It's a wrap at the Berlinale film festival with the coveted Golden Bear award - unusually - going to a love story.
ADVERTISEMENTIt’s a wrap at the Berlinale and Saturday night (February 18) was awards night at Berlin’s 67th International Film Festival.
Hungarian love story ‘On Body and Soul’ won the coveted Golden Bear for Best Film.
Director Ildiko Enyedi gave euronews the lowdown on her work.
“It’s a very passionate film, but if you do not enter our little labyrinth at the beginning you won’t see it. You will just see cold, frozen, distant people in cold, frozen surroundings – everything the big passion is hidden behind,” she said.
The win would have come as a shock to some Berlinale fans, as Euronews reporter, Wolfgang Spindler, elaborated.
“The surprise this year is that the jury under the presidency of Paul Verhoeven has chosen to award the Golden Bear to a romantic film. Generally, the Berlinale gives the top prize to films with political and socio-political content.”
Best Director
Finland’s Aki Kaurismäki took home the Silver Bear for Best Director for his film, ‘The Other Side of Hope’.
‘Diversity beats monotony’
The ten-day extravaganza showcased 18 films in competition and some 403 in sidebar screens.
Festival director Dieter Kosslick said the films chosen for this year’s Berlinale were designed to demonstrate the strength of diversity over monotony. They are, he said, films that tackle issues such as the persecution of homosexuals and discrimination against racial minorities.
“Thanks to all the filmmakers who tried to save the world with poetry over the last ten days,” he said. “You don’t need me to tell you that all is not right with the world now.”