Berlin Film Festival 2020: Awards predictions and highlights from the festival

As the 70^th Berlin International Film Festival staggers to a close, it’s time to look back to the opening press conference of the international jury, which feels like a lifetime ago – a lifetime compressed into nine days of countless movies, an inadvisable amount of coffee, and hours spent furiously typing while gently weeping. Now, it’s time for the awards. Jury President Jeremy Irons opened this year’s festival by pointing out that while he has given interviews in the past which might suggest that he has misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-abortion leanings, he in fact thinks that feminism, homosexuality and freedom of choice for abortions are all jolly good indeed. Will he labour the point by gently nudging his jury to award prizes to the most woke, self-consciously message-based films possible? If this was to be their course of action, they would end up being spoilt for choice. So which films are likely to take home an award at Berlinale 2020 tonight? Joseph Owen, Selina Sondermnan and I have decided to share our predictions:

The Golden Bear for Best Film

Oliver Johnston

I would like to see this go to Berlin Alexanderplatz, which manages social commentary while also being a visceral piece of entertainment. Never Rarely Sometimes Always would also be worthy, and already won a Sundance Special Jury Award after premiering there earlier this year.

Joseph Owen

Jeremy Irons, a man who once said that same-sex marriage could lead to fathers marrying their sons for tax purposes, heads the competition jury. It’s a one-in-18 chance, basically. Top of the jury grid – rarely a definite indicator of success – is Eliza Hittman’s affecting drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always. On the other hand, if the jury want to reward morally dubious avant-garde excess, they may go for DAU. Natasha, a two-and-a-half hour collaborative piece from Ilya Khrzhanovskiy and Jekaterina Oertel. Its critical divisiveness may suggest it has legs for the top prize.

The 70^th Berlinale Silver Bear

Joseph Owen

Formerly known as the Alfred Bauer prize, the Silver Bear has been renamed after allegations of Nazi collaboration hit the legacy of its name-holder. Usually designated to an innovative new work, the award would sit well with Cristi Puiu’s Malmkrog, which is a ludicrously straight adaptation of a philosophical text, but whose commitment to so-called epistemology is as admirable as it is hilarious.

The Silver Bear for Jury Grand Prize

Oliver Johnston

It would be nice to see an accolade for a film that has something to say, but doesn’t take itself quite so drudgingly seriously. Delete History (Effacer l’historique) has something on its mind, but it delivers its sentiments via extraordinary humour. But, since it might seem a little too light for what is essentially the runner up prize, it’s probably going to go to a more concisely laudable film, like There Is No Evil.

Joseph Owen

Ming-liang Tsai’s Days may sit well here. Nothing we wouldn’t expect from the master of tentatively titled “slow-cinema”. Probably too obtuse for the main the prize, it still possesses an aesthetic conviction lacking in many of the other competition efforts.

Silver Bear for a Fílm That Opens New Perspectives on Cinematic Art

Oliver Johnston

Quite a wordy name for a category, isn’t it? Until just a few days before Berlinale 2020, this award was going to be the Alfred Bauer Prize, named after the festival’s very first director, as per usual. Then it was discovered that Bauer was not just a high-ranking Nazi, but apparently a rather enthusiastic one. And so now we have the Silver Bear for a Fílm That Opens New Perspectives on Cinematic Art. This generally goes for a film that innovates (or more accurately – tries to). It might end up going to the somewhat dire Undine, or the abstract, experimental war documentary Irradiés (Irradiated). DAU. Natasha would be an excellent choice.

Silver Bear for Best Director

Oliver Johnston

Even though the film itself was disappointingly uneven, this might go to Mohammad Rasoulof for There Is No Evil. The Iranian director has been labelled subversive by his government and is in fact banned from leaving the country, allowing the jury to make a statement with their choice.

Joseph Owen

Although its world premiere at Sundance may hamper its Golden Bear chances, Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow may deliver for its director. Reichardt has an accumulative visual flair and control of form that stands her apart from many of her contemporaries. A gorgeously constructed film.

Silver Bear for Best Actor

Oliver Johnston

Expect this one to go to Elio Germano for Hidden Away (Volevo nascondermi). It’s an overcooked performance, but it resulted in the type of transformation that always translates to acting prizes.

Joseph Owen

Chit-chat suggests that relative newcomer Welket Bunguê could nab the actor award for his lead role in Burhan Qurbani’s modern day retelling of Berlin Alexanderplatz. There is a lot of local goodwill towards it, of course. Elio Germano gives a committed, unrecognisable performance as an odious parent in the D’Innocenzo brothers’ suburban fairytale-cum-nightmare Bad Tales. His explosion in the climactic scene may seal it for him.

Selina Sondermann

Most films in the Berlinale Competition were comprised of solid performances. But Albrecht Schuch’s depiction of Berlin Alexanderplatz’ heinous antagonist Reinhold haunts the viewer long after they have left the screening room. Both Schuch’s physical posture and the uncomfortable speech melody he adapts, work to lace the character’s Mephisto-eque wickedness with a vulnerability that keeps the viewer on their toes.

Silver Bear for Best Actress

Oliver Johnston

This award could end up going to Paula Beer in Undine. It was a decidedly average movie that existed as a framework for a good performance, but hey – that worked for Joaquin Phoenix in Joker.

Joseph Owen

I’ve heard positive sounds about Paula Beer’s titular role as a historian and museum guide in Christian Petzold’s Undine. Hong Sang-soo stalwart Kim Min-hee anchors his latest The Woman Who Ran while Nina Hoss gives a supple performance as a woman anticipating grief in the overall competent My Little Sister, directed by Stéphanie Chaut and Véronique Reymond

Selina Sondermann

Never Rarely Sometimes Always is a film that hinges entirely on it’s main actress, so it comes as a surprise to learn that this is Sidney Flanigan’s acting debut. Her execution is nuanced and understated, and at no point not completely authentic. The titular scene, shot in one continuous take, in which her character Autumn is asked to answer incredibly invasive questions with one of the given adverbs of frequency is heartbreaking.

Silver Bear for Best Script

Oliver Johnston

I would love for this to go to the timely Delete History (Effacer l’historique). The script manages to mine humour out of a grim assessment of contemporary society, managing poignancy – even when making jokes that feature ejaculation.

Encounters (Best Film)

Selina Sondermann

Article 1 of Germany’s constitutional law famously states that “human dignity is unimpeachable”. But why do we stop at human beings? So few of us think about what harm our species inflicts upon others. Victor Kossakovsky’s Gunda is an eye-opening reflection upon our fellow sentient beings and re-awards them with the dignity our day-to-day behaviour robs them of.

Best Director (Encounters)

Selina Sondermann

Shirley was by far the hardest film to get into at this year’s Berlinale. Everybody wanted to see the film that won Sundance’s Auteur Filmmaking Award. Director Josephine Decker’s multilayered approach exceeds expectations of a biopic about Shirley Jackson. Instead, it goes far deeper, taking the audience along a journey into the horror writer’s troubled mind. Decker’s courage and singularity are undoubtedly what the Berlinale had in mind when it created this new section.

Documentary award

Selina Sondermann

Since this category is filled with films of particular social relevance, the award can run the risk of elevating one issue over the others, awarding it more importance, so to speak. However I feel that Sébastien Lifshitz’ Petite fille was particularly successful in taking a personal story to articulate and reflect upon a much broader topic. While it sheds light on the subject of gender dysphoria, the prevailing themes are parental love and fighting all obstacles that stand in the way of your child’s happiness.

Highlights

Joseph Owen

My first Berlinale! More relaxed than Cannes and slightly more energetic than Locarno, Berlin offered a happy medium between my usual festival haunts. Stayed at a fellow critic’s lovely apartment, looked after my constitution, paced myself adequately, didn’t lose too many things: all of these suggest that a new world of health and prosperity is opening up before me. Even took my Le Creuset stoneware into the press office in order to claim free coffee. In the external world, Abel Ferrara’s Siberia provided a lot of immediate joy. I wasn’t there but I have it on good authority that Willem Dafoe, Ferrara’s festival sidekick, sung Del Shannon’s Runaway at one of the after-parties. Not to be topped! Apart from maybe any single mention of Malmkrog among those who saw it.

Oliver Johnston, Joseph Owen, Selina Sondermann