“The Golden Bear goes to a film which has that rare and essential quality of a lasting art work. It captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time.” The 71st Berlin Film Festival (also known as just Berlinale) has wrapped up, and the small set of prizes were revealed this weekend, including the winner of the coveted Golden Bear for Best Film. That top prize was given to a Romanian dark comedy film called (in English) Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, directed by Radu Jude. The festival, usually held in February, transitioned to a virtual press + industry only event this past week, showing premieres online and in the cinema for the jury only. Jude’s film is a clever, wacky, made-during-the-pandemic-so-everyone-wears-masks critical commentary about sex and society. It’s a good win for originality, though not my fave film of the fest. Full list of 2021 prizes below.
Here are the top awards at the 71st Berlin Film Festival. For the full list including shorts visit Berlinale.de.
Golden Bear for Best Film
Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn (Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc), dir. by Radu Jude
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy (Guzen to sozo), directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Silver Bear Jury Prize
Mr Bachmann and His Class (Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse), directed by Maria Speth
Silver Bear for Best Director
Dénes Nagy for directing Natural Light (Természetes fény)
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
Maren Eggert in I’m Your Man (Ich bin dein Mensch), directed by Maria Schrader
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
Lilla Kizlinger in Forest–I See You Everywhere (Rengeteg–mindenhol látlak), dir. by Bence Fliegauf
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
Hong Sangsoo for Introduction (Inteurodeoksyeon)
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Yibrán Asuad for editing in A Cop Movie (Una película de policías), directed by Alonso Ruizpalacios
That puts a final cap on the 71st Berlin Film Festival, wrapping up one week of impressive world premieres, and we posted a few reviews here on FirstShowing of some of our favorites. Due to the festival taking place virtually this year, the 2021 awards are limited and there are no Audience Awards this time (a public event is planned for the summer). Berlinale is another prominent world premiere film festival, showcasing great films from all over the world. The 2021 festival’s jury included: Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran), Nadav Lapid (Israel), Adina Pintilie (Romania), Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary), Gianfranco Rosi (Italy), and Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia & Herzegovina). Congratulations to all of the winners! This year’s awards are good picks all around – though they seem to be based on the lonely emotions we have all felt during the pandemic. The winners are well-made, high quality films about societal issues. Watch for all these films showing at more festivals soon.
