One year after Nicolas Philibert's 2023 Golden Bear,French cinema and documentary triumph again at the Berlinale, with two major awards: the Golden Bear for Mati Diop's Dahomey the Silver Bear - Jury Prize for Bruno Dumont's The Empire.
The vitality of French filmmaking was once again confirmed and accentuated at the 74th Berlinale, which explored the full range of genres and formats (fiction, documentary, short film, film essay...) and demonstrated the singularity of filmmakers' points of view, amply rewarded by this year's International Jury chaired by actress Lupita Nyong'o.
The Golden Bear, the Berlinale's top award, went to the documentary Dahomey, by Mati Diop (already winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes 2019 for her debut feature Atlantics: A Ghost Love Story). Dahomey tells the story of the return to Benin in 2021 of 26 works of art looted from the kingdom of Dahomey (present-day Benin) by French colonial troops at the end of the 19th century. Produced by Judith Lou Lévy and Ève Robin (Les Films du Bal) and sold internationally by Les Films du Losange, which is celebrating its 60th anniversary this year and was already responsible for sales of last year's Golden Bear winner On the Adamant. Dahomey has been sold on the VOD platform Mubi, for North America, Latin America, the UK, Ireland, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Turkey, and India.
Winner of the Silver Bear - Jury Prize, Bruno Dumont's The Empire, produced by Tessalit Productions and sold internationally by Memento International,once again demonstrates the originality of its director, who pits extraterrestrial forces – representing Good and Evil – against each other in Northern France, the regular setting for his films, dividing the cast between movie stars and non-professional actors.
The Silver Bear for Best Director went to Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias, behind the film Pepe, a minority-French co-production handled by 4 A 4 Productions.
A total of 17 French productions and co-productions received awards this year.
Unifrance warmly congratulates all the teams behind the films that won awards at the Berlinale.
All the French films that garnered awards at the 74th Berlinale
- Golden Bear for Best Film: Dahomey by Mati Diop
- Silver Bear - Jury Prize: The Empire by Bruno Dumont
- Silver Bear for Best Director: Nelson Carlos de los Santos Arias for Pepe (minority-French co-production)
- Ecumenical Jury Prize - Competition: My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha (minority-French co-production)
- Ecumenical Jury Prize - Special Mention: Intercepted by Oksana Karpovych (minority-French co-production)
- GWFF Best First Feature Award: Cu Li Never Cries by Phạm Ngọc Lân (minority-French co-production)
- FIPRESCI Prize - Competition: My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha (minority-French co-production)
- Encounters - Award for Best Film: Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau and Ben Russell (minority-French co-production)
- Tagesspiegel Readers' Jury Award: A Family by Christine Angot
- Encounters - Award for Best Director: Juliana Rojas for Cidade ; Campo (minority-French co-production)
- FIPRESCI Prize - Panorama: Faruk by Aslı Özge (minority-French co-production)
- Generation 14plus - Grand Prix of the International Jury for Best Film: Who by Fire by Philippe Lesage (minority-French co-production)
- Generation 14plus - Special Mention: Maydegol by Sarvnaz Alambeigi (minority-French co-production)
- Teddy Awards - Jury Prize: Crossing by Levan Akin ((minority-French co-production)
- AG Kinos - Gilde Prize - Honorable Mention: Disco Afrika: A Malagasy Story by Luck Razanajaona (minority-French co-production)
- Tagesspiegel Readers' Jury Award - Mention Speciale: Direct Action by Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell (minority-French co-production)
For short films
- Crystal Bear for the Best Short Film: Butterfly by Florence Miailhe
Media Gallery
