2023 film festival in Berlin, Germany
The 73rd annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale (), took place from 16 to 26 February 2023. It was the first completely in-person Berlinale since the 70th in 2020. The festival added a new competition section for television series.
The festival opened with American filmmaker and novelist Rebecca Miller's drama film "She Came to Me". A live video stream with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was part of the opening ceremony. On 21 February 2023, American filmmaker Steven Spielberg was presented with the Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement by Irish singer-songwriter Bono. Spielberg's films were screened in the Homage section for the occasion.
"On the Adamant", directed by French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert, won the Golden Bear. The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was awarded to "Afire" by German filmmaker Christian Petzold. The Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance was awarded to Sofía Otero for "20,000 Species of Bees"; Otero, at age nine, became the youngest winner of the award in the Berlinale history.
Festival closed on 26 February with total sales of tickets touching 320,000, and around 20,000 accredited professionals from 132 countries including 2,800 media representatives attending the festival.
Background.
The film registration for the festival began in September 2022 with the closing date for submission fixed on 23 November 2022. On 13 October 2022, with the slogan of "Let's Get Together", signifying in-person interactions in all the programmes of the festival after two years of the programmes held online due to COVID-19. It was also announced that Berlinale Series Award would be inaugurated in 2023.
The festival poster was designed by Claudia Schramke, who had also created the previous year's Berlinale poster. The executive director of the Berlinale, Mariette Rissenbeek, described the poster as the key visual for the 2023 Berlinale, saying that it directed the attention toward the audience—the indispensable core of the festival. Rissenbeek said, "We're very pleased that with this year's poster, we can honour those whose curiosity, enthusiasm, and applause make the Berlinale a vibrant, inspiring, and joyful event."
Opening and closing ceremonies.
The opening ceremony of the festival was held on 16 February with jury members and international and German stars walking the red carpet. The jury president Kristen Stewart, in her opening speech, pointed out about "oppressions against our physical selves". She said that, albeit she was a woman, she represented "the least marginal version of a woman". On that topic, Golshifteh Farahani, Iranian-French actress and one of the jury members, noted that "some women are not as fortunate".
Russia's war on Ukraine and Human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran were topical discussions at the ceremony. After Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appeared via satellite and introduced by American actor and filmmaker Sean Penn, Zelenskyy remarked, "A logical question comes up: On which side should culture and art be?" and added, "Can art be outside of politics? Should cinema be outside of politics? It's an eternal question but today it is extremely [pertinent]." Afterward, the opening film of the festival, Rebecca Miller's drama film "She Came to Me", was screened.
The closing ceremony or award night was held on 25 February, hosted by the German radio and television presenter Hadnet Tesfai. French documentary film "On the Adamant", about a Paris daycare centre for people with mental disorders, by Nicolas Philibert won the Golden Bear. Stewart called the film "masterfully crafted" and a "cinematic proof of the vital necessity of human expression". Philibert asked in his acceptance speech if the jury members were "crazy" and yet nevertheless thanked them, saying "that documentary can be considered to be cinema in its own right touches me deeply".
The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was won by "Afire" by Christian Petzold. Sofía Otero, a nine-year-old girl was the winner of Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance for the role of eight-year-old Lucía in "20,000 Species of Bees". She became the youngest winner of the gender-neutral award in the Berlinale history. Stewart commented that Otero had defied "a system designed to diminish the intelligence of the performer", particularly that of child performers. After the ceremony, Otero said to the press that she wanted to dedicate her life to acting. The ceremony closed with a screening of the Golden-Bear winning film "On the Adamant".
Juries.
Main Competition.
The following were on the jury for the Berlinale Main Competition section:
Official sections.
Main Competition.
The following 19 films were selected for the main competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:
Berlinale Special Events.
The following titles received were selected for the sections below:
Encounters.
The following 16 films are selected for the Encounters section:
Panorama.
The following films are selected for the Panorama section:
"Perspektive Deutsches Kino".
The following films are selected for the "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" (lit. 'Perspective on German Cinema') section:
Forum.
The following films are selected for the Forum section:
Homage films.
This section of the 73rd Berlinale was dedicated to American filmmaker, screenwriter, and producer Steven Spielberg, who was awarded an Honorary Golden Bear for lifetime achievement.
The Retrospective.
This section presented the following films:
The Classics.
A 4K restoration of David Cronenberg's "Naked Lunch" opened the classics section.
References.
 ;templatestyles src="Reflist/styles.css" / ;