A jury is considered independent when its members are not selected by the Berlinale. A number of independent juries award prizes at the Berlinale. The high level of quality and diversity of the films are an invitation for critical examination and discerning judgment that opens up new directions. Accordingly the independent juries award their prizes along different criteria, in accordance to the special intention linked to each award.
Berlinale:
Prizes of the Independent Juries
Since 1992, the international film organisations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches - INTERFILM and SIGNIS - have been represented by the Ecumenical Jury. It consists of six members and awards its main prize to a film entered in the Competition. It also awards two other prizes, both worth 2,500 Euros, one to a film from the Panorama and one to a film in the Forum.
The prizes go to directors who have succeeded in portraying actions or human experiences that are in keeping with the Gospels, or in sensitising viewers to spiritual, human or social values.
Prize Winner Competition 2012
© Umberto Montiroli
Cesare deve morire (Caesar Must Die)
by Paolo & Vittorio Taviani
In the world of prison life the power of freedom through art superbly plays out with cast members of máximum security reenacting Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Their gripping discoveries of character similiarites draws compassion for the human condition.
Special Mention:
Rebelle (War Witch) by Kim Nguyen
The horror of a young girl´s life when taken from her village by rebels to be trained as a child soldier is depicted through scenes of Congo warfare, softened by the sweet innocence of a youthful love. Komona, the girl and war witch, escapes this existence to provide a message of redeeming hope.
Prize Winner Panorama 2012
© Studiocanal GmbH
Members of the Jury 2012:
Angelika Obert (Jury President)
Alyda Faber
Mikael Larsson
Cynthia Chambers
Rolf-Ruediger Hamacher
Edgar Rubio
The juries of the "Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique" (FIPRESCI), the international film critics association, view films from the Competition programme and the Panorama and Forum sections. They award a prize for the best film in each of these sections.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Scott Foundas
Essam Zakarea
Zsolt Gyenge
Nils Olav Saeveras
Youngmee Hwang
Claudia Lenssen
Beat Glur
Meenakshi Shedde
Bettina Schuler
The jury of the "Gilde deutscher Filmkunsttheater“ (Guild of German Art House Cinemas) is composed of three members who run cinemas and are members of the Guild. The jury awards its prize to a film screened in the Competition.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Adrian Kutter
Zoe Rosslenbroich
Petra Rockenfeller
The "Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d’Art et d’Essai" (C.I.C.A.E.), the International Confederation of Art House Cinemas, forms one jury for the Panorama and one for the Forum. Each jury awards one prize in its section.
Prize Winner Panorama 2012
© Entre-Chien-et-Loup Agora-Films Liaison-Cinematographique 2011
Death For Sale
by Faouzi Bensaïdi
The CICAE Panorama jury decided to give the award to the third feature length film of Faouzi Bensaïdi from Morocco:
- for its, at the same time, respectful and original reflection of the genre film noir
- for its tragic and emotional power
- for its force as a document of the impasse of a certain youth at the moment of the breakout of the arab spring
- for his aesthetic ambition and his attitude as cineast.
Prize Winner Forum 2012
Kazoku no kuni (Our Homeland)
by Yang Yonghi
In convincing, highly moving fashion, Kazoku no kuni tells the story of a Korean family welcoming back their sick son and brother Sonho to Tokyo after twenty-five years away. The joyful reunion soon turns sour though once the lies of the past begin to make themselves felt. The film’s many deeply affecting scenes and strong cast serve to successfully explore a particular chapter in contemporary North Korean history. Thanks to the nuanced characters, the viewer comes to understand the devastating effects that politics and ideology can have on the individual. The jury therefore highly recommends this movie to the CICAE cinemas.
Members of the Panorama Jury 2012:
Alain Bouffartigue
Martyna Lach
Holger Ziegler
Members of the Forum Jury 2012:
Daniel Lavaud
Selina Willemse
Davide Zanza
Launched for the first time in 2003 within the Cannes Film Festival, the "Europa Cinemas Label" has been created in order to help European films increase their distribution and raise their profile with audiences and media. The Label is since then awarded by a jury of 5 member exhibitors to a European film selected in the Directors' Fortnight section in Cannes and since 2004 in the Venice Days. Since 2005, Europa Cinemas has been cooperating with the Berlinale to award the Label in the Panorama section.
Prize Winner 2012
© David Raedeker
My Brother The Devil
by Sally El Hosaini
Special Mention:
Dollhouse
Members of the Jury 2012:
Giacomo Caldarelli
Sylvain Chevreton
Jörg Jacob
Markus Wille
The TEDDY AWARD – the most outstanding queer film prize in the world – is a socially engaged, political honour presented to films and people who communicate queer themes on a broad social platform, thereby contributing to tolerance, acceptance, solidarity and equality in society.
During the Berlinale the award is presented in the following categories: Best Feature, Best Documentary/Essay Film and Best Short Film as well as the Special TEDDY AWARD which goes to extraordinary personalities. Every year films from all sections of the Berlin International Film Festival compete for the TEDDY AWARDS.
You will find more information on the homepage of the TEDDY AWARD
All films, that compete for the TEDDY AWARD 2012, can be found here.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Joako Ezpeleta
Joao Federici
Shannon Kelley
Nhlanhla Ndaba
Alessandro Rais
Magali Simard
Bilge Tas
Monika Visniarová
Yang Yang
In 2012, the Perspektive Deutsches Kino section’s eleventh year, the Berlinale is launching the “Made in Germany - Perspektive Fellowship”, funded by Glashütte Original. The 15,000-euro fellowship is conceived to support emerging German directors in developing a film project, material and screenplay, and will be awarded to a talented new filmmaker from Perspektive Deutsches Kino. All of the directors who presented films in the Perspektive programme of the previous year can apply.
Further information on the fellowship
Prize Winner 2012
Annekatrin Hendel
for her treatment of the documentary film Disko (Disco)
Members of the Jury 2012:
Thomas Arslan
Anna Brüggemann
Gian-Piero Ringel
Since 2004, the prize "Dialogue en perspective", has been awarded to a film entry in the section Perspektive Deutsches Kino. The German-French Youth Office is again the sponsor of the “Dialogue en perspective”. The prize is the result of an intercultural dialogue on film between young people from henceforth three different countries. For the second time an annually changing third country beside France and Germany will be invited to participate in the jury announcement.
Prize Winner 2012
© Harald Schmitt
This Ain't California
by Marten Persiel
The "Dialogue en perspective" award goes to This Ain’t California because of its visual strength and the stylistic confidence of its editing. With gripping dynamics, it mixes personal history with the collective memory of the German Democratic Republic. We’ve rarely been so splendidly manipulated.
In 2012 the jury was chaired by director, actor and screenwriter Jan Henrik Stahlberg. In conjunction with seven cineastes from Germany, France and for the first time from Slovakia the winner of the "Dialogue en perspective” Award was announced.
Jury members 2012:
• Deniz Sertkol, 26, European media studies, Berlin
• Franziska Hessberger, 25, freelance at Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Münster
• Philipp Wolf, 24, studies literature, culture and media, Siegen Weidenau
• Sandra Jumel, 22, European and intercultural studies, Sautron (Nantes)
• Gustave Shaïmi, 20, European and film studies, Montélimar
• Marion Siéfert, 24. studies German literature, Paris
• Matus Krajnak, 23, studies film direction, Presov (Bratislava), Slovakia
This jury is the only one at the Berlin International Film Festival which is constituted after a public invitation to tender.
A three-person jury awards the Caligari Film Prize to a film in the Forum. The prize is sponsored by the "German Federal Association of Communal Film Work" and “filmdienst” magazine. The winning film is honoured with 4,000 Euros, half of which is given to the director, the other half is meant to fund distribution.
Prize Winner 2012
Tepenin Ardı (Beyond the Hill)
by Emin Alper
Special Mention:
Bagrut Lochamim (Soldier / Citizen) by Silvina Landsmann
Escuela normal (Normal School) by Celina Murga
Jaurès by Vincent Dieutre
The Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) is an alliance of festival organisers and film critics whose aim is to support Asian film. The jury awards a prize to an Asian film screened in the Forum.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Doris Hegner
Sidharth Srinivasan
Edward Delos Santos Cabagnot
The jury is composed of 9 members and views films from every section. The 5,000-Euro prize is donated by the Peace Film Award Initiative in association with the Heinrich Böll Foundation and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War (IPPNW). The Peace Film Prize Jury can also award Special Mentions.
Prize Winner 2012
Csak a szél (Just The Wind)
von Bence Fliegauf
Based on a true murder series of Roma in Hungary, the film Csak a szél shows a fictional day in the life of a Roma family; twenty-four hours in fear of the violence choosing its next victim. The film director shows the tropic of fear in which the Roma live, constantly on the run, always expecting another humiliation, always in distress, preferably invisible and unprotected rather than being visible and exposed.
The film director manages to undermine the common mythical and resenting image of the Roma, and to show his characters in all their individuality and brokenness. Csak a szél creates images which leave a strong impression through their aesthetic precision and humanistic profoundness: when the son buries the carcass of the dead pig which had belonged to the family that had been murdered the day before, because it is the only thing he can do; how the daughter observes the rape of a fellow classmate without helping her, instead she turns away with a look that remembers, that knows that it could be her instead, and how this same daughter from a neglected family is taken for a swim by her drunken mother and her dozing father – a short moment of happiness which appears to be only a postponement of the horror yet to come.
The film director Bence Fliegauf does not romanticise the Roma and their way of life, he rather shows us the world of those unprotected who live among us and whose everyday life in 21st century Europe is still defined by resentment, taboos and violence.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Christoph Heubner
Mehdi Benhadj-Djilali
Monica Ch. Puginier
Marianne Wündrich-Brosien
Burhan Qurbani
Helgard Gammert-Jakli
Carolin Emcke
Till Passow
Sung-Hyung Cho
The German branch of Amnesty International has awarded the Amnesty International Film Prize for the first time at the Berlinale 2005. This award has already been presented at other international film festivals. The prize is worth 5,000 Euros. The jury will view films entered into the Competition, Panorama, Forum and Generation sections, paying special attention to documentaries. The aim of the prize is to draw the attention of audiences and representatives of the film industry to the theme of human rights and encourage filmmakers to tackle this topic.
Prize Winner 2012
Csak a szél (Just The Wind)
von Bence Fliegauf
The film points skillfully to the alarming situation of Roma in our neighbouring country Hungary. The audience takes part in the everyday live of a Romani family up to the point of their assassination. The bucolic summer day is oppressively overlayed by the prefigured tragic conclusion. The edgy camera work makes the vexing fear of the characters accessible fort he observer. Bence Fliegauf reminds us in a striking manner what it means to live between everyday discrimination and racist terror.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Markus Beeko
Birgit Minichmayr
Ayat Najafi
In 2011, German Federal Minister Dirk Niebel presented the CINEMA fairbindet award for the first time. With this special developmental award, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development honours a film that addresses a global issue and encourages discussion in an extraordinary way - whether climate change, migration, education or human rights violations. The award is presented to a feature or documentary film in the Competition, Forum, Panorama or Generation sections. "What does this have to do with me?", "What can I do?" - all eight nominated films answer such questions in their own creative way.
Prize Winner 2012
Call Me Kuchu
by Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright
Call me Kuchu is a dramatic and powerful film that shows fight for survival of lesbians and gays in a society marked by extreme homophobia driven by religious fanaticism.
The film tells the tale of an existential struggle. It is a story about the protagonists’ zest for life, about friendship and courage, but also about loneliness and fear.
It emphasises the importance of international solidarity.
Call me Kuchu keeps the message of David Kato alive, Uganda’s first openly gay activist, and his fellow campaigners: We have the right to live. We have the right to be respected.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Hala Galal
Thomas Heinze
Ernst Szebedits
Dima Tarhini
Readers' Juries and Audience Awards
All Berlinale visitors can vote for the Panorama Audience Award by filling in a vote sheet. The prize was started in 1999 and is made possible by a joint initiative between the Berlin city magazine tip, the radio channel radioeins and the Panorama section itself.
Prize Winner Fiction Film 2012
Parada
Parada (The Parade)
Serbia, Republic of Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia 2011
Director: Srdjan Dragojevic
2nd place
Diaz - Don't Clean Up This Blood
Italy, Romania, France 2012
Director: Daniele Vicari
3rd place
Xingu
Brazil 2011
Director: Cao Hamburger
Prize Winner Documentary Film 2012
Courtesy of Marina Abramovic
Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present
Marina Abramovic The Artist is Present
USA 2011
Director: Matthew Akers
2nd place
Call Me Kuchu
USA 2012
Directors: Malika Zouhali-Worrall, Katherine Fairfax Wright
3rd place
La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi (The Virgin, The Copts And Me)
France, Qatar, Egypt 2012
Director: Namir Abdel Messeeh
The jury is made up of 12 readers of the daily newspaper "Berliner Morgenpost". It is awarded to a feature film in the Competition section.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Sonja Sawicki
Manfred Hornung
Pola Weiß
Evelyn Wilcek
Josephine Porath
Federica Loddo
Lydia Starkulla
Nadin Hornberger
Ulrich Weigand
Klaus Möller
Olaf Mamczek
Alexandra Lucht
Since the Berlinale 2007, the Berlin-based national daily newspaper "Tagesspiegel" has awarded a Readers' Prize. The jury consists of nine members and the prize is given to the best film in the Forum.
Prize Winner 2012
La demora (The Delay)
by Rodrigo Plá
As it says in the festival programme, “it’s the sort of everyday personal tragedy that would hardly even merit inclusion in a short news column.” Via a sustained atmosphere, clear visual sense and a complete lack of sentimentality, Rodrigo Plá allows us to feel the protagonist’s internal conflict for ourselves.
The jury, which is made up of seven readers of the Berlin gay and lesbian magazine "Siegessäule", takes into account all films with gay or lesbian content, regardless of which section they are in. The prize is awarded to a feature film.
Prize Winner 2012
Parada (The Parade) by Srđjan Dragojević
Of all films of this year’s Berlinale edition Parada stood out through its uniqueness. By means of using humor, one of the strongest and most transgressive agents that cinema has to offer, it conjoins not only homosexuals and homophobes on screen, but unites an entire audience. Its theatrical release in Serbia exemplified that Parada – like no other film – has the power to convey the message that we all are human and need love, no matter how or who we love, to anyone, whether old or young, queer or straight. The jury would like to support the further distribution of the film and its message with its decision.
Furthermore an honorable mention goes to Call Me Kuchu by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright.
Members of the Jury 2012:
Carmen Zedlack
Sandra Lüderitz
Manuel Edler
Mayk Dorian Opiolla
Hans-Wilhelm Sierth
Susanne Vetter
Torsten Werner
Prizes of the Berlinale Talent Campus
The Berlin Today Award is the short film competition of the Berlinale Talent Campus. It offers five young directing Talents the chance to produce a short film in cooperation with a Berlin/Brandenburg based production company. The nominated films will have their world premiere during the opening ceremony of the Berlinale Talent Campus. The winning film, chosen by an international jury, will receive the Berlin Today Award (supported since 2003 by the Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg).
Prize Winner 2012
Rafael Balulu (Israel)
for his film Batman at the Checkpoint
Members of the Jury 2012:
Guy Maddin
Jasmila Žbanić
Judith Kaufmann
The Score Competition offers three young composers or sound designers the opportunity to compose new scores for a pre-selected short film and record them with the German Film Orchestra Babelsberg, with final mixing at the Film and Television Academy (HFF) "Konrad Wolf". The scores will premiere during the Berlinale Talent Campus, and the best score will be chosen by a jury and awarded during the Closing Ceremony. The winner will receive a trip to the finest sound studios in Los Angeles, sponsored by Dolby.
Prize Winner 2012
Christoph Fleischmann (Germany)
Jury members 2012:
Martin Steyer
Ziska Riemann
Martin Todsharow
The Talent Project Market offers about 10 producers and directors taking part in the Talent Campus the opportunity to present their project to potential coproducers and backers at the Berlinale Co-Prouduction Market. Since 2004, the 10,000 euro VFF Highlight Pitch Award has been donated by the VFF copyright agency for film and TV producers during the Talent Project Market. An international jury presents the award to the most promising project in terms of its realisability and potential as a film production.
Award winner 2012:
Sarah Wanjiku Muhoho (South Africa) with The Boda Boda Thieves
The Talent Project Market offers about 10 producers and directors taking part in the Talent Campus the opportunity to present their project to potential coproducers and backers at the Berlinale Co-Prouduction Market. Since 2011, ARTE has presented the International Relations ARTE Prize, which is worth €6,000 and goes to one of the 10 projects selected for the Talent Project Market.
Award winner 2012:
Bianca Balbuena (Philippines) with Above the Clouds
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