Maria Speth’s Mr Bachmann and His Class
Maria Speth’s Mr Bachmann and His Class was awarded the inaugural Berlinale Competition Audience Award June 20, while The Panorama Audience Award went to The Last Forest (Brazil) by Luiz Bolognesi. For the Competition Audience Award at total of 8,498 ballots were counted while 5,658 ballots were counted to determine the winner of the Panorama Award.
Fifteen films competed for the Berlinale Competition Audience Award while 16 feature films were in the running for the Panorama Audience Awards.
“The mood at the Summer Special is marvellous, and it reaffirms that cinema continues to inspire and move,” the festival announced prior to the award ceremony. The festival was staged in two parts in 2021 due to Covid, with the June component aiming for maximum possible audience participation.
Both prizes were presented by the Berlin International Film Festival together with radioeins and rbb television. The two award ceremonies will take place tonight on June 20, 2021
The 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award:
Mr Bachmann and His Class (Germany) by Maria Speth
In a German city with a complex history of both excluding and integrating foreigners, a charismatic teacher provides his pupils, who all come from different countries originally, with the key to feeling at home in Germany and becoming citizens of the world.
Second and third places:
Ich bin dein Mensch (I’m Your Man) (Germany) by Maria Schrader
Ghasideyeh gave sefid (Ballad of a White Cow, Iran/France) by Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam
The Panorama Audience Award 2021:
The Last Forest (Brazil) by Luiz Bolognesi
In powerful images, alternating between documentary observation and staged sequences, and dense soundscapes, Luiz Bolognesi documents the Indigenous community of the Yanomami and depicts their threatened natural environment in the Amazon rainforest.
Second and third places:
Miguel’s War (Lebanon/Germany/Spain) by Eliane Raheb
Genderation (Germany) by Monika Treut
