based on a true story of a series of murders of Roma in Hungary. The film also picked up the Amnesty International and the Peace Prizes. The director depicts with great humanity the lives of the Roma who are shown as vulnerable, constantly on the run and subjected to daily humiliation in society. The jury was headed by veteran British director Mike Leigh.

    Central Europeans benefited from their policies of funding minority coproductions with Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Romania all scoring wins with coproductions in the Panorama section. The Parade, a Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian coproduction directed by Srdjan Dragojevic won the main Panorama Audience Award while Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood by Italian director Daniele Vicari, a Romanian coproduction, took second prize in the same section.

    The Parade which depicts an attempt to hold a gay pride parade in the macho culture of Serbia also won the Else Readers Choice award of the gay and lesbian magazine Siegessaule. The film takes a humourous look at both homophobia and homosexuals as the world of gangsters and gays clashes against the backdrop of Belgrade's ethnic mix of Serbs, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovars.

    The documentary Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood looks at the shocking and brutal police suppression of protestors at the G8 Summit in Genoa that resulted in numerous injuries and one death.

    62 Berlinale 2012 Prize Winners

    Main Competition

    Golden Bear: Grand Prize: Caesar Must Die by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

    Silver Bear: Jury Prize: Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf (Hungary)

    Produced by Inforg-M&M Film (www.informstudio.hu)

    Best Director: Christian Petzold for Barbara

    Best Actress: Rachel Mwanza for War Witch

    Best Actor: Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for A Royal Affair

    Best Screenplay: Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg for A Royal Affair

    Outstanding Artistic Achievement: Luta Reitemeier for cinematography in White Deer Plain directed by Wang Quanan

    Alfred Bauer Prize: Tabu by Miguel Gomes

    Special Mention: Sister by Ursula Meier

    Generation Section:

    Crystal Bear for Best Kplus Feature Film: Arcadia by Olivia Silver

    Special Mention: Kikoeteru, furi we sita dake by Kaori Imaizumi

    Grand Prize: Deutsche Kindershilfswerk for Best Feature Film: Kauwboy by Boudewijn Koole

    Special Mention: Gattu by Rajan Khosa

    Special Prize: Deutsche Kindershilfswerk for Best Short Film: BINO by Bille Pleffer

    Special Mention: L by Thais Fujinaga

    Panorama Audience Award:

    Fiction Film: Parada (The Parade) by Srdjan Dragojevic (Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia)

    Supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre (www.havc.hr)

    Coproduction Mainframe Film Production (www.mainframeproduction.com) and Forum Film Ljubljana (www.pokrajina-st2.org)

    Second Prize: Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood by Daniele Vicari (Italy, Romania, France)

    Coproduced in Romania by Mandragora Movies (www.mandragora.ro)

    Romanian National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro)

    Third Prize: Zingu by Cao Hamburger

    Panorama: Audience Award: Documentary Film

    First Prize: Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present by Matthew Akers

    Second Prize: Call Me Kuchu by Malika Zouhali-Worral and Katherine Fairfax Wright

    Third Prize: La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi by Namir Abdel Messeeh

    Independent Juries

    Ecumenical Jury

    Main Competition : Caesar Must Die by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani

    Special Mention: War Witch by Kim Nguyen

    Panorama: The Wall by Julian Roman Polsler

    Special Mention: Parada (The Parade) by Srdjan Dragojevic (Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia)

    FIPRESCI Jury

    Competition: Tabu by Miguel Gomes

    Panorama: Atomic Age by Helena Klotz

    Forum: Hemel by Sacha Polak

    C.I.C.A.E Prizes

    Panorama: Death for Sale by Faouzi Bensaidi

    Forum: Our Homeland by Yang Yonghi

    Europa Cinemas Label

    My Brother the Devil by Sally El Hosaini

    Peace Film Prize

    Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf

    Amnesty International Prize

    Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf