32nd Teddy Award Winners

Last night was the awards ceremony which was more likely a drag (?) show.  Perhaps I'm starting (lol) to get older but this type of show absolutely is not my cup-of-tea, much less the show by the group that won the documentary award.  Sigh.

Nevertheless I'm glad the ceremony was streamed live as it's easier to follow winners this way than only via twitter.

Regarding the winners it's interesting that FIPRESCI found the Paraguay movie the "best" in competition and this award jury gave film no honors, except becoming one of the three nominees, that assume means, finalists.  Brazil becomes the cinema country with more honors in this edition as wins top award and documentary award.

There was a new award given this year, Teddy Newcomer Award given to a first or second feature-lenght film with a queer subject matter.  Retablo by Alvaro Delgado Aparicio wins the first edition of this award.

Will list winners with the respective Jury Statement for easier reference.

Best Feature Film: Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint),  Marcio Reolon and Filipe Marzembacher, Brazil
Jury Statement: Tinta bruta The Teddy fiction feature award goes to a movie which beautifully tells the story of a boy reconnecting himself with the real world. In a unique and creative cinematic form, the film captures the fierce struggle between fear and desire. Music, lights and colors culminate in a pure expression of the protagonist's feelings, gradually becoming his means to reconcile body, heart and soul. For its incredible directing achievement and tremendous cast, the teddy jury is proud to award Tinta Bruta by Marcio Reolon and Filipe Matzembacher.

Nominees
Las Herederas (The Heiresses), Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany, Brazil, Norway and France
Nu mă atinge-mă (Touch Me Not), Adina Pintille, Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and France

Jury Award:  Obscuro Barroco, Evangelia Kranioti, France and Greece
Jury Statement: This film transports us to a city that is vibrant and surreal, a carnival of dreams and nightmares, seen through the eyes of its queer icon. The director's impressive singular vision draws you in with remarkable cinematography and sound design, making it uniquely poetic and intimate, and an outstanding artistic achievement. That's why we award the Special Jury Prize to Evangelia Kranioti and her film Obscuro Barroco.

Newcomer Award:  Retablo, Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio L., Peru, Germany and Norway

Best Documentary Film:  Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag), Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman, Brazil
Jury Statement: The film introduces us to an outstanding woman. Her curiosity and many different ways of expressing herself are more than inspiring. She is a performer, a good friend, a musician, a family person, an artist. With the beauty of the sounds, the aesthetic of the ima
ges, the film takes us on her journey of self determination between fantasy and self care. The Teddy Award for best documentary film 2018 goes to Bixa Travesty by Claudia Priscilla, Kiko Goifmann and of course to the protagonist of the film Linn da Quebrada.

Nominees
Yours in Sisterhood by Irene Lusztig, USA 
Shakedown, Leilah Weinraub, USA

Best Short Film:  Three Centimetres, Lara Zeidan, UK
Jury Statement: Three centimeters Lebanese female film director Lara Zeidan makes a sensitive and intimate portrait
of four young female friends on a Ferris Wheel in Beirut. We share in their emotional ride of sexual understanding, as the conversation turns from a jovial discussion of virginity, to a nervous outing of homosexuality. As we listen, we realise these young women are only just beginning to explore the many layers of their own and others' identities. We are privy to a crucial life episode in which a queer individual must claimand defend her right to exist. Lara Zeidan captures this delicate moment in adolescence with subtle yet tender performances from her cast.

Nominees
T.R.A.P, Manque La Banca, Argentina
Je fais où tu me dis (Dressed for Pleasure), Marie de Maricourt, Switzerland
 
Readers' Award: Las Herederas (The Heiresses), Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany, Brazil, Norway and France
Jury Statement: Marceloo Martinessi shows that the search for individual identity knows no age, gender or class. With masses of emotion, visually impressive cinematography and an outstanding cast, he guides his audience through the life of a woman who finds an avenue to love and to herself despite all problems and crises. “Las Heredaras” weaves it’s story gently and imparts the characters with the space needed to grow. This is a film that lingers with you and imbues you with power. 

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2/7/18
The 32nd Teddy Award is presented within the framework of the Berlin International Film Festival from February 15 to 25, 2018. For 32 years the award has been rewarding movies and filmmakers, who, by engaging with queer topics, contribute to more tolerance, equality, acceptance and diversity in the society.  Prizes are awarded in the following categories:  Best Feature Film, Best Documentary Film, Best Short Film, Jury Award and the Manschaft Magazin Readers Award

Again this year Dieter Kosslick, Berlinale Director, did a remarkable introduction to Teddy Award Program guide and here is an excerpt.

Teddy #32: People. Dignity. Rights.
"All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights."  As often an unwillingly as this sentence - the first article of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed 70 years ago -may be forgotten: there is nothing that we must defend more than people, their dignity and their rights.  ...

I am looking forward to the first "appearance" of the Teddy Newcomer Award.  And it has remained a special feature of the Berlinale that queer cinema can be found in nearly all sections, that 30 films from more than 20 countries adopt queer perspectives and tell queer stories.  The new Panorama team will also continue to highlight this fact.

As it's said in the program, "2018 is a year of transition for the Panorama team, with Wieland Spec, founder of the Teddy Award, relinquishing his 25 year role as curator of the arthouse section of the Berlinale. In his place stand three individuals, Paz Lazaro, Michael Stutz and Andreas Struck".  Paz Lazaro becomes the head of the section and since 2006 has worked with Wieland.  We hope that under Lazaro Panorama section will keep on growing on interesting films as well as brings more and more films that could compete for the Teddy Award.  Sigh.

Program also speaks about the #MeToo movement which suggest you read to remind yourself about celebrity predators but also about statistics like for example "lesbians are almost 10% more likely to experience rape than straight women and gay men face double the risk of sexual violence than heterosexual men". Sigh.

Current edition poster was created by the designers collective cabine, who has been responsible for the posters from several past editions.

This year there are five Teddy Diversity Talks that will cover the following subjects:
1.- Before Pride: Queer Film Pioneers on their legacy and contemporary work
2.- Bodies of Evidence: The Sensual and Political Power of Transformation
3.- Black Queer Women in Focus: The Economy of Space and Desire
4.- Go Your Own Way: Adolescent Resistance in Queer Narratives
5.- Diversity und Gender Equality in Beruf und Gesellschaft Viel Luft nach oben in Sachen Gleichstellung?

To check program go here (pdf file).

The awards ceremony will take place on February 23, at 8:30pm at the Haus der Berliner Festpiele and will be streamed live.  After the ceremony the celebration continues with the Teddy backstage party.

Feature Films

Competition
Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot, Gus Van Sant, USA
Las Herederas (The Heiresses), Marcelo Martinessi, Paraguay, Uruguay, Germany, Brazil, Norway and France. (L)
Nu mă atinge-mă (Touch Me Not), Adina Pintille, Romania, Germany, Czech Republic, Bulgaria and France 

Berlinale Special
The Happy Prince, Rupert Everett, Germany, Belgium and Italy

Panorama
Garbage, Q (Qaushiq Mukherjee), India
Hojoom (Invasion), Shahram Mokri, Iran
L'Animale, Katharina Mückstein, Austria (L)
Malambo, El Hombre Bueno (Malambo, The Good Man),  Santiago Loza, Argentina
Marilyn, Martin Rodriguez Redondo, Argentina and Chile
Mes Provinciales (A Paris Education), Jean-Paul Civeyrac, Franc
リバーズ・エッジ  Ribâzu ejji (River's Edge), Isao Yukisada, Japan
Tinta Bruta (Hard Paint),  Marcio Reolon and Filipe Marzembacher, Brazil

Forum
Tuzdan Kaide (The Pillar of Salt) by Burak Çevik, Turkey

Generation
High Fantasy, Jenna Bass, South Africa
Para Aduma (Red Cow), Tsivia Barkai Jacov, Israel (L)
Retablo, Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio L., Peru, Germany and Norway

Documentaries
Panorama Dokumente
Bixa Travesty (Tranny Fag), Claudia Priscilla and Kiko Goifman, Brazil (T)
Game Girls, Alina Skrzeszewska, France and Germany (L)
Obscuro Barroco, Evangelia Kranioti, France and Greece 
Shakedown, Leilah Weinraub, USA (L)
The Silk and the Flame, Jordan Schiele, USA
Yours in Sisterhood by Irene Lusztig, USA

Forum
Escape from Rented Island: The Lost Paradise of Jack Smith, Jerry Tartaglia, USA

Short Films
Competition
Onde o Verão Vai (episódios da juventude)/Where the Summer Goes (chapeters on youth), David Pinheiro Vicente, Portugal, 20’
T.R.A.P, Manque La Banca, Argentina, 16’ 

Forum
Contra-Internet: Jubilee 2033, Zach Blas, USA and UK, 29'
Evidentiary Bodies, Barbara Hammer, USA, 10'

Generation
Je fais où tu me dis (Dressed for Pleasure), Marie de Maricourt, Switzerland, 17'
Juck, Olivia Kastebring, Julia Gumpert, and Ulrika Bandeira, Sweden, 18'
Pop Rox, Nate Trinrud, USA, 14'
Three Centimetres, Lara Zeidan, UK, 9' (L)

The Jury
Antomio Harfuch, producer film curator, Mexico
Bohdan Zhuk, film festival programmer, Ukraine
Franck Finance-Madureira, movie journalist and Queer Palm creator, France
Marthe Djilo Kamga, film festival founder, Belgium
Natascha Frankenberg, film festival programmer, Germany
Pecha Lo, film festival director, Taiwan
Roisin Geraghty, producer and film festival manager and programmer, Ireland

Teddy Readers' Award Jury
Martin Busse, music editor
Katayun Pirdawari, activist
Holger Beisitzer, moviegoer
Chritine Burkart, journalist
Adriell Kopp, filmmaker


Retrospektive
Der Himmel Auf Erden (Heaven on Earth), Reinhold Schunzel and Alfred Schirokauer,  Germany, 1927
Ludwig de Zweite, Konig von Bayern (Ludwig II of Bavaria), Willhelm Dieterle, Germany, 1930

Homage
Pasolini, Abel Ferrara, France, Italy and Belgium, 2-14

Check available info and trailer @MOC.
Check available posters of ALL Berlinale Films, including those competing for Teddy Award, go pinterest here.

This year there is no way to embed the program guide so if you wish to check it go here.  To read about each film at official site go here.

The Trailer