The jury of the 73rd edition will unveil the winners, including the Golden Bear, this Saturday evening. Some films have been particularly noticed, but the games still seem very open.
Nineteen films for a single Golden Bear, which will succeed Our Suns by the Spaniard Carla Simon. The jury of the 73rd Berlinale, chaired by the American star Kristen Stewart, deliberates and unveils its prize list on the evening of Saturday February 25. Some films have stood out, but the games are not yet made.
Among the most noted, Past Lives would be the most consensual choice, and the most accessible, in an often very demanding selection. This first film, inspired by the life of Korean-born Canadian director Celine Song, explores the question of identity, uprooting and love, when the main character, an author who left her native Korea in 12 years old and married in the United States, finds her childhood friend. The sober direction and the accuracy of certain scenes have made it a favorite with critics, even if the film may seem lacking in madness and does not escape certain clichés of American romances.
Spanish-speaking cinema
Unless the trophy remains one more year on the side of Spanish-speaking cinema, which once again scored points with two films. The first : 20,000 species of abejas ( 20,000 species of bees) by the Spaniard Estíbaliz Urresola powerfully tackles a very contemporary subject, the question of transidentity in children. This feature film won two independent jury prizes on Saturday: that of the Berlin newspaper Morgenpost and that of the association of German arthouse cinemas. The second, Totem by the Mexican Lila Avilés, charmed the festival-goers: it is a family fresco that navigates between joy and despair while avoiding any pathos, around a little girl and her seriously ill father.
The festival could also choose to reward, for the second time in its history, a Japanese animated film, 21 years after the Golden Bear at the Spirited Away of the pope of gender, Hayao Miyazaki. Makoto Shinkai, another star of Japanese animation cinema, presented susume, a road movie, whose heroine tries to prevent earthquakes. The film, already released in Japan, was a box office there. On the French side, Philippe Garrel seems out of the race as his Big Cart, shot with and for his children, including Louis, seemed self-centered. Documentary filmmaker Nicolas Philibert ( To be and to Have) was able to score points with On the Adamanta sensitive immersion aboard a barge serving as a day hospital for people with psychiatric illnesses in Paris.
Gender-neutral awards
In addition to the Golden Bear, the jury awards seven Silver Bears, including the prize for best performer in a main role, and best performer in a secondary role, regardless of gender. Berlin is the only major festival to no longer present a Best Actor or Best Actress award. Very few well-known stars seem eligible this year: the American Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), transformed into a bodybuilt VTC driver in manodromewith Adrian Brody (The pianist) in a supporting role, or the Luxembourgish and polyglot actress Vicky Krieps for a German film about the poetess Ingeborg Bachmann. Alongside the youngest jury president in the history of the festival, Kristen Stewart, sit a majority of female artists, including Franco-Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, and director Carla Simon.
Beyond the competition, this 73rd edition has allowed the Berlinale to return to normality, after the restrictions linked to Covid. We were able to see Sean Penn, who came to present a documentary on his wanderings in Ukraine at war, the singer Bono and the legendary director Steven Spielberg, who received an honorary Golden Bear. Friday evening, Teddy Bear was awarded (rewarding the best film on an LGBT theme) at All the Colors of the World Are Between Black and Whitea love story by Nigerian Babatunde Apalowo.