The Film Experience

By Elisa Giudici

Mati Diop and Lupita Nyong'o at the awards ceremony © Ali Ghandtschi / Berlinale 2024

There was a clear standout at the 74th annual Berlinale: French cinema. Given the competition lineup, France secured all three podium positions one way or another. Let's start with the Golden Bear, naturally. The jury, led by Oscar-winning actress Lupita Nyong'o, crowned a new documentary by French-Senegalese director Mati Diop (of Atlantics fame) as the winner. It's a double win for French cinema: not only is Diop a French citizen, but she's also a product of the Cannes Film Festival, a source of national pride.

Her winning documentary, Dahomey, is a low-budget project that might have struggled in the bright spotlight at Cannes...

DAHOMEY still © Les Films du Bal - Fanta Sy

Carlo Chatrian's foresight to include it midway through made predicting this victory quite straightforward. I would've bet on this title even before the festival began.

Dahomey is a little over an hour long and narrates the practical management and symbolic significance of returning 26 precious artifacts from the Dahomey kingdom to Benin by the French state. After being stolen in the late 1800s, the pieces remained for over a century in Paris at the Musée du Quai Branly – Jacques Chirac. Statues of sovereigns, ceremonial thrones, and belongings of a centuries-old dynasty were plundered by the French and returned by a nation suddenly questioning the significance of their return, after having built their own identity on that theft by the European nation.

It's almost a realistic and historically accurate riff on the opening of the first Black Panther film, if you'll pardon the somewhat peculiar comparison. Given the themes, it was easy to guess that Nyong'o would love this film. It was also predictable that Albert Serra would support the decision.

These are just speculations, but the director of Pacifiction seems to be a master strategist judging by the outcome of the awards. In the Press Room, there was suspicion that Serra would push for Bruno Dumont’s film to win due to tastes and nationalities, and indeed L’Empire (previously reviewed) which took the Silver Bear Jury Prize is a very particular film that might mystify non-French audiences.

Hong Sangsoo © Richard Hübner / Berlinale 2024

Hong Sang-soo received the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize with a Korean film A Traveller's Need (previously reviewed) entirely focused on the performance of the French cinema icon Isabelle Huppert. It's another title, along with the director-winning experimental hippo drama Pepe (previously reviewed), that seems to reflect Serra's auteurial inclinations. Few predicted either of those two wins. When Hong Sang-soo stepped onto the stage, to grab the award, he looked at the jury with surprise...

"I don't know what you saw in this film."

Desire for experimental narrative form and visual dimension, the ability to narrate the local in encounter with the "foreign" brought a pronounced political agenda to the 74th Berlinale. This was the common thread among awardees for an edition that, unfortunately, did not feature exceptional quality all around despite spots of excellence.

Emily Watson © Dirk Michael Deckbar / Berlinale 2024

On the acting front, however, Berlin turned its gaze away from France toward Hollywood, perhaps dreaming of giving a very, very early peek at the next Oscar race. Emily Watson wins the gender-neutral award for Best Supporting Performance for her role as an inflexible and orthodox nun in Small Things like These (previously reviewed). On stage, however, she seems to be advocating for Cillian Murphy, emphasizing the great performance she witnessed. The impression was that there is already material for the next award season. I imagine Murphy's joy, since he already appears exhausted by the worldly commitments of this season.

Sebastian Stan wins Best Leading Performance © Richard Hübner / Berlinale 2024

But Cillian didn't win in lead, that award going instead to Sebastian Stan as the protagonist of A Different Man (previously reviewed). It's the first significant awards victory for an actor who has taken the path of producing himself precisely to have the chance to be taken seriously as a performer, shedding the identification as a "Marvel actor". The film and his work are strong so the Berlin jury made an excellent choice.

As for me, my favorite films of the festival were outside the main competition: Love Lies Bleeding and I Saw the TV Glow were the most memorable films I screened. Anglophone but not of enormous dimensions, rooted in a very precise and stereotype-free temporal moment, capable of telling the pain and existential discomfort of youth.

Before closing the Berlin diary, there's still a round of films seen in the last hours that I want to talk to you about... stay tuned!

MAIN COMPETITION

Golden Bear: Dahomey by Mati Diop

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize: A Traveler's Needs by Hong Sang-soo

Silver Bear Jury Prize: The Empire by Bruno Dumont

Silver Bear for Best Director: Nelson Carlo De Los Santos Arias for Pepe

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance: Sebastian Stan for A Different Man

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance: Emily Watson for Small Things like These

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Matthias Glasner for Dying

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution: cinematographer Martin Gschlacht for The Devil’s Bath

OTHER PRIZES

Honorary Golden Bear: Martin Scorsese

Berlinale Kamera: Edgar Reitz

GWFF Best First Feature Award: Cu Li Never Cries by Phạm Ngọc Lân

Berlinale Documentary Award: No Other Land by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor

Special Mention: Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell

ENCOUNTERS

Best Film: Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell

Best Director: Juliana Rojas for Cidade; Campo

Special Jury Award: Some Rain Must Fall by Qiu Yang AND The Great Yawn of History by Aliyar Rasti

SHORT FORM

Berlinale Short Films Competition Golden Bear for Best Short Film: An Odd Turn by Francisco Lezama

Silver Bear Jury Prize: Remains of the Hot Day by Wenqian Zhang

Special Mention: That’s All from Me by Eva Könnemann

Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards: That’s All from Me by Eva Könnemann