'Fire at Sea' Migrant Documentary Wins Berlinale 2016 Golden Bear

As another film festival comes to an end, it's time to celebrate and commemorate with the announcement of the awards. The 66th Berlin Film Festival just ended (my own recap is coming soon), and the winners were announced at the Closing Ceremony, including the winner of the coveted Golden Bear for Best Film. That top prize was given to a film called Fire at Sea, a documentary from filmmaker Gianfranco Rosi about migrants crossing the Mediterranean and the refugee crisis affecting Europe and the Middle East. A very political choice, considering how important the issue is right now, but not unexpected. French filmmaker Mia Hansen-Løve won a Silver Bear for Best Director for the film Things to Come. See all winners below.

Here are the top awards at the 66th Berlin Film Festival. For the full list including shorts visit Berlinale.de.

Golden Bear for Best Film
Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare), directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
Death in Sarajevo (Mort à Sarajevo), directed by Danis Tanovic

Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for a feature film that opens new perspectives
A Lullaby to the Sorrowful Mystery (the 8 hour-long film), directed by Lav Diaz

Silver Bear for Best Director
Mia Hansen-Løve for directing Things to Come (L'avenir)

Silver Bear for Best Actress
Trine Dyrholm in The Commune (Kollektivet), directed by Thomas Vinterberg

Silver Bear for Best Actor
Majd Mastour in Hedi (Inhebbek Hedi), directed by Mohamed Ben Attia

Silver Bear for Best Script
Tomasz Wasilewski for writing United States of Love (Zjednoczone stany miłości)

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Mark Lee Ping-Bing for the cinematography in Crosscurrent, directed by Yang Chao

Best First Feature Award endowed with €50,000, funded by GWFF
Hedi (Inhebbek Hedi), directed by Mohamed Ben Attia

READERS' JURIES AND AUDIENCE AWARDS:

Panorama Audience Award for a Fiction Film
Junction 48, directed by Udi Aloni

Panorama Audience Award for a Documentary Film
Who's Gonna Love Me Now?, directed by Barak Heymann & Tomer Heymann

Teddy Audience Award
Paris 05:59, directed by Jacques Martineau & Olivier Ducastel

Berliner Morgenpost Readers' Jury Award
Fire at Sea (Fuocoammare), directed by Gianfranco Rosi

Tagesspiegel Readers' Jury Award
We Are Never Alone, directed by Petr Vaclav

Männer Magazin Readers' Jury Award
Don't Call Me Son, directed by Anna Muylaert

That puts a final cap on the 66th Berlin Film Festival, wrapping up 10 days of cinema in Germany, as well as our own coverage here on FirstShowing. Berlinale is another prominent film festival taking place early every year, showcasing fantastic films from all over the world. The 2016 international jury included: Meryl Streep (President), Lars Eidinger, Nick James, Brigitte Lacombe, Clive Owen, Alba Rohrwacher and Małgorzata Szumowska. I unfortunately missed Fire at Sea, but was lucky to catch Things to Come, Being 17 and 24 Weeks, as well as plenty other films, but I think those three were the best of the festival this year. Overall an interesting set of Berlinale winners for 2016. Watch out for these films and others playing at festivals soon.

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