Berlin Film Festival 2021: Winners Of The Competition and Encounters Announced (Updated)
Berlin Film Festival 2021: Winners Of The Competition and Encounters Announced (Updated) The online edition of the two-part Berlin International Film Festival has now concluded, and the jury has announced their winners. Leading the pack taking home the Golden Bear was Romanian director Radu Jude’s new film “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn”, while Ryūsuke Hamaguchi’s “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” took home the Silver Bear for Grand Jury Prize.
Check out the winners below as selected by the jury comprised of Mohammad Rasoulof, Nadav Lapid, Adina Pintilie, Ildikó Enyedi, Gianfranco Rosi, and Jasmila Žbanić.
Berlinale 2021: The Award Winners of the Competition
Golden Bear for Film: “Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn” by Radu Jude
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: “Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy” by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Silver Bear Jury Prize: “Mr Bachmann and His Class” by Maria Speth
Silver Bear for Director: Dénes Nagy for “Natural Light”
Silver Bear for Leading Performance: Maren Eggert in “I’m Your Man” by Maria Schrader
Silver Bear for Supporting Performance: Lilla Kizlinger in “Forest – I See You Everywhere” by Bence Fliegauf
Silver Bear for Screenplay: Hong Sangsoo for “Introduction” by Hong Sangsoo
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Yibrán Asuad for the editing of “A Cop Movie” by Alonso Ruizpalacios
Berlinale 2021: Awards of the Encounters Section
Best Film: “We” by Alice Diop
Special Jury Award: “Taste” by Lê Bảo
Best Director (ex-aequo): “The Girl and the Spider” by Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
Best Director (ex-aequo): “Social Hygiene” by Denis Côté
Special Mention: “Rock Bottom Riser” by Fern Silva
The 71st Berlinale unveils the Competition Lineup, Encounters, Panorama & Perspektive Deutsches Kino Selections Full List This week of Berlin International Film Festival announcements comes to a close with the main course – the Competition and Special Screenings programs. Scroll down for the full lists. The 15-strong Competition – all world premieres – includes titles from filmmakers including Celine Sciamma, Daniel Bruhl and Xavier Beauvois.
Earlier last week on Feb. 8th, the Berlin Film Festival had announced the first group of films for its 71st edition, unveiling the official lineups for its Generation and Retrospective sections on Monday.
Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, Berlin 2021 will be split into two stages. From March 1 through March 5, the festival will hold an online-only event mainly for the international industry. An in-person festival in the German capital, with red-carpet screenings and gala events, is planned for June 9-June 20.
Berlinale 2021 Competition:
Albatros (Drift Away) France, dir. Xavier Beauvois
Babardeală cu buclucsau porno balamuc (Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn) Romania / Luxemburg / Croatia / Czech Republic, dir. Radu Jade
Fabian oder Der Gang vor die Hunde (Fabian – Going to the Dogs)Germany, dir. Dominik Graf
Ghasideyeh gave sefid (Ballad of a White Cow) Iran / France, dir. Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam
Guzen to sozo (Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy) Japan, dir. Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and His Class) Germany, dir. Maria Speth
Ich bin dein Mensch (I’m Your Man) Germany, dir. Maria Schrader
Inteurodeoksyeon (Introduction) Republic of Korea, dir. Hong Sangsoo
Memory Box France / Lebanon / Canada / Qatar, dir. Joana Hadjithomas, Khalil Joreige
Nebenan (Next Door) Germany, dir. Daniel Brühl
Petite Maman, France, dir. Céline Sciamma
Ras vkhedavt, rodesac cas vukurebt? (What Do We See When We Look at the Sky?) Germany / Georgia, dir. Alexandre Koberidze
Rengeteg – mindenhol látlak (Forest – I See You Everywhere) Hungary, dir. Bence Fliegauf
Természetes fény (Natural Light) Hungary / Latvia / France / Germany, dir. Dénes Nagy
Una Película de Policías (A Cop Movie) Mexico, dir.Alonso Ruizpalacios
Special Screenings:
Best Sellers (Canada / United Kingdom), dir. Lina Roessler
Courage (Germany), dir. Aliaksei Paluyan
French Exit (Canada / Ireland), dir. Azazel Jacobs
Je suis Karl (Germany / Czech Republic), dir. Christian Schwochow
Language Lessons (USA), dir. Natalie Morales
Limbo (Hong Kong / People’s Republic of China), dir. Cheang Soi
The Mauritanian (United Kingdom), dir. Kevin Macdonald
Per Lucio (Italy), dir. Pietro Marcello
Tides (Germany / Switzerland), dir. Tim Fehlbaum
Tina (USA), dir. Dan Lindsay, T. J. Martin
Wer wir waren (Who We Were) Germany, dir. Marc Bauder
This year’s Berlinale announcements contain the line-ups for Encounters, Panorama and Perspektive Deutsches Kino. Check back in tomorrow for the Competition program.
Encounters was first introduced at last year’s festival to support new voices in cinema. A three-member jury will award Best Film, Best Director and a Special Jury Award during the industry event in March, with the prizes handed out physically at the summer event.
The selection consists of 12 titles from 16 countries, including seven debuts. Scroll down for the full list.
Over in Panorama, there are 19 titles including 14 world premieres. Several titles arrive from Sundance such as Prano Bailey-Bond’s UK feature Censor and Ronny Trocker’s Human Factors.
ENCOUNTERS
As I Want (Samaher Alqadi)
Azor (Andreas Fontana)
The Beta Test (Jim Cummings, PJ McCabe)
Bloodsuckers (Julian Radlmaier)
Social Hygiene (Denis Côté)
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The Girl and the Spider (Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher)
District Terminal (Bardia Yadegari, Ehsan Mirhosseini)
Moon, 66 Questions (Jacqueline Lentzou)
We (Alice Diop)
Rock Bottom Riser (Fern Silva)
The Scary of Sixty-First (Dasha Nekrasova)
Taste (Lê Bảo)
FORUM
From Where They Stood (Christophe Cognet)
Anamnesis (Chris Wright, Stefan Kolbe)
Tzarevna Scaling (Uldus Bakhtiozina)
Ski (Manque La Banca)
The First 54 Years: An Abbreviated Manual for Military Occupation (Avi Mograbi)
Night Nursery (Moumouni Sanou)
The Inheritance (Ephraim Asili)
Come Here (Anocha Suwichakornpong)
Just A Movement (Vincent Meessen)
Ancient Soul (Alvaro Gurrea)
Jack’s Ride (Susana Nobre)
What Will Summer Bring (Ignacio Ceroi)
A River Runs, Turns, Erases, Replaces (Shengze Zhu)
FORUM EXPANDED
Black Bach Artsakh (Ayreen Anastas, Rene Gabri)
Ploy (Prapat Jiwarangsan)
Seven Years Around the Nile Delta (Sharief Zohairy)
Songs of the Shirt (Kerstin Schroedinger)
Lost on Arrival (PolakVanBekkum)
Fury is a Feeling Too (Cynthia Beatt)
Night for Day (Emily Wardill)
13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird (Ana Vaz)
Autotrofia (Anton Vidokle)
The Coast (Sohrab Hura)
May June July (Kevin Jerome Everson)
Bicentenario (Pablo Alvarez Mesa)
“The Red Filter is Withdrawn.“ (Minjung Kim)
Upheaval (Welket Bungué)
After Life Followed by Red Impasto Jar (Jonna Kina)
Kapita (Petna Katondolo)
Fatherland (Moritz Siebert)
Ahorita Frames (Angelika Levi)
PANORAMA
Censor (Prano Bailey-Bond)
Death of a Virgin, and the Sin of Not Living (George Peter Barbari)
Dirty Feathers (Carlos Alfonso Corral)
Genderation (Monika Treut)
Bliss (Henrika Kull)
Celts (Milica Tomović)
Human Factors (Ronny Trocker)
Miguel’s War (Eliane Raheb)
All Eyes Off Me (Hadas Ben Aroya)
The World After Us (Louda Ben Salah-Cazanas)
Night Raiders (Danis Goulet)
North By Current (Angelo Madsen Minax)
Brother’s Keeper (Ferit Karahan)
Souad (Ayten Amin)
Ted K (Tony Stone)
Theo and the Metamorphosis (Damien Odoul)
The Last Forest (Luiz Bolognesi)
Copilot (Anne Zohra Berrached)
A Balance (Yujiro Harumoto)
PERSPEKTIVE DEUTSCHES KINO
Instructions for Survival (Yana Ugrekhelidze)
Jesus Egon Christ (David Vajda, Saša Vajda)
Keep Moving (Salar Ghazi)
The Seed (Mia Maariel Meyer)
When a Farm Goes Aflame (Jide Tom Akinleminu)
Wood and Water (Jonas Bak)
The Berlin Generation section is unique from many other film festivals in that it specializes in featuring films that cater to a younger demographic (i.e. children and so-called “youth audiences”). This year the Generation section will focus on eight global premieres along with a total of six debut films. Among those first-timers are director Han Shuai’s “Summer Blur”, Danish documentary “From the Wild Sea” and “Short Vacation”, a Korean drama from directing duo Kwon Min-pyo and Seo Hansol.
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Other notables at the Berlin Film Festival include Dash Shaw’s animation feature “Cryptozoo” which made a huge splash at the Sundance Film Festival along with Norway’s entry “Ninjababy”, Ukraine dramatic piece “Stop-Zemlia” and Canadian/Bosnian flick “The White Fortress”.
Generations Section head Maryanne Redpath said that “The fifteen films in this year’s selection are an open invitation to go beyond the obvious, the dominant, and the loud and to take a closer look at what’s beneath the surface. The films offer a break to life as we know it right now.”

GENERATION 14PLUS Titles
Cryptozoo (USA), dir. Dash Shaw
Fighter (Korea), dir. Jero Yun
From the Wild Sea (Denmark), dir. Robin Petré
The Fam (Switzerland), dir. Fred Baillif
Ninjababy (Norway), dir. Yngvild Sve Flikke
Stop-Zemlia (Ukraine), dir. Kateryna Gornostai
The White Fortress (Canada / Bosnia and Herzegovina), dir. Igor Drljaca
GENERATION KPLUS Titles
Beans (Canada), dir. Tracey Deer
Any Day Now (Finland), dir. Hamy Ramezan
Summer Blur (China), dir. Han Shuai
Short Vacation (Korea), dirs. Kwon Min-pyo, Seo Hansol
Last Days at Sea (Philippines / Taiwan), dir. Venice Atienza
Mission Ulja Funk (Germany / Luxemburg / Poland), dir. Barbara Kronenberg
Nelly Rapp – Monster Agent (Sweden), dir. Amanda Adolfsson
A School in Cerro Hueso (Argentina), dir. Betania Cappato
The Retrospective section of the Berlin Film Festival is the real treat for lovers of the history of cinema. For this year’s Retrospective, Berlin is focusing on films made during the strict morality rules of the Motion Picture Production Code, dubbed the Hays Code, which was officially adopted in 1930 and increasingly enforced after 1934. The festival will screen 27 comedies featuring American actresses Mae West, Rosalind Russell, and Carole Lombard
Berlinale Retrospective (in chronological order)
Night After Night (1932), dir. Archie Mayo
No Man of Her Own (1932), dir. Wesley Ruggles
I’m No Angel (1933), dir. Wesley Ruggles
She Done Him Wrong (1933), dir. Lowell Sherman
Belle of the Nineties (1934), dir. Leo McCarey
Lady By Choice (1934), dir. David Burton
Twentieth Century (1934), dir. Howard Hawks
Goin’ to Town (1935), dir. Alexander Hall
Hands Across the Table (1935), dir. Mitchell Leisen
Go West Young Man (1936), dir. Henry Hathaway
Klondike Annie (1936), dir. Raoul Walsh
My Man Godfrey (1936), dir. Gregory La Cava
Nothing Sacred (1937), dir. William A. Wellmann
True Confession (1937), dir. Wesley Ruggles
Every Day’s a Holiday (1938), dir. A. Edward Sutherland
Four’s a Crowd (1938), dir. Michael Curtiz
The Women (1939), dir. George Cukor
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Hired Wife (1940), dir. William A. Seiter
His Girl Friday (1940), dir. Howard Hawks
My Little Chickadee (1940), dir. Edward F. Cline
Design for Scandal (1941), dir. Norman Taurog
Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), dir. Alfred Hitchcock
This Thing Called Love (1941), dir. Alexander Hall
My Sister Eileen (1942), dir. Alexander Hall
Take a Letter, Darling (1942), dir. Mitchell Leisen
To Be or Not to Be (1942), dir. Ernst Lubitsch
What a Woman! (1943), dir. Irving Cummings