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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]
 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]
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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
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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 |
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The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:[7][11]
Main Competition
- 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
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FIPRESCI Award
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