The winners were announced at the 72nd Berlin Film Festival, with Carla Simon’s Alcarras winning the coveted Golden Bear award for best film in the festival’s international competition. Scroll down for the full list of winners, which was revealed Wednesday night at the Berlinale Palast.
Alcarras follows the life of a family of peach farmers in a small village in Catalonia, whose world changes when the owner of their large estate dies and his lifelong heir decides to sell the land, suddenly threatening their livelihood.
Simon previously won Berlin’s Best First Feature Award in 2017 for his debut Summer 1993.
Other winners of the international competition included Hong Sang-soo’s The novelist’s film, which won the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize (read Deadline’s review here); Natalia Lopez Gallardo, who won the Silver Bear Jury Prize for Dress of Gems (review here); and Claire Denis, who won the Silver Bear for Best Director for Fire (Where Both sides of the blade) (review here).
Ahead of last year’s festival, Berlin presented gender-neutral acting awards, with this year’s Silver Bear winner for best lead performance going to Meltem Kaptan for Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush (see it again here) and the Silver Bear for Best Supporting Actor to Laura Basuki for Before, now and then (review here).
Laila Stieler won the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay for Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush. Rithy Panh won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for his stop-motion animation Everything will be alright (reviewed here), while Michael Koch A piece of sky (review here) received a special mention from the international jury chaired by M. Night Shyamalan. He was joined on the panel by Karim Aïnouz, Anne Zohra Berrached, Saïd Ben Saïd, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Connie Nielsen.
The 2022 festival took place in a condensed format due to the Covid situation, opening on February 10 and hosting a jam-packed schedule of premieres in just six days before tonight’s awards ceremony. The remaining days of the event, which runs until February 20, will be devoted to catch-up screenings.
It has been a difficult year for the festival, with organizers continuing despite the difficult Covid-related circumstances in Germany, with the Omicron wave appearing to peak during the event. When the festival opened last week there were question marks in the local press as to whether it should take place, but from an outside perspective it appears to have gone as smoothly as could be expected.
“It’s a very special night. More than ever, I am very grateful to everyone who made the festival possible,” Berlinale co-director Carlo Chatrian said at tonight’s ceremony. “The last month and a half has been very stressful, but the team is very committed. For a festival director, each film is like its own child, so I want to thank all the filmmakers for being with us. The festival is a collective work.
Elsewhere, the Berlin Documentary Prize went to Myanmar Newspapers, made by the Myanmar Film Collective, an anonymous group of filmmakers living in the beleaguered Asian nation. Deadline conducted an interview with the Collective, through an intermediary, as their filmmaking activities put their lives at risk during the festival this year.
The prize for best first feature film went to Son by Kurdwin Ayub. The film was produced by Ulrich Seidl. In the Encounters section, Best Picture went to Ruth Beckermann for Mutzenbacher (review here) while Best Director went to Cyril Schaublin for Disorders. by Mitra Farahani See you Friday, Robinson received a special jury prize.
Isabelle Huppert received the festival honorary award last night but was unable to travel to Berlin after testing positive for Covid, instead collecting her award via video link. Generation programs also confirmed their rewards earlier today.
Below is the full list of winners.
International Jury Prize
Best Picture Golden Bear
Alcarras
By Carla Simon
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
The novelist’s film
By Hong Sang-soo
Silver Bear Jury Prize
Dress of Gems
By Natalia Lopez Gallardo
Silver Bear for Best Director
Claire Denis for Fire (Where Both sides of the blade)
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
Meltem Kaptan for Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush
By Andreas Dresen
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
Laura Basuki for Before, now and then
By Kamila Andini
Best Screenplay Silver Bear
Laila Stieler for Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush
By Andreas Dresen
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Everything will be alright
By Rithy Panh
Special mention
A piece of sky
By Michael Koch
Meetings Jury Prize
Best Film Award
Mutzenbacher
By Ruth Beckerman
Best Director Award
Cyril Schaublin for Disorders
Special Jury Prize
See you Friday, Robinson
By Mitra Farahani
GWFF Award for Best First Feature Film
Son
By Kurdwin Ayub
Berlinale Documentary Award
Myanmar Newspapers
By Myanmar Film Collective
International Jury Prize for Short Films
Golden Bear for Best Short Film
Trap
By Anastasia Veber
Jury’s Silver Bear (Short)
Sunday morning
By Bruno Ribiero
Generation 14plus:
grand prize
kind hearts
by Olivia Rochette and Gérard-Jan Claes
Short film Generation 14plus
Goodbye Jerome!
by Adam Sillard, Gabrielle Selnet and Chloé Farr
Generation Kplus
grand prize
An Cailín Ciúin
by Colm Bairead
Short film Generation Kplus
Gavazn
by Hadi Babaeifar
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