I’ve fallen a bit behind in my Berlinale coverage — there are still several films I want to write about in this space — but one film I won’t be reviewing is the festival’s Golden Bear winner, “Black Coal, Thin Ice.” Yes, for the second year running, I managed to miss the jury’s favorite. (Last year, it was “Child’s Pose,” and that worked out pretty well for me.) Anyway, I was braced for that possibility, since I spent less time than usual in the Competition, which was widely agreed to be a pretty lackluster selection this year.
“Black Coal, Thin Ice,” a noirish Chinese thriller from director Diao Yinan, was one of the few film that seemed to raise most critics’ pulses — it also won Best Actor for Liao Fan as a detective investigating a trail of murders in a factory town that appears to lead to a single widow. Asian cinema was well served by James Schamus’ jury, after being all but absent from last year’s Competition: Best Actress went to Haru Kuroki for Yoji Yamada’s latest, “The Little House,” while Lou Ye’s striking, rather abrasive melodrama “Blind Massage,” took the Artistic Contribution Award for its cinematography.
Bigger-name directors, however, took the runner-up prizes. Wes Anderson’s “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” which opened the festival to almost universally glowing notices, was a popular winner of the Grand Jury Prize — it’s the director’s first ever jury win at one of the major European festivals. Richard Linklater, meanwhile, took Best Director for hiis unique coming-of-age drama “Boyhood,” which I raved about at its Sundance premiere. That’s the very same award he won at Berlin 19 years ago for “Before Sunrise.”
The Alfred Bauer Prize for “opening new perspectives” went to 91-year-old veteran Alain Resnais for his latest offbeat ensemble comedy “Life of Riley” — read as much irony into that as you will, though Resnais is plainly an innovator for life. The Frenchman also took the FIPRESCI Award for the Competition section. (Nothing, meanwhile, for my favorite (barring “Boyhood”) of the Competition films I did see, German-Brazilian director Karim Ainouz’s dreamy, image-powered gay drama “Praia do Futuro.”)
Full list of awards from multiple (and I mean multiple) juries on the next page.
PRIZES OF THE INTERNATIONAL JURY
Golden Bear: “Black Coal, Thin Ice,” Diao Yinan
Grand Jury Prize: “The Grand Budapest Hotel,” Wes Anderson
Alfred Bauer Prize (for opening new perspectives): “Life of Riley,” Alain Resnais
Best Director: Richard Linklater, “Boyhood”
Best Actress: Haru Kuroki, “The Little House”
Best Actor: Liao Fan, “Black Coal, Thin Ice”
Best Screenplay: Dietrich and Anna Brüggemann, “Stations of the Cross”
Outstanding Artistic Contribution: Zeng Jian (cinematographer), “Blind Massage”
BEST FIRST FEATURE AWARD
“Güeros,” Alonso Ruizpalacios
PRIZES OF THE GENERATION JURIES
Children”s Jury Generation Kplus
Crystal Bear: “The Fort,” Avinash Arun
Special Mention: “Joy of Man’s Desiring,” Masakazu Sugita
Best Short Film: “Sprout,” Ga-eun Yoon
Special Mention: “On Stopping the Rain,” Aditya Ahmad
International Jury Generation Kplus
Grand Prix: “Natural Sciences,” Matías Lucchesi
Special Mention: “The Fort,” Avinash Arun
Best Short Film: “My Own Personal Moose,” Leonid Shmelkov
Special Mention: “Away,” Roland Ferge
Youth Jury Generation
Crystal Bear: “52 Tuesdays,” Sophie Hyde
Special Mention: “Arctic,” Gabri Velázquez
Best Short Film: “Mike,” Petros Silvestros
Special Mention: “Emo (The Musical),” Neil Triffett
International Jury
Grand Prix: “Violet,” Bas Devos
Special Mention: “Einstein and Einstein,” Cao Baoping
Best Short Film: “Winter Morning,” Sakaris Stórá
Special Mention: “Son,” Kristoffer Kiørb
PRIZES OF THE ECUMENICAL JURY
Competition: “Stations of the Cross,” Dietrich Brüggemann
Special Mention: “’71,” Yann Demange
Panorama: “Calvary,” John Michael McDonagh
Special Mention: “Triptych,” Robert Lepage, Pedro Pires
Forum: “At Home,” Athanasios Karanikolas
PRIZES OF THE FIPRESCI JURY
Competition: “Life of Riley,” Alain Resnais
Panorama: “The Way He Looks,” Daniel Ribeiro
Forum: “Forma,” Ayumi Sakamoto
PRIZE OF THE GUILD OF GERMAN ART HOUSE CINEMAS
“Boyhood,” Richard Linklater
CICAE ART CINEMA AWARD
Panorama: “The Lamb,” Kutlu? Ataman
Forum: “She’s Lost Control,” Anja Marquardt
LABEL EUROPA CINEMAS
“Blind,” Eskil Vogt
TEDDY AWARDS
Best Feature Film: “The Way He Looks,” Daniel Ribeiro
Best Documentary/Essay Film: “The Circle,” Stefan Haupt
Best Short Film: “Mondial 2010” Roy Dib
Teddy Jury Award: “Pierrot Lunaire,” Bruce LaBruce
MADE IN GERMANY – PERSPEKTIVE FELLOWSHIP
“Intershop,” Sandra Kaudelka and “274,” Sebastian Mez
FGYO – AWARD DIALOGUE EN PERSPECTIVE
“Anywhere Else,” Ester Amrami
Special Mention: “Fog,” Nicole Vögele
CALIGARI FILM PRIZE
“The Great Museum,” Johannes Holzhausen
NETPAC PRIZE
“A Dream of Iron,” Kelvin Kyung Kun Park and “Non-Fiction Diary,” Jung Yoon-suk
PEACE FILM PRIZE
“We Come as Friends,” We Come as Friends
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL FILM PRIZE
“The Square,” Jehane Noujaim
CINEMA FAIRBINDET PRIZE
“Concerning Violence,” Göran Hugo Olsson
HEINER CAROW PRIZE
“My Mother, a War and Me,” Tamara Trampe, Johann Feindt
THINK:FILM AWARD
“Provenance,” Amie Siegel
READERS” JURIES AND AUDIENCE AWARDS
Panorama Audience Award (Fiction): “Difret” Zeresenay Berhane Mehari
Panorama Audience Award (Documentary): “The Circle,” Stefan Haupt
Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award: “Boyhood,” Richard Linklater
Tagesspiegel Readers’ Jury Award: “Velvet Terrorists,” Pavol Pekar?ík, Ivan Ostrochovský, Peter Kerekes
Else-Siegessaule Readers’ Jury Award: “52 Tuesdays,” Sophie Hyde