The Spanish child actress Sofía Otero won this Saturday the Silver Bear for the best leading performance at the Berlinale’2023 for the film 20,000 species of bees, by the Basque director Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren, in which she gives life to a transsexual girl. “Thank you, thank you very much,” said the actress, who is 9 years old, on the stage of the Berlinale Palast in Berlin, in which she listed several members of her family in her thanks (“to my father, Fernando Otero, the best father of the entire world”) as well as the entire technical and artistic team of the film.
The Golden Bear for best film went to the French documentary Sur l’Adamant, by director Nicolas Philibert, while the Grand Jury Prize and Jury Prize Silver Bears went, respectively, to the German film Roter Himmel, by Christian Petzold. -who on stage paid homage to the recently deceased Spanish director Carlos Saura- and the Portuguese Mal viver, by Joao Canijo, respectively.
Frenchman Philippe Garrel received silver for Best Director for Le grand chariot, and German actress Thea Ehre took silver for Best Supporting Performance for Bis ans Ende der Nacht. The Silver Bear for Best Screenplay went to Angela Schanelec for Music, and for Outstanding Artistic Contribution went to Hélène Louvart for the cinematography of Disco boy.
The Berlin festival thus culminated this Saturday with the official award ceremony of the international Bear jury chaired by the American actress Kristen Stewart, which included the Catalan director Carla Simón, Golden Bear at the Berlinale’2022 with Alcarràs . The rest of the Bears jury included: the Iranian actress Golshifteh Farahani, the German director Valeska Grisebach, the American Francine Maisler, the Romanian director Radu Jude and the Chinese Johnnie To. In total, 19 films of the most diverse genres have competed for the Bears.
Also the Spanish film Samsara, directed by the Galician Lois Patiño, which competed in the Encounters section, dedicated to the new voices of cinema, won the Special Jury Prize, made up of other professionals in the sector, not by the members of the jury of the Bears.
