59th Berlin International Film Festival

The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009.^[2] The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition.^[3] Costa-Gavras's Eden Is West served as the closing night film at the festival.^[4][5] The festival's jury president was the British actress Tilda Swinton.^[6]

59th Berlin International Film Festival

Festival poster
Opening film	The International
Closing film	Eden Is West
Location	Berlin, Germany
Founded	1951
Awards	Golden Bear: The Milk of Sorrow
No. of films	383 films[1]
Festival date	5–15 February 2009
Website	Website

The Golden Bear was awarded to Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow directed by Claudia Llosa.^[7] The retrospective dedicated to the Golden Age of 70mm filmmaking from 1955 to 1970, titled 70mm – Bigger than Life was shown at the festival.^[8]

Admission for the festival was reported to be among the highest in years, and it also set a record for ticket sales, with some 270,000 tickets sold by the halfway mark, compared to 240,000 sold for the entire run of the festival the previous year.^[9] The final ticket tally was the largest in the festival's 59-year history.^[9]

Juries

Tilda Swinton, Jury President

The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:^[10]

Main Competition

• Tilda Swinton, British actress - Jury President
• Isabel Coixet, Spanish filmmaker
• Gaston Kaboré, Burkinabé filmmaker
• Henning Mankell, Swedish writer
• Christoph Schlingensief, German playwright and director
• Wayne Wang, Hong Kong director, screenwriter and producer
• Alice Waters, American author

Best First Feature Award Jury

• Hannah Herzsprung, German actress
• In-Ah Lee, German producer
• Rafi Pitts, Iranian director

International Short Film Jury

• Khavn De La Cruz, Filipino director, screenwriter and producer
• Arta Dobroshi, Kosovo actress
• Lars Henrik Gass, German director of the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen

Official Sections

Main Competition

The following films were selected in competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:^[1]

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production Country
About Elly	درباره الی	Asghar Farhadi	Iran
Cheri		Stephen Frears	United Kingdom
Everyone Else	Alle Anderen	Maren Ade	Germany
Forever Enthralled	梅蘭芳	Chen Kaige	China
Giant	Gigante	Adrián Biniez	Uruguay, Germany, Argentina
Happy Tears		Mitchell Lichtenstein	United States
In the Electric Mist		Bertrand Tavernier
Katalin Varga		Peter Strickland	Romania, United Kingdom, Hungary
Little Soldier		Annette K. Olesen	Denmark
London River		Rachid Bouchareb	France, United Kingdom
Mammoth	Mammut	Lukas Moodysson	Sweden, Germany, Denmark
The Messenger		Oren Moverman	United States
The Milk of Sorrow	La Teta Asustada	Claudia Llosa	Peru
My One and Only		Richard Loncraine	United States
Rage		Sally Potter	United Kingdom, United States
Ricky		François Ozon	France, Italy
Storm	Sturm	Hans-Christian Schmid	Germany, Denmark
Sweet Rush	Tatarak	Andrzej Wajda	Poland

Out of Competition

The following films were selected for the out of competition screening at the festival:^[1]

English title	Original title	Director(s)	Production Country
Eden Is West (closing film)	Eden à l'ouest	Costa-Gavras	France, Greece
The Dust of Time	Η Σκόνη του Χρόνου	Theo Angelopoulos	Greece, Germany, Italy, Russia
Germany 09: 13 Short Films About the State of the Nation	Deutschland 09 – 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation	Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmakar, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhäusler, Dani Levy and Angela Schanelec	Germany
The International (opening film)		Tom Tykwer	United States
Notorious		George Tillman Jr.
The Private Lives of Pippa Lee		Rebecca Miller
The Reader	The Reader	Stephen Daldry	United Kingdom, Germany

Official Awards

Claudia Llosa, winner of the Golden Bear at the festival

The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:^[7][11]

Main Competition

• Golden Bear: The Milk of Sorrow by Claudia Llosa

• Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize:
  • Adrián Biniez for Giant
  • Maren Ade for Everyone Else
• Silver Bear for Best Director: Asghar Farhadi for About Elly
• Silver Bear for Best Actor: Sotigui Kouyaté for London River
• Silver Bear for Best Actress: Birgit Minichmayr for Everyone Else
• Silver Bear for Best Screenplay: Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger
• Outstanding Artistic Contribution: György Kovács, Gábor ifj. Erdélyi and Tamás Székely for Katalin Varga (sound design)
• Alfred Bauer Prize:
  • Andrzej Wajda for Tatarak
  • Adrián Biniez for Giant

Independent Awards

FIPRESCI Award

• Claudia Llosa for The Milk of Sorrow

References

1. "PROGRAMME 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 9 November 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
2. "59TH BERLIN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL FEBRUARY 5 - 15, 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 4 November 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
3. "59th Berlinale kicks off with The International on Barco's digital cinema projectors". barco.com. Archived from the original on 1 July 2018. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
4. "BERLINALE 2009 COMES TO A SUCCESSFUL CLOSE: A FANTASTIC ATMOSPHERE AND ENTHUSIASTIC AUDIENCES". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 30 March 2010. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
5. "'Milk of Sorrow' wins Golden Bear". variety.com. 14 February 2009. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
6. Berlinale 2009: Academy Award–Winner Tilda Swinton will be Jury President
7. "PRIZES & HONOURS 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 15 October 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
8. "RETROSPECTIVE". Archived from the original on 4 March 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2014.
9. Scott Roxborough (2009-02-11). "Berlinale to break sales record". The Hollywood Reporter.
10. "JURIES 2009". berlinale.de. Archived from the original on 23 October 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.
11. "2009 Berlin Awards" (PDF). berlinale.de. Archived (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2013. Retrieved 10 June 2014.

External links

• Yearbook 2009 at berlinale.de
• 59th Berlin International Film Festival 2009