Teddy Awards for queer films presented at Berlinale

The Teddy Awards for queer cinema were presented on the sidelines of the Berlin International Film Festival, the Berlinale, on Friday evening.

In addition, the winners of the categories Perspektive Deutsches Kino, an award for German cinema, and Generation 14plus were announced.

At the Teddy Awards, the international jury screens films with a queer context from all sections of the film festival. Three films are then nominated in each category.

The Teddy for Best Feature Film went to the Nigerian production “All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White” by Babatunde Apalowo. It is about the rapprochement of two men in a society that makes same-sex sexual relationships taboo.

“Orlando, ma biographie politique” (Orlando, My Political Biography) by Paul Preciado won the award for best documentary film. The director’s work is based on Virginia Woolf’s novel “Orlando” about a young man who ends up being a 36-year-old woman. The film tells the story of many different people around the world, aged between 8 and 70, who have undergone such a transformation.

Best Short Film was awarded to “Marungka Tjalatjunu” (Dipped in Black) by Matthew Thorne and Derik Lynch.

The Jury’s Teddy Award went to “Silver Haze” by Sacha Polak.

A Special Teddy went to the directors of the Molodist Film Festival in Kiev, Andriy Khalpakhchi and Bohdan Zhuk.

There were also awards in the Berlinale section Perspektive Deutsches Kino (German Cinema Perspective). The Kompass Perspective Award for Best Film, endowed with €5,000 ($5,275), went to Steffi Niederzoll for “Seven Winters in Tehran”. It tells the story of a young woman who resists institutionalized male violence.

The international jury prize of €7,500 in the Generation 14plus section for the best film went to Silvia Del Carmen Castaños and Estefanía Contreras from the US for “Hummingbirds.”