73rd Berlin International Film Festival


The 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, took place from 16 to 26 February 2023. It was the first completely in-person Berlinale since the 70th in 2020. The festival added a new competition section for television series.
The festival opened with American filmmaker and novelist Rebecca Miller's drama film She Came to Me. A live video stream with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was part of the opening ceremony, which was accompanied by a speech by jury member Golshifteh Farahani on the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran. On 21 February 2023, American filmmaker Steven Spielberg was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement by Irish singer-songwriter Bono. Spielberg's films were screened in the Homage section for the occasion.
On the Adamant, directed by French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, won the Golden Bear. The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was awarded to Afire by German filmmaker Christian Petzold. The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance was awarded to Sofía Otero for 20,000 Species of Bees; Otero, at age nine, became the youngest winner of the award in the Berlinale history.
Festival closed on 26 February with total sales of tickets touching 320,000, and around 20,000 accredited professionals from 132 countries including 2,800 media representatives attending the festival.
WWW berlinale.de/en/archive/y...

Background

The film registration for the festival began in September 2022 with the closing date for submission fixed on 23 November 2022. On 13 October 2022, with the slogan of "Let's Get Together", signifying in-person interactions in all the programmes of the festival after two years of the programmes held online due to COVID-19. It was also announced that Berlinale Series Award would be inaugurated in 2023.
The festival poster was designed by Claudia Schramke, who had also created the previous year's Berlinale poster. The executive director of the Berlinale,, described the poster as the key visual for the 2023 Berlinale, saying that it directed the attention toward the audience—the indispensable core of the festival. Rissenbeek said, "We're very pleased that with this year's poster, we can honour those whose curiosity, enthusiasm, and applause make the Berlinale a vibrant, inspiring, and joyful event."

Opening and closing ceremonies

The opening ceremony of the festival was held on 16 February with jury members and international and German stars walking the red carpet. The jury president Kristen Stewart, in her opening speech, pointed out about "oppressions against our physical selves". She said that, albeit she was a woman, she represented "the least marginal version of a woman". On that topic, Golshifteh Farahani, Iranian-French actress and one of the jury members, noted that "some women are not as fortunate".
Russia's war on Ukraine and Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran were topical discussions at the ceremony. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared via satellite and introduced by American actor and filmmaker Sean Penn, Zelenskyy remarked, "A logical question comes up: On which side should culture and art be?" and added, "Can art be outside of politics? Should cinema be outside of politics? It's an eternal question but today it is extremely ." Afterward, the opening film of the festival, Rebecca Miller's drama film She Came to Me, was screened.
The closing ceremony or award night was held on 25 February, hosted by the German radio and television presenter Hadnet Tesfai. French documentary film On the Adamant, about a Paris daycare centre for people with mental disorders, by Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear. Stewart called the film "masterfully crafted" and a "cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression". Philibert asked in his acceptance speech if the jury members were "crazy" and yet nevertheless thanked them, saying "that documentary can be considered to be cinema in its own right touches me deeply".
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was won by Afire by Christian Petzold. Sofía Otero, a nine-year-old girl was the winner of Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for the role of eight-year-old Lucía in 20,000 Species of Bees. She became the youngest winner of the gender-neutral award in the Berlinale history. Stewart commented that Otero had defied "a system designed to diminish the intelligence of the performer", particularly that of child performers. After the ceremony, Otero said to the press that she wanted to dedicate her life to acting. The ceremony closed with a screening of the Golden-Bear winning film On the Adamant.

Juries

Main Competition

The following were on the jury for the Berlinale Main Competition section:

Encounters

International Short Film

  • Cătălin Cristuțiu, Romanian editor
  • Sky Hopinka, American visual artist and filmmaker
  • Isabelle Stever, German director and screenwriter

Generation Kplus International

  • Venice Atienza, Filipino documentarist
  • Alise Ģelze, Latvian producer
  • Gudrun Sommer, German festival programmer

Generation 14plus International

  • Kateryna Gornostai, Ukrainian film director, screenwriter and film editor
  • Fion Mutert, German cinematographer and media educator
  • Juanita Onzaga, Colombian filmmaker and artist

GWFF Best First Feature Award

  • Judith Revault d'Allonnes, French festival programmer
  • Ayten Amin, Egyptian director
  • Cyril Schäublin, Swiss film director

Documentary Award

Berlinale Series Award

  • André Holland, American actor
  • Danna Stern, Israeli international executive, founder of Shtisel and Your Honor firm, Yes Studios
  • Mette Heeno, Danish screenwriter, showrunner and executive producer

Perspektive Deutsches Kino

  • Dela Dabulamanzi, German actor
  • Anne Fabini, German film editor
  • Jöns Jönsson, Swedish director

Heiner Carow Prize

  • Freya Arde, German film composer, guitarist and music producer
  • Peter Kahane, German director
  • Mirko Wiermann, German film archivist.

Official sections

Main Competition

The following 19 films were selected for the main competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:

Berlinale Special Events

The following titles received were selected for the sections below:

Encounters

The following 16 films are selected for the Encounters section:

Panorama

The following films are selected for the Panorama section:

''Perspektive Deutsches Kino''

The following films are selected for the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section:

Forum

The following films are selected for the Forum section:

Homage films

This section of the 73rd Berlinale was dedicated to American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer Steven Spielberg, who was awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
YearOriginal TitleDirectorProduction Country
2015Bridge of SpiesSteven SpielbergUnited States, Germany, United Kingdom
1971DuelSteven SpielbergUnited States
1982E.T. the Extra-TerrestrialSteven SpielbergUnited States
2022The FabelmansSteven SpielbergUnited States
1975JawsSteven SpielbergUnited States
2005MunichSteven SpielbergUnited States, Canada, France
1981Raiders of the Lost ArkSteven SpielbergUnited States
1993Schindler's ListSteven SpielbergUnited States

The Retrospective

This section presented the following films:

The Classics

A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch opened the classics section.
YearEnglish titleOriginal titleDirectorProduction country
1967Guess Who's Coming to DinnerStanley KramerUnited States-
1988MapantsulaOliver SchmitzSouth Africa, Australia, United Kingdom-
1991Naked LunchDavid CronenbergCanada, United Kingdom, Japan-
1941Romeo and Juliet in the VillageRomeo und Julia auf dem DorfeValerien Schmidely, Hans TrommerSwitzerland
1981Sweet DreamsSogni d'oroNanni MorettiItaly
1990TwilightSzürkületGyörgy FehérHungary
1923A Woman of ParisCharlie ChaplinUnited States-
1956Night River夜の河Kōzaburō YoshimuraJapan

Official Awards

Main Competition

[Honorary Golden Bear]

Berlinale Camera

Encounters

Best Film: Here by Bas DevosBest Director: Tatiana Huezo for The EchoSpecial Jury Award:

Berlinale Series Award

The Good Mothers by Elisa Amoruso and Julian Jarrold
  • * Jury Special Mention: The Architect by

Short Films Competition

Golden Bear: Les Chenilles by Michelle Keserwany, Noel KeserwanySilver Bear: Dipped in Black by Matthew Thorne, Derik Lynch

Generation

Youth Jury Awards

Crystal Bear for the Best Film: Adolfo by Sofía Auza

Generation 14plus

Grand Prix: Hummingbirds by Silvia Del Carmen Castaños, Estefanía "Beba" Contreras
  • * Special Mention: Mutt by Vuk Lungulov-KlotzSpecial Prize for the Best Short Film: Infantry by Laís Santos Araújo
  • * Special Mention: Incroci by Francesca de Fusco

Children's Jury Generation Kplus

Crystal Bear for the Best Film: Sweet As by Jub Clerc
  • * Special Mention: Zeevonk by Domien HuygheCrystal Bear for the Best Short Film: Closing Dynasty by Lloyd Lee Choi
  • * Special Mention: Deniska umřela by Philippe Kastner

The Perspektive Deutsches Kino Award

Compass-Perspektive-Award: Seven Winters in Tehran by Steffi NiederzollHonorable Mention: The Kidnapping of the Bride by Sophia MocorreaKompagnon Fellowships:

GWFF Best First Feature Award

The Klezmer Project by Leandro Koch, Paloma Schachmann

Documentary Award

The Echo by Tatiana Huezo

Panorama Audience Award

Panorama Audience Award – Feature film

1st place: Sira by Apolline Traoré2nd place: The Burdened by Amr Gamal3rd place: Midwives by Léa Fehner

Panorama Audience Award – Documentary

1st place: Kokomo City by D. Smith2nd place: The Eternal Memory by Maite Alberdi3rd place: The Cemetery of Cinema by Thierno Souleymane Diallo

Independent awards

Teddy Award

Best Feature Film: All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White by Babatunde ApalowoBest Documentary Film: Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B. PreciadoJury Award: Vicky Knight as Franky for Silver Haze by Sacha PolakBest Short Film: Dipped in Black by Matthew Thorne and Derik Lynch

Amnesty International Film Award

The Burdened by Amr Gamal

Prizes of the Ecumenical Jury

Competition: Tótem by Lila AvilésPanorama: Midwives by Léa FehnerForum: Where God Is Not by Mehran Tamadon

Prize of the FIPRESCI">International Federation of Film Critics">FIPRESCI

Competition: The Survival of Kindness by Rolf de HeerEncounters: Here by Bas DevosPanorama: The Quiet Migration by Malene ChoiForum: Between Revolutions by Vlad Petri

Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas

20,000 Species of Bees by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren

AG KINO GILDE – CINEMA VISION 14plus

And the King Said, What a Fantastic Machine by Axel Danielson, Maximilien Van Aertryck

Cicae Art Cinema Prizes

Panorama: The Teachers' Lounge by İlker ÇatakForum: The Face of Jellyfish by Melisa Liebenthal

Berliner Morgenpost Reader's Jury Award

20,000 Species of Bees by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren

Tagesspiegel Reader's Jury Award

Orlando, My Political Biography by Paul B. Preciado

Caligari Film Prize

De Facto by Selma Doborac

Peace Film Prize

Seven Winters in Tehran by Steffi Niederzoll

ARTEKino International Award

Peeled Skin by Leonie Krippendorff