Berlin, Feb. 17 (BUS): Catalan family drama “Alcarràs” won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Director Carla Simon’s film was selected from among 18 fields by a seven-member jury under the supervision of American director M. Night Shyamalan.
He said the film was honored “for its extraordinary performance, from child actors to actors in their ’80s, for its ability to demonstrate tenderness and family comedy and struggle, and for betraying our connection and dependence on the land around us.”
The film depicts a family spending the summer picking peaches in a village orchard in Catalonia, Spain, but encountering new owners who plan to replace their peach trees with solar panels, The Associated Press reports.
Meltem Captan won Best Leading Performance for his leading role in German director Andreas Driessen’s “Spring of Kornaz vs. George W. Bush”.
She played the mother of a German-born Turkish man, Murat Kurnaz, who was held as a terrorist suspect at Guantanamo Bay for four years. He was released in 2006 and returned to Germany after a US federal judge found the evidence did not justify his arrest and then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel intervened.
The Blonds ends fashion week with two sexy vampires, a trio of wriggling
French director Claire Denis has been chosen as the best director for her new film “Both Sides of the Blade” starring Juliette Binoche.
And it won the Grand Jury Prize for the Korean film “Feature Film” directed by Hong Sangsu.
The Berlin event is the first of this year’s major European film festivals. It has moved forward this year with a reduced format designed to bring back the masses while at the same time reducing the risk of COVID-19 infection.