27th Teddy Award Winners

A gay interest movie is the top Teddy winner, In the Name of, but this time I am really interested in watching film because of the director, Małgośka Szumowska, and her previous film, Elles.

But definitively the film to watch as Must Be Seen is the Jury Award winner, Concussion by Stacie Passon a film that is starting to look very promising not only for today's honor but because seems will become one of the very few lesbian interest films that crossover to mainstream cinema. Film already has a US distributor and is none other than Radius-TWC (yes, is another Weinstein company) plus Paradigm Films. Very good news.

Most remarkable, top feature films Teddy winners are by women directors'. Excellent!

Winners are in *BLUE.

1/30/13
As stated at Berlinale official site, the Teddy Award is the most outstanding queer film prize in the world with a clear vision that shows prize is socially engaged, political honor presented to films and people who communicate queer themes on a broad social platform, thereby contributing to tolerance, acceptance, solidarity and equality in society.

The theme of this year’s Teddy Award is ‘Queer icons: Let’s open up our queer family album’. This is a celebration of gay men, lesbians, bisexual men and women, transgender, closet queens and raging queers, from Valeska Gert to Divine, from Tom of Finland to James Baldwin and from Mishima to Mapplethorpe. The 27th Teddy Award will feature an homage to Jean Marais, commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth. The theme is underlined in the series of works Golden Queers by the painter Rinaldo Hopf which will be on display from 1 to 28 February. His artwork – the Teddy design for 2013 – makes reference to the anniversary of Marais’ birth.

The Teddy award is a non-profit event and is financed exclusively through the contributions and donations of the sponsors and benefactors of the Teddy foundation, the hard work of its many volunteers and through sponsorship and ticket sales for the event itself.

Every year films from all sections of the Berlinale compete for the Teddy Awards. Award ceremony will be on February 15.

Did a spontaneous classification for each movie, but be aware that some films blur the LGBT interest to go more mainstream, meaning: films could appeal more to general audiences than to genre audiences, those films are left without a classification.

The Films

Feature Films

Competition
La Religieuse (The Nun), Guillaume Nicloux, France, Germany and Belgium (L)
Vic+Flo on vu un ours (Vic+Flo Saw a Bear), Denis Côté, Canada (L)
*W imię… (In the Name of), Małgośka Szumowska, Poland (G) BEST FEATURE FILM

Panorama
백야 Baek Ya (White Night), LeeSong Hee-il, South Korea (G)
Chemi sabnis naketsi (A Fold in My Blanket), Zaza Rusadze, Georgia (G)
*Concussion, Stacie Passon, USA (L) SPECIAL JURY AWARD
Deshora (Belated), Barbara Salasola-Day, Argentina, Colombia and Norway (G)
Interior. Leather Bar., Travis Mathews and James Franco, USA (G)
Lose Your Head, Stefan Westerwelle and Patrick Schuckmann, Germany (G)

Panorama Special
Boven is het stil (It's All so Quiet), Nanouk Leopold, Netherlands and Germany (G)
Maladies, Carter, USA
Flores Raras (Reaching for the Moon), Bruno Barreto, Brazil (L) (photo)
明天記得愛上我 Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Arvin Chen, Taiwan (G)

Forum
Echolot, Athanasios Karanikolas, Germany
くじらのまち Kujira no machi (The Town of Whales), Keiko Tsuruoka, Japan (L)

Perspektive Deutsches Kino
Freier Fall (Free Fall), Stephan Lacant, Germany (G)
Zwei Mütter (Two Mothers), Anne Zohra Berrached, Germany (L)

Documentary Films

Berlinale Special
Tribute to Rosa von Praunheim
Rosakinder (Pink Children), Julia von Heinz, Chris Kraus, Axel Ranisch, Robert Thalheim, Tom Tykwer, Germany

Panorama
*Bambi, Sébastien Lifshitz, France (T)  BEST DOCUMENTARY
Born This Way, Sahun Kadlec and Deb Tullmann, USA (LG)
Exposed, Beth B, USA (GT)
Fifi az khoshhali zooze mikeshad (Fifi Howls from Happiness), Mitra Farahani, USA
Gut Renovation, Su Friedrich, USA
Naked Opera, Angela Christlieb, Luxembourg and Germany (G)
Out in Ost-Berlin - Lesben und Schwule in der DDR (Out in East Berlin - Lesbians and Gays in the GRD), Jochen Hick, Germany (LGBT)
Paul Bowles: The Cage Door is Always Open, Daniel Young, Switzerland (LG)
Sing Me the Songs that Say I Love You - A Concert for Kate McGarrigle, Lian Lunson, USA

Forum
Die 727 Tage ohne Karamo (The 727 Days Without Karamo), Anja Salomoniwitz, Austria
Portrait of Jason, Shirley Clark, USA (G)

Forum Expanded
Helio Oiticica and Neville D'Almeida's Block-Experiments in Cosmococa - program in progress: CC6 Coke Head's Soup, Hélio Oiticica, Neville D'Almeida and Thomas Valentin, Brazil and USA, 1973 (Avant Garde cinema)

Short Film

Berlinale Shorts
Beshivhey Hayom (In Praise of the Day), Oren Adaf, Israel, 20' (G)
Ja kada sam bila klinac, bila sam klinka (When I was a Boy, I was a Girl), Ivana todorovic, Serbia, 30' (T)
*Ta av mig (Undress Me), Victor Lindgren, Sweden, 15' (T) BEST SHORT FILM

Panorama
Two Girls Against the Rain, Sao Sopheak, Cambodia, 11' (L)

Forum Expanded
Not Blacking Out, Just Turning The Lights Off, James Richards, UK, 17'
The Runaway Troupe of the Cartesian Theatre, Lior Shamriz, Germany and China, 18'

Generation
Dina and Noel, Sivan Levy and Natalie Melamed, Israel, 10'
Första gången (The First Time), Anders Hazelius, Sweden, 9'
O Pacote (The Package), Rafael Aidar, 18' (G)

Not sure if they will be in competition, somehow will be highly unfair as the following are excellent movies -some really cinema classics- so will list them apart assuming that they are part of the program and not in the competition.

Retrospective
A Midsummer Night's Dream, Max Reinhardt and William Dieterle, USA, 1935
First a Girl, Victor Saville, UK, 1935
Gado Bravo, António Lopes Ribeiro and Max Nosseck, Portugal, 1934
Peter, Hermann Kostelitz, Hungary and Austria, 1934
Some Like It Hot, Billy Wilder, USA, 1959
Viktor und Viktoria, Reinhold Schünzel, Germany, 1933

Berlinale Classics
Cabaret, Bob Fosse, USA, 1972

The Jury
Sophie Shu-Yi Lin, China
Pavel Cortes, Mexico
Martha Arredondo, Dominican Republic
Benoît Arnulf, France
Dilcia Barrera, USA
Gerjo Pérez Meliá, Spain
Ljosha Chaschyn, Ukraine
Johana Hakanen, Finland
Katja Briesemeister, Germany

As every year there are more Gay than Lesbian interest movies, but have to admit that the full lesbian interest films are great, especially the one from Brazil Flores Raras -with an excellent cast- but also Stacie Passon's Concussion. To learn more about this award go to the official site.

Check some trailers plus summary/images @MOC