The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009.[2] The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition.[3] Costa-Gavras's immigrant drama Eden Is West served as the closing night film at the festival.[4][5] The festival's jury president was actress Tilda Swinton of the United Kingdom.[6]
The Golden Bear was awarded to Peruvian film La Teta Asustada directed by Claudia Llosa.[7] The retrospective dedicated to the Golden Age of 70mm filmmaking from 1955 to 1970, titled 70 mm – Bigger than Life was shown at the festival.[8]
Admission for the festival was reported to be among the highest in years, and it also set a record for ticket sales, with some 270,000 tickets sold by the halfway mark, compared to 240,000 sold for the entire run of the festival the previous year.[9] The final ticket tally was the largest in the festival’s 59-year history.[9]
Jury
The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:[10]
- Tilda Swinton (United Kingdom) – Jury President
- Isabel Coixet (Spain)
- Gaston Kaboré (Burkina Faso)
- Henning Mankell (Sweden)
- Christoph Schlingensief (Germany) Schlingensief died of lung cancer on August 21, 2010 in Berlin, Germany at age 49.
- Wayne Wang (USA)
- Alice Waters (USA)
In competition
The following films were selected in competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:[1]
Out of competition screening
The following films were selected for the out of competition screening at the festival:[1]
Key
Awards
The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:[7][11]
The Golden Bear went to La teta asustada by Claudia Llosa.
- Jury Grand Prix (Grand Prize of the Jury): Adrián Biniez for Gigante and Maren Ade for Alle Anderen
- Best Director: Asghar Farhadi for Darbereye Elly
- Best Actor: Sotigui Kouyaté for London River
- Best Actress: Birgit Minichmayr for Alle Anderen
- Best Script: Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger
- Outstanding Artistic Contribution (sound design): György Kovács, Gábor ifj. Erdélyi and Tamás Székely. for Katalin Varga
- Alfred Bauer Prize: Andrzej Wajda for Tatarak and Adrián Biniez for Gigante
- FIPRESCI Award: Claudia Llosa for La teta asustada