New Strides for Women at Berlinale, but the Boy's Club Still Rules

by Rose Finlay

At first it seemed that this year was going to be the year for women at Berlinale with four out of the seven Jury members being women and Festival director Dieter Kosslick saying, "Women are front and center in many films, and many were made by women as well." However, while many of the films have female leads (including Golden Bear winner Child's Pose), only two of the fifteen Competition films were directed by women (Elle s'en va (On my Way) by Emmanuelle Bercot and Layla Fourie by Pia Marais). Of the International Jury prizes, none of the winners were directed by women.

While there was a clear attempt to bring women to the fore at the 2013 Berlin International Film Festival, it is clear from the awards results and from the amount of films directed by women presented at the higher levels of the festival that there is still a long way to go before there will actually be a woman-highlighted year at Berlinale.

Listed below are the woman-directed films to receive awards:

Special Mention: 

"Layla Fourie" by Pia Marais (Germany/South Africa/France/The Netherlands)

Crystal Bear for the Best 14plus Feature Film:

"Baby Blues" by Kasia Rosłaniec (Poland)

Special Mention: "Pluto" by Shin Su-won (Republic of Korea)

Crystal Bear for the Best 14plus Short Film:

"Rabbitland" by Ana Nedeljković, Nikola Majdak (Serbia)

Special Mention: "Treffit" by Jenni Toivoniemi (Finland)

Panorama Section Audience Award, Fiction Film

Third Place: "Inch'Allah" by Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette (Canada/France)

Panorama Section Audience Award, Documentary Film

Second Place: "Salma" by Kim Longinotto (Great Britain)

Special Mention for Best Kplus Feature Film, The Grand Prix of the Generation Kplus International Jury for Best Feature Film

 "Satellite Boy" by Catriona McKenzie (Australia)

The Teddy Awards for queer films were also given out.

Best Queer Feature: “W imie… (In the Name of)” by Malgoska Szumowska

2013 Teddy Jury Award: “Concussion” by Stacie Passon

Heiner Carow Prize: “Naked Opera” by Angela Christlie