Berlin Film Festival Award Winners (Updating Live): ‘If Pigeons Turn to Gold’ Wins Oscar-Qualifying Documentary Award

This year’s 76th annual Berlinale has been marred by chaos and controversy that threaten to overshadow the films themselves. It’s always a challenge for dominantly European arthouse-centric films to break out in the international marketplace; even more so when attention, whether among distributors or press, is drawn closer to politically charged headlines than cinematic quality.

Artistic director Tricia Tuttle released a letter over the first weekend of the festival championing free speech among festival filmmakers and guests. This was after filmmakers like Wim Wenders (the competition jury president) and visiting talent — including Neil Patrick Harris, Rupert Grint, and Ethan Hawke — gave press conference answers that, when asked about their political stances on issues like genocide and immigration, drew unwanted negative attention.

The backlash was swift and virulent enough to compel filmmakers and celebrities like Mike Leigh, Tilda Swinton, Javier Bardem, and Mark Ruffalo to sign an open letter denouncing Berlinale’s silence around Palestine and Gaza. Adjacent to the festival, Oscar-nominated “The Voice of Hind Rajab” filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania rejected, in solidarity, an award out of a Cinema for Peace gala set to take place in Berlin, with the likes of Hillary Clinton and Kevin Spacey scheduled to attend.

The political resonance and cascade of these conversations and remarks will continue well after the Berlinale concludes this weekend. But what of the films themselves? On Saturday, the festival holds its annual awards celebration, giving prizes, including the Golden Bear, to the competition films, while honoring movies in other sections like Perspectives. Tuttle, who hails from the BFI London Film Festival and is now in her second year at the Berlinale, helped shepherd that sidebar to align with Cannes’ Un Certain Regard and Venice’s Horizons, touting incoming filmmakers. But the Berlinale is still trying to catch up to those festivals’ reputations for impact-making world premieres.

Looking at reviews overall, and Screen International’s annual grid polling European critics on their favorite films, at least a few standout titles emerged: Markus Schleinzer’s gender-bending 17th-century wartime drama “Rose” starring a devastating Sandra Hüller; “Queen at Sea” starring Juliette Binoche as an academic whose mother has dementia; Berlinale mainstay Angela Schanelec’s mysterious marriage story “My Wife Cries“; Alain Gomis’ self-reflexive Senegalese family oddysey “Dao”; and Anthony Chen’s Singaporean melodrama “We Are All Strangers.” Sundance Grand Jury Prize winner “Josephine” also played late in the festival, similar to how beloved Sundance entries like “A Different Man” and “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” went next to Berlin and won acting awards there.

This was a strong Berlinale lineup, especially relative to last year’s, where Norwegian filmmaker Dag Johan Haugerud’s “Dreams (Sex Love),” unfortunately underseen by a broader public post-festival, won the Golden Bear. But last year, Rose Byrne’s performance in “If I Had Legs I’d Kick You” won the Silver Bear for Best Actress, helping propel her to an eventual Oscar nomination. Will any such traveling word-of-mouth and awards buzz repeat this year?

Unlike last year’s Warner Bros. launch of Bong Joon Ho’s “Mickey 17,” there were no American studio movies presented at Berlin this year, unless you count A24’s Sundance holdover “The Moment.” The potentially starriest world premiere, Kornél Mundruczó’s “At the Sea,” occurred without its lead, Amy Adams, in attendance to walk the shivery Palast red carpet. Adams, who gave well wishes to the debut from afar, plays a dancer emerging from rehab and on the redemption trail in the film. It landed like a stone down an empty well with harsh reviews.

All winners of the 76th Berlinale are listed below.

Main Competition

Golden Bear:

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize:

Silver Bear Jury Prize:

Silver Bear for Best Director:

Silver Bear for Best Lead Performance:

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance:

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay:

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution:

Perspectives

Best First Feature:

Documentary Prizes

Documentary Award (with a prize of 40,000 euros): “If Pigeons Turn to Gold,”  Pepa Lubojacki 

Documentary Award (Special Mention): “Tutu,” Sam Pollard

Documentary Award (Special Mention): “Sometimes I Imagine Them All at a Party,” Daniela Magnani Hüller

Short Film Prizes

Golden Bear for Short Film: “Someday, a Child,” Marie-Rose Osta

Silver Bear Jury Prize: “A Woman’s Place Is Everywhere,” Fanny Texier

CUPRA Filmmaker Award: “Kleptomania,” Jingkai Qu

PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARDS

Audience Award (Fiction): “Prosecution,” Faraz Sharia

First Runner-up: “Four Minus Three,” Adrian Goiginger

Second Runner-up: “Mouse,” Kelly O’Sullivan and Alex Thompson

Audience Award (Documentary): “Traces,” Alisa Kovalenko and Marysia Nikitiuk

First Runner-up: “The Other Side of the Sun,” Tawfik Sabouni

Second Runner-up: “Bucks Harbor,” Pete Muller

GENERATION COMPETITION

International Jury

Grand Prix for the Best Film in Generation Kplus: “Gugu’s World,” Allan Deberton

Special Mention: “Atlas of the Universe,” Paul Negoescu

Special Prize for the Best Short Film in Generation Kplus: “Spi,” Navroz Shaban

Special Mention: “Under the Wave off Little Dragon,” Luo Jian

Grand Prix for the Best Film in Generation 14plus: “Sad Girlz,” Fernanda Tovar

Special Mention: “Matapanki,” Diego Mapache Fuentes

Special Prize for the Best Short Film in Generation 14plus: “The Thread,” Fenn O’Meally

Special Mention: “Memories of a Window,” Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar

Youth Jury

Crystal Bear for the Best Film in Generation Kplus: “Gugu’s World,” Allan Deberton

Special Mention: “Not a Hero,” Rima Das

Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film in Generation Kplus: “Whale 52 – Suite for Man, Boy, and Whale,” Daniel Neiden

Special Mention: “Under the Wave off Little Dragon,” Luo Jian

Crystal Bear for the Best Film in Generation 14plus: “Sad Girlz,” Fernanda Tovar

Special Mention: “A Family,” Mees Peijnenburg

Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film in Generation 14plus: ”Memories of a Window,” Mehraneh Salimian and Amin Pakparvar

Special Mention: ”Nobody Knows the World,” Roddy Dextre

TEDDY AWARDS

Best Feature Film: “Ivan & Hadoum,” Ian de la Rosa

Best Documentary: “Barbara Forever,” Brydie O’Connor

Best Short Film: “Taxi Moto,” Gaël Kamilindi

Jury Award: “Trial of Hein,” Kai Stänicke

Special Award: Céline Sciamma

FIPRESCI AWARDS

Competition: “Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars,” Mahamat-Saleh Haroun 

Perspectives: “Animol,” Ashley Walters

Panorama: “Narciso,” Marcelo Martinessi

Forum: “AnyMart,” Yusuke Iwasaki 

ECUMENICAL JURY AWARDS

Competition: “Flies,” Fernando Eimbcke

Panorama: “Bucks Harbor,” Pete Muller

Forum: “River Dreams,“ Kristina Mikhailova

LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS AWARD
“Four Minus Three,” Adrian Goiginger

PRIZE OF THE GUILD OF GERMAN ARTHOUSE CINEMAS
“Yellow Letters,” İlker Çatak

Special Mention: “The Loneliest Man in Town,” Tizza Covi and Rainer Frimmel

READERS’ JURIES

Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Award: “Flies,” Fernando Eimbcke

Tagesspiegel Readers’ Award: “I Built a Rocket Imagining Your Arrival,” Janaína Marques

CALIGARI FILM PRIZE
“If Pigeons Turned to Gold,” Pepa Lubojacki

PEACE FILM PRIZE
“Tutu,” Sam Pollard

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM AWARDd

“What Will I Become?,” Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos

HEINER CAROW PRIZE

“Prosecution,” Faraz Shariat

PRIZE AG KINO – GILDE – CINEMA VISION 14PLUS

“What Will I Become?,” Lexie Bean and Logan Rozos

Special Mention: ”Sunny Dancer,” George Jaques

C.I.C.A.E. Art Cinema Award

“Prosecution,” Faraz Shariat 

“On Our Own,” Tudor Cristian Jurgiu