Golden Bear

For other uses, see Golden Bear (disambiguation).

Golden Bear
Goldener Bär (German)
Location	Berlin
Country	Germany
Presented by	Berlin International Film Festival
First awarded	1951
Last awarded	2024
Winner	Dahomey by Mati Diop
Website	www.berlinale.de

The Golden Bear (German: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.

History

The winners of the first Berlin International Film Festival in 1951 were determined by a West German panel, with five winners of the Golden Bear, divided by categories and genres.^[1]

Between 1952 and 1955, the winners of the Golden Bear were determined by the audience members.^[2]

In 1956, the Fédération Internationale des Associations de Producteurs de Films formally accredited the festival, and since then, the Golden Bear has been awarded by an international jury.^[2]

The award

The statuette shows a bear standing on its hind legs and is based on the 1932 design by German sculptor Renée Sintenis of Berlin's heraldic mascot that later became the symbol of the festival. It has been manufactured since either the first^[3] or third^[4] edition by art foundry Hermann Noack.^[5]

The original award was redesigned in a larger version in 1960,^[6] with the left arm of the bear raised as opposed to the right in the former model.^[7]

As of 2010^[update], the bear is 20 cm (7.9 in) high and is fixed onto a base where the winning name is engraved.^[8] The figurine consists of a bronze core, which is then plated with a layer of gold. The total weight of the award is 4 kg (8.8 lb).^[9]

Winners

Mati Diop with the Golden Bear for Dahomey in 2024

Nicolas Philibert with the Golden Bear for On the Adamant in 2023

Carla Simón with the Golden Bear for Alcarràs in 2022

Adina Pintilie with the Golden Bear for Touch Me Not in 2018

Year	English Title	Original title	Director(s)	Production Country
1951: West German Jury Vote
1951 (1st)	Four in a Jeep (Drama)	Die Vier im Jeep	Leopold Lindtberg	Switzerland
	Without Leaving an Address (Comedy)	...Sans laisser d'adresse	Jean-Paul Le Chanois	France
	In Beaver Valley (Documentary)		James Algar	United States
	Justice Is Done (Thriller & Adventure)	Justice est faite	André Cayatte	France
	Cinderella (Music Film)		Wilfred Jackson	United States
1952–1955: Audience Vote
1952 (2nd)	One Summer of Happiness	Hon dansade en sommar	Arne Mattsson	Sweden
1953 (3rd)	The Wages of Fear	Le salaire de la peur	Henri-Georges Clouzot	France, Italy
1954 (4th)	Hobson's Choice		David Lean	United Kingdom
1955 (5th)	Die Ratten		Robert Siodmak	West Germany
1956–present: International Jury
1956 (6th)	Invitation to the Dance		Gene Kelly	United States
1957 (7th)	12 Angry Men		Sidney Lumet
1958 (8th)	Wild Strawberries	Smultronstället	Ingmar Bergman	Sweden
1959 (9th)	Les Cousins		Claude Chabrol	France
1960s
1960 (10th)	El Lazarillo de Tormes		César Fernández Ardavín	Spain
1961 (11th)	La Notte		Michelangelo Antonioni	Italy
1962 (12th)	A Kind of Loving		John Schlesinger	United Kingdom
1963 (13th)	Bushido, Samurai Saga	武士道残酷物語	Tadashi Imai	Japan
	To Bed or Not to Bed	Il diavolo	Gian Luigi Polidoro	Italy
1964 (14th)	Dry Summer	Susuz yaz	Metin Erksan	Turkey
1965 (15th)	Alphaville	Alphaville, une étrange aventure de Lemmy Caution	Jean-Luc Godard	France, Italy
1966 (16th)	Cul-de-Sac		Roman Polanski	United Kingdom
1967 (17th)	The Departure	Le départ	Jerzy Skolimowski	Belgium
1968 (18th)	Who Saw Him Die?	Ole dole doff	Jan Troell	Sweden
1969 (19th)	Early Works	Rani radovi	Želimir Žilnik	Yugoslavia
1970s
1970 (20th)	No awards given because of the controversy surrounding Michael Verhoeven's anti-war film o.k., which led to the resignation of the international jury before the end of the festival.[10]
1971 (21st)	The Garden of the Finzi-Continis	Il giardino dei Finzi Contini	Vittorio De Sica	West Germany, Italy
1972 (22nd)	The Canterbury Tales	I racconti di Canterbury	Pier Paolo Pasolini	Italy
1973 (23rd)	Distant Thunder	অশনি সংকেত	Satyajit Ray	India
1974 (24th)	The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz		Ted Kotcheff	Canada
1975 (25th)	Adoption	Örökbefogadás	Márta Mészáros	Hungary
1976 (26th)	Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson		Robert Altman	United States
1977 (27th)	The Ascent	Восхождение	Larisa Shepitko	Soviet Union
1978 (28th)	Ascensor		Tomás Muñoz	Spain
	Las truchas		José Luis García Sánchez
	What Max Said	Las palabras de Max	Emilio Martínez-Lázaro
1979 (29th)	David		Peter Lilienthal	West Germany
1980s
1980 (30th)	Heartland		Richard Pearce	United States
	Palermo or Wolfsburg	Palermo oder Wolfsburg	Werner Schroeter	West Germany
1981 (31st)	Deprisa, deprisa		Carlos Saura	Spain
1982 (32nd)	Veronika Voss	Die Sehnsucht der Veronika Voss	Rainer Werner Fassbinder	West Germany
1983 (33rd)	Ascendancy		Edward Bennett	United Kingdom
	La colmena		Mario Camus	Spain
1984 (34th)	Love Streams		John Cassavetes	United States
1985 (35th)	Wetherby		David Hare	United Kingdom
	The Woman and the Stranger	Die Frau und der Fremde	Rainer Simon	East Germany
1986 (36th)	Stammheim	Stammheim – Die Baader-Meinhof-Gruppe vor Gericht	Reinhard Hauff	West Germany
1987 (37th)	The Theme	Teмa	Gleb Panfilov	Soviet Union
1988 (38th)	Red Sorghum	红高粱	Zhang Yimou	China
1989 (39th)	Rain Man		Barry Levinson	United States
1990s
1990 (40th)	Larks on a String	Skřivánci na niti	Jiří Menzel	Czechoslovakia
	Music Box		Costa-Gavras	United States
1991 (41st)	The House of Smiles	La casa del sorriso	Marco Ferreri	Italy
1992 (42nd)	Grand Canyon		Lawrence Kasdan	United States
1993 (43rd)	The Wedding Banquet	喜宴	Ang Lee	Taiwan, United States
	Woman Sesame Oil Maker	香魂女	Xie Fei	China
1994 (44th)	In the Name of the Father		Jim Sheridan	United Kingdom, Ireland
1995 (45th)	The Bait	L'appât	Bertrand Tavernier	France
1996 (46th)	Sense and Sensibility		Ang Lee	United States
1997 (47th)	The People vs. Larry Flynt		Miloš Forman
1998 (48th)	Central Station	Central do Brasil	Walter Salles	Brazil, France
1999 (49th)	The Thin Red Line		Terrence Malick	United States
2000s
2000 (50th)	Magnolia		Paul Thomas Anderson	United States
2001 (51st)	Intimacy		Patrice Chéreau	France
2002 (52nd)	Bloody Sunday		Paul Greengrass	United Kingdom, Ireland
	Spirited Away	千と千尋の神隠し	Hayao Miyazaki	Japan
2003 (53rd)	In This World		Michael Winterbottom	United Kingdom
2004 (54th)	Head-On	Gegen die Wand	Fatih Akin	Germany
2005 (55th)	U-Carmen eKhayelitsha		Mark Dornford-May	South Africa
2006 (56th)	Grbavica		Jasmila Žbanić	Bosnia and Herzegovina
2007 (57th)	Tuya's Marriage	图雅的婚事	Wang Quan'an	China
2008 (58th)	Elite Squad	Tropa de Elite	José Padilha	Brazil
2009 (59th)	The Milk of Sorrow	La teta asustada	Claudia Llosa	Spain, Peru
2010s
2010 (60th)	Honey	Bal	Semih Kaplanoğlu	Turkey
2011 (61st)	A Separation	جدایی نادر از سیمین	Asghar Farhadi	Iran
2012 (62nd)	Caesar Must Die	Cesare deve morire	Paolo and Vittorio Taviani	Italy
2013 (63rd)	Child's Pose	Poziția copilului	Călin Peter Netzer	Romania
2014 (64th)	Black Coal, Thin Ice	白日焰火	Diao Yinan	China
2015 (65th)	Taxi	تاکسی	Jafar Panahi	Iran
2016 (66th)	Fire at Sea	Fuocoammare	Gianfranco Rosi	Italy
2017 (67th)	On Body and Soul	Testről és lélekről	Ildikó Enyedi	Hungary
2018 (68th)	Touch Me Not	Nu mă atinge-mă	Adina Pintilie	Romania
2019 (69th)	Synonyms	Synonymes	Nadav Lapid	France, Israel
2020s
2020 (70th)	There Is No Evil	شیطان وجود ندارد	Mohammad Rasoulof	Iran
2021 (71st)	Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn	Babardeală cu bucluc sau porno balamuc	Radu Jude	Romania
2022 (72nd)	Alcarràs		Carla Simón	Spain, Italy
2023 (73rd)	On the Adamant	Sur l'Adamant	Nicolas Philibert	France, Japan
2024 (74th)	Dahomey		Mati Diop	France, Senegal, Benin

Multiple winners

As of 2023, only Ang Lee has won the award twice, in 1993 with The Wedding Banquet, and in 1996 with Sense and Sensibility.

See also

• Golden Lion, the highest prize awarded at the Venice Film Festival
• Palme d'Or, the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival
• Silver Bear and other awards at the Berlin International Film Festival

References

1. "Juries 1951".
2. "- Berlinale – Archive – Annual Archives – 1952 – Juries".
3. "Eventful Berlinale". deutschland.de. 19 February 2020. Retrieved 9 April 2020.
4. François, Emmanuelle (2 March 2018). "The woman behind the Bär". Exberliner. Retrieved 23 September 2022.
5. "Making of the bear: Berlin International Film Festival trophy". Daily Sabah. 7 February 2022. Retrieved 25 February 2023.
6. "Große kleine Tiere". Cicero (in German). Retrieved 9 April 2019.
7. English, James F. (2008). The Economy of Prestige: prizes, awards, and the circulation of cultural value. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press. pp. 167–168. ISBN 978-0-674-03043-5.
8. Günther, Ulrich (19 February 2010). "Berlinale Cineasten blicken auf den Bären". Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 9 April 2019.
9. "In pictures". Novinite. 8 February 2010. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
10. "Berlinale 1970: Prize Winners". berlinale.de. Retrieved 7 March 2010.

External links

• Berlinale website
• IMDb