74th Berlin International Film Festival

Official festival poster
Opening film	Small Things like These by Tim Mielants
Closing film	Dahomey by Mati Diop
Location	Berlin, Germany
Founded	1951
Awards	Golden Bear: Dahomey by Mati Diop
Artistic director	Carlo Chatrian
Festival date	Opening: 15 February 2024 (2024-02-15) Closing: 25 February 2024 (2024-02-25)
Website	www.berlinale.de
Berlin International Film Festival
75th 73rd

The 74th annual Berlin International Film Festival, usually called the Berlinale, took place between 15 and 25 February 2024 in Berlin, Germany.^[1] Kenyan-Mexican actress Lupita Nyong'o was named the Jury President for the main competition.^[2][3] This year’s Berlinale was Carlo Chatrian and Mariette Rissenbeek’s final edition in charge, following their dismissal in 2023.^[4] The festival opened with Tim Mielants' Small Things like These.^[5][6]

Dahomey, directed by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, won the Golden Bear, making it the second year in a row that a documentary won the festival's top prize, following On the Adamant's win in 2023. The Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was awarded to A Traveler's Needs by Hong Sang-soo, and the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance was awarded to Sebastian Stan for A Different Man.^[7][8] American filmmaker Martin Scorsese was awarded with the Honorary Golden Bear.^[9]

Background

Iranian Censorship

Shortly before the Iranian film My Favourite Cake was selected for the Main Competition, filmmakers Behtash Sanaeeha and Maryam Moqadam were banned from leaving Iran to attend the Festival, had their passports confiscated, and will face a court trial in relation to their work as artists and filmmakers.^[10][11] The Iranian government decision was met, once again, with international protests, following Golden Bear winners Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof arrests in 2022/2023, and numerous others censorship attempts in the last years.^[12][13]

AFD Uninviting

Amid controversy, Berlinale's directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian uninvited representatives of the far-right party Alternative for Germany (German: Alternative für Deutschland, AfD) from attending the festival’s Opening Ceremony Gala. The decision followes further controversies around the party statements in opposition to immigration.^[14][15][16] An open letter was signed by over 200 German cultural industry professionals expressing outrage with the invitations.^[17][18]

Israel–Hamas War

In the introductory press release for the 2024 festival, Berlinale opted not to mention freedom of speech as one of their core values, despite having done so in the previous year's statement.^{[19][20][verification needed]} During the festival, hundreds of past and present Berlinale participants signed open letters criticizing Berlinale's complicity in Germany's censorship of pro-Palestine voices, including over 280 Berlinale Talents alumni,^[21] over 190 filmmakers with films in the 2024 festival^[22] and over 60 Berlinale contractors.^{[23][verification needed]} In further protest, John Greyson, Suneil Sanzgiri and Ayo Tsalithaba all withdrew their films from the festival, while Maryam Tafakory, Advik Beni, and Monica Sorelle dropped out of the Berlinale Talents programme and Emilia Beatriz withdrew from the European Film Market.^[24] Unlike its response to the public's outrage at the AfD invitation, Berlinale directors remained silent to the demands of their filmmakers, alumni, and contractors in support of Palestine.^[24]

Throughout the festival, artists continued to use their platforms to make statements in solidarity with Palestine. On February 16, curators of the Berlinale's Forum Expanded program joined artist's expressions of solidarity, stating, "We, too, want to add our voice and share our concern by expressing that the Forum Expanded curators support the urgent call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza."^[25] On February 18, pro-Palestine activists laid down on the front steps of the Gropius Bau drenched in fake blood with a sign reading, “Welcome to the Red Carpet,” while inside the building others unfurled pro-Palestinian banners from the upper floor.^[26]

During the Closing Night Ceremony at the Berlinale Palast, on February 25, there were numerous pro-Palestine statements and protests during the red carpet and acceptance speeches, including from Golden Bear winner Mati Diop, and No Other Land Palestinian and Israeli filmmakers Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, and Rachel Szor. The Teddy Award jury posted a statement in solidarity with Gaza which was met with audience applause as well as loud booing.^{[27][verification needed]} An Instagram account linked to the Panorama section published an allegedly official statement from the festival organizers, stating "we acknowledge that our silence makes us complicit in Israel's ongoing genocide in Gaza and ethnic cleansing of Palestine"^[28] adding: "From our unresolved Nazi past to our genocidal present – we have always been on the wrong side of history."^[29] Minutes later, the Berlinale's main Instagram account stated that the Panorama account was hacked and the posts "do not represent the Berlinale's position", and announced plans to “file criminal charges against unknown persons”.^[29]

During No Other Land acceptance speech, after winning the Best Documentary award, co-director Yuval Abraham stated, referring to his Palestinian co-director Basel: "I am under civilian law; Basel is under military law. We live 30 minutes from one another but I have voting rights. Basel does not have voting rights. I am free to move where I want in this land. Basel, like millions of Palestinians, is locked in the occupied West Bank. This situation of apartheid between us, this inequality, has to end".^[30] Berlin Mayor, Kai Wegner, and numerous other German politicians expressed outrage, calling the closing ceremony statements "anti-Semitic".^[29] Germany's minister of state for culture Claudia Roth was criticized for clapping during Basel and Yuval's speech, later she claimed that she was only clapping for the Israeli half of the filmmaking team, and declared that "The statements at the Bears ceremony were shockingly one-sided and characterized by a profound hatred of Israel".^[31][32] While the Festival is mainly funded by the German government,^[33] the organizers stated that the "filmmakers' statements were independent and should be accepted as long as they respect the legal framework".^[34][35][36] Following the ceremony, Abraham said that a right-wing mob in Israel had threatened his family after he was called antisemitic, stating, "The appalling misuse of this word by Germans... to silence Israelis like me who support a ceasefire... empties the word antisemitism of meaning and thus endangers Jews all over the world".^[37]

Juries

International Jury - Main Competition

• Lupita Nyong'o, Kenyan-Mexican actress - Jury President^[2]
• Brady Corbet, American filmmaker and actor^[38]
• Ann Hui, Hong Kong-Chinese filmmaker and actress
• Christian Petzold, German filmmaker
• Jasmine Trinca, Italian actress and filmmaker
• Albert Serra, Spanish filmmaker
• Oksana Zabuzhko, Ukrainian novelist and poet

Encounters Jury

• Lisandro Alonso, Argentine filmmaker^[38]
• Denis Côté, Canadian filmmaker
• Tizza Covi, Italian filmmaker

International Jury - Short Film Competition

• Ilker Çatak, German filmmaker^[38]
• Xabier Erkizia, Spanish sound artist and researcher
• Jennifer Reeder, American filmmaker, video artist and lecturer

Generation Jury

• Amjad Abu Alala, Sudanese filmmaker
• Banafshe Hourmazdi, Iranian-German actress
• Ira Sachs, American filmmaker^[38]

GWFF Best First Feature Award Jury

• Eliza Hittman, American filmmaker^[38]
• Andréa Picard, Canadian Senior Film curator at the Toronto International Film Festival and advisor to the Marrakech International Film Festival
• Katrin Pors, Danish producer

Berlinale Documentary Award and Jury

• Abbas Fahdel, Iraqi filmmaker^[38]
• Thomas Heise, German filmmaker
• Véréna Paravel, French artist, and anthropologist

Official Sections

Main Competition

The following films were selected for the main competition for the Golden Bear:

Berlinale Special

The following films are selected for the Berlinale Special section: