Berlin Film Week 2021
Awards

Best Film

FIRST COW

Combining sumptuous cinematography with a gently melancholic tale of pilfered dairy, sweet cakes and old-fashioned camaraderie, First Cow is the celebrated magnum opus of one of cinema’s most vital independent filmmakers.

Best Director

KELLY REICHARDT

Kelly Reichardt was born in Miami, Florida in 1964. After making her debut feature film River of Grass, this screenwriter, and director dedicated herself for a long time to the short film form. She returned to feature-length filmmaking with Old Joy which, like First Cow, is based on a story by the American novelist Jonathan Raymond.

Jury Prize

APPLES

Through images deadpan, strange and surreal, Greek writer-director Christos Nikou posits a beguiling reflection on memory, identity, and loss, exploring how a society might handle an irreversible epidemic through one man’s story of self-discovery.

Best Acting

PAZ DE LA HUERTA

Actress Paz de la Huerta made her film debut when she was only 14 years old in the indie romantic comedy “The Object of My Affection” (1998). Her starring role in Gaspar Noe’s transgressive psychodrama “Enter the Void” (2009) and supporting turn in Jim Jarmusch’s experimental “The Limits of Control” (2009), gave her a reputation as an actress who took on challenging and uncommercial roles but had few hang ups about her body. It was after she earned that reputation that she reached a larger stage, co-starring on the period gangster drama “Boardwalk Empire” (HBO 2010-14) as the girlfriend of Steve Buscemi’s lead character Nucky Thompson.

Best Screenplay

THE DELTA OF BUCHAREST

In turn, monastery, prison, camp, natural park: the Delta of Bucharest becomes a « film space » where all the parallel lives materialize… The history of a place, of the energy it gives off.

Best Short Film

AS THE CROW FLIES

The closeted small-town delinquent Mathias is shaken by the arrival of a charismatic Swedish ornithologist who is passing through to study the local birdlife. When Mathias’ friends catch the two young men in an intimate moment, it leads to a violent confrontation.

Jury Prize - Short Film

EASTER EGGS

In a small town, word goes around that Mister Ping’s exotic birds are on the loose. Two bored teenagers go on a quest to find them. During their adventure, they find that escaping daily life isn’t quite the same as escaping each other. Easter Eggs is a short animated film about finding extraordinary things in ordinary places.