The 24th PANORAMA AUDIENCE AWARD for the best documentary goes to  LOVE DEUTSCHMARKS AND DEATH by Cem Kaya. The prize is awarded by the Berlinale section Panorama together with radioeins and rbb television (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg). Cem Kaya’s dense documentary essay celebrates 60 years of Turkish music in Germany. An alternative post-war history that is at the same time a musical Who’s Who – from Yüksel Özkasap to Derdiyoklar and Muhabbet. The Panorama Audience Award has been bestowed since 1999. As of 2011, both the best feature fiction film and the best documentary have been honoured. During the Berlinale, all cinema-goers are invited to rate the films in the Panorama section on a voting card. In total around 8,000 votes were cast and evaluated.

BERLINALE DOCUMENTARY AWARD Special Mention goes to the German co-production NO U-TURN by Ike Nnaebue produced by Christilla Huillard-Kann, Okechukwu Omeire, Don Edkins, Tiny Mungwe, Teboho Edkins [Nigeria / South Africa / France / Germany]. Congratulation!

...and the winner are the members of an anonymous film collective in Myanmar for MYANMAR DIARIES  produced by Corinne van Egeraat. Even close family members of The Myanmar Film Collective do not know, 'they did it'. Congratulations to the members of this anonymous Myanmar film collective, who want neither to give up nor to be forced into the role of victims. This is exactly why this film was made and awarded. It is a document of resistance using the tools of cinema. 

Berlinale Documentary Award
For many years now, the Berlin International Film Festival has been committed to the diversity of documentary forms. A distinct award for the best documentary film was launched in 2017.
The Berlinale Documentary Award is endowed with 40,000 Euros in prize money sponsored by public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb). The prize money is split between the winning film’s director and producer. Approximately 18 current documentary forms from the sections Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation, Berlinale Special and Perspektive Deutsches Kino are nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Award. [GUIDELINES] A three-member jury will pick the winner: Wang Bing (People’s Republic of China), Rana Eid (Lebanon), Susanne Schüle (Germany). More about the Documentary Award Jury.

All the awards of the Official Juries of the 72th Berlin International Film Festival here.
Please note: The Prizes of the Independent Juries will be announced on February 17, 2022.

 

 

The KOMPASS-PERSPEKTIVE-AWARD is awarded to the best film in the current Perspektive Deutsches Kino programme. The award includes 5,000 Euros in prize money and the director is given a trophy in the form of a compass. Perspektive Deutsches Kino and Berlinale Talents jointly award the annual Kompagnon-Fellowship. Eligible to apply are directors and screenwriters of short or feature films who were part of the last edition of Perspektive Deutsches Kino, as well as permanent residents of Germany who will participate in the Script Station, Doc Station or Short Film Station at the current edition of Berlinale Talents.

A jury, comprised of three film professionals, will select one winner from Berlinale Talents and one from Perspektive Deutsches Kino. In addition to a stipend of 5,000 Euros (2,500 Euros for short films) for the independent development of a screenplay or project, the Kompagnon also provides a mentoring programme to help strengthen the filmmaker’s artistic signature, alongside professional coaching and improved industry networking opportunities. ...and the winner is
Kompass-Perspektive-Award 2022 is LADIES ONLY by Rebana Liz John
The Compass-Perspektive-Award goes to Ladies Only, a raw, honest film that concentrates on the essentials, truly standing out with its decisiveness and clarity of form. A crowd of people push their way through the narrow door of a train compartment, and for 80 minutes a transitional location becomes intimate theatre, in which we get to know various women. Filmmaker Rebana Liz John asks questions about existential issues such as freedom, family and career, and we obtain personal insights into the lives of the protagonists. She has different generations read a poem out loud and comment on it, interrelating their differing points of view. Interview moments alternate with quietly observed situations. The montage creates visible emphasis and contrasts, and takes a firm standpoint. As a result, the public space of the train compartment becomes an intimate space. Numerous situations and times of day are interwoven, and the finely crafted sound design generates continuity and tension. It takes courage to tell such a reduced story, to take a close look and to produce a socially relevant film from everyday life.  (statement of the jury)

 

 

 

 

72 Berlinale 10-20 Feb 2022
 

The 72 BERLINALE has developed a new concept so that it can fly the flag for culture emphatically, even in these times of pandemic. The focus this year, therefore, will be on cinema screenings in the Berlinale venues. The health and safety of the audience at all events and strict compliance with the current hygiene regulations remain the top priority. Following recent decisions by the Federal Government and the Berlin Senate, the previously developed hygiene and security measures have been reviewed once again, so that the 2022 festival can be organised as an in-person 2G-plus event (additional masking and testing requirement).
Find the Press Release January, 12, 2022 here. More information here.

 LineUp german documentaries:

 

  • and the fiction, that started as a documentary production and was part of several documentary film festivals 2022 ans ongoing:
    EUROPE by Philip Scheffner, 105min, P: pong film GmbH, WS: Square Eyes, [FORUM] [comment by the editor, September, 25, 2022]

 

14 german documentaries @ 72 BERLINALE, Feb.10-20, 2022

 

Berlinale Documentary Award

For many years now, the Berlin International Film Festival has been committed to the diversity of documentary forms. A distinct award for the best documentary film was launched in 2017.
The Berlinale Documentary Award is endowed with 40,000 Euros in prize money sponsored by public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb). The prize money is split between the winning film’s director and producer. Approximately 18 current documentary forms from the sections Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation, Berlinale Special and Perspektive Deutsches Kino are nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Award. [GUIDELINES] A three-member jury will pick the winner: Wang Bing (People’s Republic of China), Rana Eid (Lebanon), Susanne Schüle (Germany). More about the Documentary Award Jury.

 

 

Berlinale Special makes room mainly to documentaries that are the best way to explore our world and its legacy. From a recording studio during the pandemic to the little-known industry of synthetic diamonds, from a microcosm to be found in and around an old oak tree in France to a controversial political party in Germany, with the title EINE DEUTSCHE PARTY | A GERMAN PARTY by Simon Brückner, ending with a take on the power and ethics of photography.
Berlinale Special comprises 15 films from twelve countries, among them six documentary forms and nine feature films as well as two short films. Twelve are world premieres. Find the international LineUp of this section here.

 

 

Panorama Dokumente .

Ten documentary works enrich this year’s programme with their stories and heterogeneous points of view. Many of them combine history and the present to open up new perspectives, make biographies visible and bring previously hidden subcultures to life. In Cem Kaya’s documentary essay ASK, MARK VE ÖLÜM | LOVE, DEUTSCHMARKS AND DEATH | LIEBE, D-MARK UND TOD, the director orchestrates material from 60 years of alternative German post-war and Turkish-German cultural history. Berlin singer-songwriter Bettina Wegner is the focal point of the film portrait BETTINA in which Lutz Pehnert deploys meticulously researched and arranged archive material to tell not only the biography of an artist, but also the history of the divided Germany.
The camera as a tool for self-reflection and a way to search for clues is a recurring motif in films such as NO U-TURN from Nigeria, in which we set off with director Ike Nnaebue on a cinematic journey retracing his steps from Lagos to Tangier, the continent-traversing route he first travelled as a teenager in hope of a better life. Along the way, he draws a multinational and multilingual portrait of African migration.

 

 

Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2022: An Echo of the Past 

Seven feature films and documentaries have been invited to Perspektive Deutsches Kino 2022. From this year onwards, the section also wishes to draw attention to other skills that shape the creative process of filmmaking. In addition to the traditional appreciation of directing and production, in the future, there will also be a special talent in every Perspektive film presented from another discipline.
For the first time in 2022, the programme will therefore feature in addition to six female directors and a male director, Perspektive talents from the fields of documentary filmmaking, camera, editing, production and production design...

The two documentaries SORRY GENOSSE | SORRY COMRADE and LADIES ONLY make up the programme. SORRY COMRADE by Vera Brückner (P: NORDPOLARIS; Perspektive Talent Production: Fabian Halbig) introduces us to the incredible love story of the Thuringian medical student Hedi and the West German left-wing activist Karl Heinz. This playfully depicted story of a ludicrous escape opens up an unusual view of the German-German past. In the documentary LADIES ONLY by Rebana Liz John (P: KHM; Perspektive Talent documentary filmmaking: Rebana Liz John), we become acquainted with women in the women's compartments of local trains in Mumbai who give us an insight into their perspectives, hopes and anger and create a colourful picture of the faces, languages and cultures of Indian society shining in a stylish black and white film.

 

 

Generation

Angry and free, courageous and tender, eloquent and introverted. Shining the spotlight on fresh, untamed, resonant voices in the world of young cinema, the selection of this edition’s two competition programmes Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus comprises 24 feature-length films and 28 short films. 12 feature film debuts, more than 50% female directors, a wide range of cinematic forms and perspectives.
The cinematic forms and imageries are as creative, free and unconventional as the protagonists themselves. In addition to numerous fictional works, eight documentary forms enrich this year's feature film competitions. By virtue of animation or staging, the filmmakers experiment with the concept of hybridity and thereby focus on questions of framing and the ethics of their work processes. KALLE KOSMONAUT by Günther Kurth, Tine Kugler, the German documentary production in this section, is a long-term documentary about Kalle, a boy from the prefabricated housing projects along the Allee of the Cosmonauts, paints a different picture of Berlin: 'Poor' is not 'sexy' here, it means: bad opportunities. The directing duo respectfully accompanies Kalle and leaves the charismatic boy to speak, supplementing scenes with animated sequences by Alireza Darvish where background knowledge is meaningful.

 

 

25 International Forum of New Cinema © 1995 Marian Stefanowski
out of the film COME WITH ME TO THE CINEMA – THE GREGORS

 

 

52 Forum and Forum Expanded

The selection process for the 52nd Berlinale Forum made one thing very clear: however much the pandemic may have paralysed life in our societies, filmmakers worldwide have lost none of their inventiveness and artistic desire. The works selected - 27 feature-length works in the main programme, 14 feature-length works and shorts in the Forum Special programme - are a dazzling demonstration of this, among them the German/French documentary co-production – an archival explorations by Alain Gomis’ REWIND & PLAY with THELONIUS MONK.

Many films from the Forum and Forum Expanded programmes are subtitled. After the festival, they can remain in Berlin and potentially be distributed. This means that the works can equally enjoy a life beyond the festival itself, finding their way into the non-commercial cinema landscape and other festivals, biennales and exhibitions across the world. In the long term, they are also added to Arsenal’s Living Archive.

Forum also takes a look at its own history. Alice Agneskirchner’s film portrait KOMM MIT MIR IN DAS CINEMA – DIE GREGORS | COME WITH ME TO THE CINEMA – THE GREGORS is dedicated to Ulrich und Erika Gregor. With film excerpts, archive footage, re-enacted scenes and interviews, the Berlin director examines the biographies and considerable impact of these two legendary film curators without whom Forum would not exist.

An Awareness of History. Nine Film Programmes showing as a Forum Special, are including German documentary productions in the programm Fiktionsbescheinigung. Movies, that are either historical works now available in newly restored prints or reflect on the history of Forum, such as:

  • DILIM DÖNMÜYOR – MY TONGUE DOES NOT TURN | MEINE ZUNGE DREHT SICH NICHT by Serpil Turhan © 2013
    Serpil Turhan’s grandparents gave up Kurdish for Turkish and the village for the city, just as her mother gave up Turkish for German and Istanbul for Berlin in turn. The director gently compiles fragments from the life of a family marked by migration. P: Staatliche Hochschule für Gestaltung Karlsruhe
  • DIRT FOR DINNER | DRECKFRESSER by Branwen Okpako 75min, © 2000
    Born in Saxony, Afro-German Sam Meffire has had a chequered life. At the start of the 1990s, his face was used as the symbol of an open-minded state, before he became a police officer, friend of the minister of the interior and eventually a criminal. P: DFFB .
  • THE EMPTY CENTER | DIE LEERE MITTE 62min, by Hito Steyerl © 1998
    Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz: in the 1990s, the former death strip became the site for emblematic construction projects and a new centre of power. Steyerl’s incisive essay reveals a whole nexus of political forces based on exclusion and suppression. [Courtesy the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin]
  • MERRY CHRISTMAS DEUTSCHLAND ODER VORLESUNG ZUR GESCHICHTSTHEORIE II by Raoul Peck, 18min © 1985
    Raoul Peck’s student film at the DFFB dips into the prevailing mood in Germany in 1984 and the conception of democracy of the time. Images of the grey city, people in a festive mood and clips from West German television exert an atmospheric pull.
  • NORMALITY 1-X | NORMALITÄT 1-10 by Hito Steyerl © 1999-2001
    At the turn of the century, neo-Nazi marches, racist attacks and the defiling of Jewish graves formed part of everyday life in Germany and Austria. Steyerl’s series of essayistic shorts give an account of violence mistaken for normality. [Courtesy the artist, Andrew Kreps Gallery, New York and Esther Schipper, Berlin]

 

 

 

 

LineUp German documentary productions and co-Productions @efm'22

 

 

NEW: EFM Documentary: Rough-Cut Presentations
In partnership with institutions and associations worldwide, the EFM is presenting a selection of documentaries in the rough-cut stage for the first time. Similar to the showcases at the Berlinale Series Market, the Rough-Cut Presentations provide a platform for documentary filmmakers to present, pitch and discuss excerpts from their films in a cinema on Potsdamer Platz for buyers, festival programmers and sales agents.

At the Berlinale Series Market, director Georg Tschurtschenthaler and producer Christian Beetz give a first look at their new true-crime series. REEPERBAHN Special Unit 65 tells the story of the fight of Germany's first special unit, Fachdirektion 65, against organized crime in the 1980s. The central setting is the red-light district of St. Pauli, where a brutal battle for money and power unfolds.

 

© 2022 NORDMEDIA | MOIN Film Fund | Gebrüder Beetz Filmprod.

 

 

European Film Market, Berlinale Co-Production Market, Berlinale Talents and World Cinema Fund to go online.
Traditionally at the beginning of the year, the central platform for trading in rights to films and audiovisual content gives an outlook on the production, evaluation and trading activities in the coming months, and makes Berlin the meeting place for producers, distributors, and sales agents from all around the world.
Visit our virtual booth under the umbrella of German Films @EFMonline, the easiest way to find out the screening schedule of german documentaries @EFM'22.

 

…by the way, there is no section LOLA@BERLINALE due COVID-19 regulations.

https://www.berlinale.de/en/press/press-releases/detail_138952.html


Exceptional Edition of European Film Market Comes to a Successful Conclusion [PR Februar 18, 2022] find all the other Press Releases 72nd Berlinale  here.

 

as single page

• 72 BERLINALE 2022
• 71 BERLINALE 2021
• 70 BERLINALE 2020
• 69 BERLINALE 2019
• 68 BERLINALE 2018