The up-and-coming French actor Anthony Bajon was awarded the Silver Bear for Best Actor at the Berlin International Film Festival for his performance in Cédric Kahn's film The Prayer. French productions also picked up other awards at the 68th edition of this major international festival.
The 68th Berlinale, which took place from January 15 to 25, 2018, with a jury led by the German director Tom Tykwer, handed out is major prizes at its closing ceremony held Saturday, February 24.
The Prayer by Cédric Kahn, one of two French productions in the Official Competition (produced by Les films du Worso, with international sales handled by Le Pacte), was honored with the Silver Bear for Best Actor for the outstanding performance by Anthony Bajon. Aged just 23, this young actor had already attracted attention in supporting roles in films such as Ogres, Maryline, Irreplaceable, Rodin, and Golden Years. In The Prayer he plays Thomas, who, in order to break his drug habit, heads to the mountains to join a community run by former drug addicts who heal themselves through prayer.
Anthony Bajon is the seventh French actor to have won the Silver Bear Award in Berlin, following in the footsteps of Jean Gabin (who won the award in 1969 and 1971), Jean-Pierre Léaud (1966), Michel Simon (1967), Jean-Louis Trintignant (1968), Michel Piccoli (1982), and Jacques Gamblin (2002).
At the summit of this year's awards list is Touch Me Not by Adina Pintilie, a Romanian film co-produced by the French production company Les Films de l'Étranger, which was crowned with the Golden Bear for Best Film. The Silver Bear for Best Actress (for Ana Brun) and the Alfred Bauer Prize were also awarded to another (minority) French co-production, La Fabrica Nocturna Cinéma.
Two other awards went to French productions in the festival's parallel sections: Cléo & Paul by Stéphane Demoustier (Special Mention from the International Jury International, Generation K Plus) and In The Realm of Perfection by Julien Faraut (Best Film, Readers of the Tagesspiegel Prize).
The official awards list for the 68th Berlin International Film Festival can be viewed here.
The complete list of awards in the festival's parallel sections can be viewed here.
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