59th Berlin International Film Festival
Opening film | The International |
---|---|
Closing film | Eden Is West |
Location | Berlin, Germany |
Founded | 1951 |
Awards | Golden Bear: The Milk of Sorrow |
No. of films | 383 films[1] |
Festival date | 5–15 February 2009 |
Website | Website |
The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009.[2] The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition.[3] Costa-Gavras's Eden Is West served as the closing night film at the festival.[4][5] The festival's jury president was the British actress Tilda Swinton.[6]
The Golden Bear was awarded to Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow directed by Claudia Llosa.[7] The retrospective dedicated to the Golden Age of 70mm filmmaking from 1955 to 1970, titled 70mm – Bigger than Life was shown at the festival.[8]
Admission for the festival was reported to be among the highest in years, and it also set a record for ticket sales, with some 270,000 tickets sold by the halfway mark, compared to 240,000 sold for the entire run of the festival the previous year.[9] The final ticket tally was the largest in the festival's 59-year history.[9]
Juries
[edit]The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:[10]
Main Competition
[edit]- Tilda Swinton, British actress - Jury President
- Isabel Coixet, Spanish filmmaker
- Gaston Kaboré, Burkinabé filmmaker
- Henning Mankell, Swedish writer
- Christoph Schlingensief, German playwright and director
- Wayne Wang, Hong Kong director, screenwriter and producer
- Alice Waters, American author
Best First Feature Award Jury
[edit]- Hannah Herzsprung, German actress
- In-Ah Lee, German producer
- Rafi Pitts, Iranian director
International Short Film Jury
[edit]- Khavn De La Cruz, Filipino director, screenwriter and producer
- Arta Dobroshi, Kosovo actress
- Lars Henrik Gass, German director of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen
Official Sections
[edit]Main Competition
[edit]The following films were selected in competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:[1]
English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country |
---|---|---|---|
About Elly | درباره الی | Asghar Farhadi | Iran |
Cheri | Stephen Frears | United Kingdom | |
Everyone Else | Alle Anderen | Maren Ade | Germany |
Forever Enthralled | 梅蘭芳 | Chen Kaige | China |
Giant | Gigante | Adrián Biniez | Uruguay, Germany, Argentina |
Happy Tears | Mitchell Lichtenstein | United States | |
In the Electric Mist | Bertrand Tavernier | ||
Katalin Varga | Peter Strickland | Romania, United Kingdom, Hungary | |
Little Soldier | Annette K. Olesen | Denmark | |
London River | Rachid Bouchareb | France, United Kingdom | |
Mammoth | Mammut | Lukas Moodysson | Sweden, Germany, Denmark |
The Messenger | Oren Moverman | United States | |
The Milk of Sorrow | La Teta Asustada | Claudia Llosa | Peru |
My One and Only | Richard Loncraine | United States | |
Rage | Sally Potter | United Kingdom, United States | |
Ricky | François Ozon | France, Italy | |
Storm | Sturm | Hans-Christian Schmid | Germany, Denmark |
Sweet Rush | Tatarak | Andrzej Wajda | Poland |
Out of Competition
[edit]The following films were selected for the out of competition screening at the festival:[1]
English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country |
---|---|---|---|
Eden Is West (closing film) | Eden à l'ouest | Costa-Gavras | France, Greece |
The Dust of Time | Η Σκόνη του Χρόνου | Theo Angelopoulos | Greece, Germany, Italy, Russia |
Germany 09: 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation | Deutschland 09 – 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation | Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmakar, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhäusler, Dani Levy and Angela Schanelec | Germany |
The International (opening film) | Tom Tykwer | United States | |
Notorious | George Tillman Jr. | ||
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | Rebecca Miller | ||
The Reader | The Reader | Stephen Daldry | United Kingdom, Germany |
Official Awards
[edit]The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:[7][11]
Main Competition
[edit]- Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize:
- Adrián Biniez for Giant
- Maren Ade for Everyone Else
- Silver Bear for Best Director: Asghar Farhadi for About Elly
- Silver Bear for Best Actor: Sotigui Kouyaté for London River
- Silver Bear for Best Actress: Birgit Minichmayr for Everyone Else
- Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger
- Outstanding Artistic Contribution: György Kovács, Gábor ifj. Erdélyi and Tamás Székely for Katalin Varga (sound design)
- Alfred Bauer Prize:
- Andrzej Wajda for Tatarak
- Adrián Biniez for Giant
Independent Awards
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b c "PROGRAMME 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "59TH BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FEBRUARY 5 - 15, 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "59th Berlinale kicks off with The International on Barco's digital cinema projectors". barco.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "BERLINALE 2009 COMES TO A SUCCESSFUL CLOSE: A FANTASTIC ATMOSPHERE AND ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCES". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "'Milk of Sorrow' wins Golden Bear". variety.com. 14 February 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ Berlinale 2009: Academy Award–Winner Tilda Swinton will be Jury President
- ^ a b "PRIZES & HONOURS 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "RETROSPECTIVE". Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
- ^ a b Scott Roxborough (2009-02-11). "Berlinale to break sales record". The Hollywood Reporter.
- ^ "JURIES 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
- ^ "2009 Berlin Awards" (PDF). berlinale.de. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.