List of winners of the 2024 Berlin Film Festival

Dahomeya documentary by French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

The multifaceted documentary essay explores the return, in November 2021, of the looted royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.

As she took the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, shouting, “I stand with Palestine!”

President of the jury, the Oscar winner 12 years of slavery and Black Panther Actress Lupita Nyong’o announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast on Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first black and the first African to chair the Berlinale jury.

Dahomey It is only the second African film to win the top prize in Berlin, after Mark Dornford-May’s South African operatic drama. Breathe Umphefumlo (U-Carmen eKhayelitsha) in 2015. Art streamer Mubi picked up Dahomey for North America and much of the world in a deal announced Friday.

Dahomey It is also the second consecutive documentary to win the Berlin Golden Bear, after In the Adamant by French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert last year.

Hong Sangsoo, a regular on the Berlinale awards stage: he won back-to-back Silver Bears in 2020 (The woman who ran), 2021 (Introduction) and 2022 (The novelist’s film) — turned it into a quartet on Saturday, winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for The needs of a traveler. The project marks his third collaboration with French star Isabelle Huppert, after In other country (2012) and Claire’s camera (2017). Finecut is selling The needs of a traveler internationally.

The award for best director went to Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias for Pepe, an unclassifiable mix of documentary and fiction about a hippopotamus brought to Colombia by drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. (The film is narrated by the hippopotamus.) Bruno Dumont’s science fiction parody The Empirewhich sells Memento International, took home the jury’s Silver Bear.

MCU alum Sebastian Stan won the Berlin Silver Bear for best leading performance for his role in Aaron Schimberg’s twisted fable set in New York. A different manin which he plays a man who undergoes radical plastic surgery and begins to question his own identity.

“This is my first European film festival,” Stan said. “For a Romanian child, this is very meaningful to me, so thank you.” A24 produced A different man and will be released in the United States.

Emily Watson won best supporting actor for playing a terrifying nun opposite star Cillian Murphy in Tim Mielants’ Ireland-set drama. Little things like this. FilmNation is handling international sales for the film.

In a gesture toward the political debate surrounding the war in Gaza, which has overshadowed much of the film debate at this year’s Berlinale, the international jury awarded a special prize to the documentary no other land. The project, directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, is a sobering look at the Israeli government’s attempts to expel Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a rural village in the occupied West Bank. no other land screened in Berlin’s Panorama side section, where it won the audience award for best documentary. Taking the stage, two of the film’s directors, an Israeli and a Palestinian, called on the “powerful people in this room” to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and “stop Israel’s occupation” of the West Bank. At the very least, one of the directors said, Germany should stop supplying weapons to Israel.

Juliana Rojas, who won the Encuentros award for best director for city; fieldHe also took advantage of the Berlinale stage to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, as did Ben Russell and co-director Guillaume Cailleau, winners of the best film award in the Encounters section for Direct action. “We are against genocide,” Russell said.

Two of this year’s critical favorites: Matthias Glasner’s German melodrama Sterben (Dying) and The devil’s bathan Austrian horror film Good night mom Directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala collected both Silver Bears. Glasner received one for best screenplay and The devil’s bath Cinematographer Martin Gschlacht took home the trophy in the “Outstanding Artistic Contribution” category. The Match Factory is selling Sterben worldwide, with Playtime management The devil’s bath.

This is the fifth and final Berlinale under the artistic direction of Carlo Chatrian, who, along with Berlinale general director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, will leave the Berlinale this year and will be replaced by former London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle , who will take on a double role.

Winners of the 74th edition of the Berlinale

Golden Bear for Best Film

Dahomey dir. Mati Diop

Silver Bear Jury Grand Prize

The needs of a traveler dir. Hong Sangsoo

Silver Bear Jury Award

The Empire dir. Bruno Dumont

Silver Bear for Best Director

Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias by Pepe

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance

Sebastian Stan by A different man

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance

Emily Watson by Little things like this

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay

Matías Glasner by Sterben (Dying)

Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution

Martin Gschlacht for the cinematography of The devil’s bath

The best movie

Direct action directories. Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell

best director

city; field dir. Juliana Rojas

Special Jury Prize (ex aequo)

The big yawn of history dir. Aliyar Rasti, Some rain must fall dir. Qiu Yang

GWFF Award for Best First Feature

Cu Li never cries dir. Pham Ngoc Lan

Berlinale Documentary Award

no other land directories. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor

Berlinale Short Film Awards

Golden Bear Best Short Film

A strange twist dir. Francisco Lezama

Silver Bear Jury Award

Remnants of the hot day dir. Zhang Wenqian

An earlier version of this story misidentified actress Emily Watson as Emma Watson.