The Berlin Film Festival closed on Saturday with an awards ceremony. The International Jury presented the Golden Bear for Best Film to a Latin American filmmaker for the second year in a row.
The Milk of Sorrow (La Teta asustada), the winner of the Golden Bear, is the second feature from Peruvian director Claudia Llosa. It follows a young girl faced with life in Lima after her mother dies.
The Berlin jury issued a statement saying that “this year’s competition presents a broad range of films whose central aim consists in exploring ways to further the interpretation and understanding of important topics of our time. Therefore the jury has decided to award prizes to those efforts which achieve a balance between the political statement and the poetic form.”
Here are the winners in the major categories. The full list of winners is available at www.berlinale.de.
GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST FILM
La Teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow), directed by Claudia Llosa
SILVER BEAR – THE JURY GRAND PRIX
Alle Anderen (Everyone Else), dir. by Maren Ade
Gigante, dir. by Adrián Biniez
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Asghar Farhadi, Darbareye Elly (About Elly)
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTRESS
Birgit Minichmayr, Ale Anderen (Everyone Else)
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST ACTOR
Sotigui Kouyate, London River
SILVER BEAR FOR OUTSTANDING ARTISTIC CONTRIBUTION
Gábor Erdély and Tamás Székely for Sound Design in Katalin Varga
SILVER BEAR FOR BEST SCRIPT
Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon, The Messenger
ALFRED BAUER PRIZE
Gigante, dir. by Adrián Biniez
Tatarak (Sweet Rush), dir. by Andrzej Wajda
BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD
Gigante, dir. by Adrián Biniez
GOLDEN BEAR FOR BEST SHORT FILM
Please Say Something, dir. by David O’Reillly
SILVER BEAR
Jade, dir. by Daniel Elliott
DAAD SHORT FILM PRIZE
The Illusion, dir. by Susana Barriga
SHORT FILM NOMINEE FOR THE EUROPEAN FILM AWARDS 2009
Die Leiden des Herrn Karpf. Der Geburtstag, dir.by Lola Randl
FIPRESCI PRIZE – COMPETITION
La Teta asustada (The Milk of Sorrow)
