Berlin International Film Festival announces gender-neutral acting awards, see statement

Berlin International Film Festival directors recently announced that the annual event will undergo a major change in the year 2021. Directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian announced that the Silver Bear acting prizes will go gender-neutral. This would be applicable beginning with the 2021 festival. They also released a statement regarding the same.

The statement read, “Instead of the awards for the Best Actor and the Best Actress, a ‘Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance’ and a ‘Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance’ shall each be awarded on a gender-neutral basis. We believe that not separating the awards in the acting field according to gender comprises a signal for a more gender-sensitive awareness in the film industry.”

The Silver Bear prizes for the male and female actor has been given since 1956. Berlin International Film Festival would be the first major international film festival to switch to gender-neutral awards. In the 2020 Berlin International Film Festival, Elio Germano and Paula Beer were the awardees for the Best Actor and Actress awards.

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Berlin International Film Festival directors talk about offline events

In an interview with Indiewire, the directors of the Berlin International Film Festival said that festivals and markets are places of encounter and communication. They added that this applies to the public as well as the industry. Thee directors mentioned that they see an important and unique feature of festivals in their lively relationship with the audience.

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They further said that in times of the corona pandemic, it has become even clearer that they still require analogue experience spaces in the cultural realm. They ended the conversation saying that they are pleased that festivals with physically present audiences are slowly taking place again around the world and they wish their colleagues much success. The 71^st Berlin International Film Festival festival will take place on February 11 and 12. 

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The International Jury of Competition will award the following eight prizes in 2021:

• Golden Bear for Best Film (awarded to the film’s producers)
• Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
• Silver Bear for Best Director
• Silver Bear Jury Prize
• Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
• Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
• Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
• Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution

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