Berlin Special: Berlinale, the winners!

And so the cat is out of the bag, the Bears have been awarded and the full list of the Berlin Film Festival winners is to be found here.

Out of the entire winners list (incl. special mentions) I saw Apflickorna, Stadt Land Fluss and tomorrow I'll be watching Ausente. The one movie I wanted to see and didn't was Tomboy (it went on to receive the Teddy Jury Award), it immediately sprang to my eye as I held the festival program in my hands, but it didn't work out with the showtimes for me.

As the winners were being announced next door, I was watching the Korean Ashamed (Chang-Pi-Hae). I must admit that I always have a hard time with Asian movies and that's exactly why I watch so few of them, but I once again decided to give oriental film industry a chance and try to expand my horizons.

As of a couple of days I have a flu, so maybe that would explain why I thought the film was supposed to start at 7.30pm instead of 7.00pm... [With all my vast movie-going experience, this has never happened to me before.] Of course I only realized that once I was on the bus and wanted to check if I still had the ticket (OCD) It was 6.50pm. Each ticket specifically says there's no late admittance, so I debated leaving the bus and going home, but that would mean I'd miss the Berlinale Nighttalk, so I continued the trip to Potsdamer Platz. At 7.15pm I was there and the two sweet guys at the entrance let me in. Surprisingly enough, I had the entire second row to myself. On a Saturday night, in a Berlinale film showing.

Berlin Special: Berlinale Update!

I saw Miranda July's The Future at FriedrichstadtPalast yesterday and it was quite good. Facebook and Internet addicts will find something in common with the two protagonists. The Palast itself is actually a theater with great interior and disgustingly uncomfortable seats, I was reminded of that one drama theater in my hometown...

Later Miranda July (You and Me and Everyone We Know) was present at the night talk with Knut Elstermann and had a few things to say about this feature film where she also played the female protagonist. Turns out she's a performance artist and has a nice looking website, so I'm going to be seeing what else she does when she's not busy making films.

Nadja Uhl was the independent critic for an hour last night, too. I know her from Die Stille nach dem Schuss and turns out she won a Silver Bear for her performance and at the moment is not unpopular with the German film-going crowds, which means it was pretty full in the cafe on Potsdamer Platz, but only until she left. And the "fans" missed interviews with directors of The Forgiveness of Blood (the lovely-geeky globe-trotter Joshua Martson, known for Maria Full of Grace), A Separation, Our Grand Despair; Bombay Beach; Romeos.

It was amazing in the sense that it breaks the walls between Celebrity and the simple folk. Most of directors were sitting in the common area conversing with their friends and colleagues, the atmosphere was relaxed, also no fanatical behavior from anyone. Good times.

The one odd thing that happened was that... beer turned out to be expensive. Expensive for Berlin, anyway. I ordered a bottle for 3.5EUR having come from somewhere where I had it for 0.99EUR. But... I'll live with that.

Further information on the Berlin Film Festival:

Berlin Special: Berlinale!

Berlin Special: Berlinale Update!

Berlin Special: Berlinale Update 2!

Berlin Special: Berlinale, the winners!

Berlin Special: Berlinale Palast!