Berlinale 2024 Awards: Mati Diop’s Doc ‘Dahomey’ Wins Golden Bear
by Alex Billington
February 24, 2024
Source: Berlinale
The 74th Berlin Film Festival (also known as Berlinale locally) has wrapped its 2024 run following two weeks of screenings, with a big ceremony again in Berlin on Saturday evening, announcing the winner of the Golden Bear (Goldener Bär) for Best Film. That top prize from this year was given to yet another intriguing French documentary, this one titled Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop (of the film Atlantics previously). It follows the journey of 26 plundered royal treasures from the Kingdom of Dahomey exhibited in Paris, now being returned to the original home of Benin in Africa. A French documentary also won the Golden Bear last year, too. Is this the hot trend now? The festival also awarded Sebastian Stan for Best Performance; along with Martin Gschlacht for Best Cinematography in the film The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad) – the latest from the Austrian co-directors of Goodnight Mommy and The Lodge previously. The rest of the awards are rather lackluster, but not surprising for this fest. Read on for the full list of Berlinale 2024 winners below.
Here are the top awards at the 74th Berlin Film Festival. For the full list including shorts visit Berlinale.de.
Golden Bear for Best Film
Dahomey, directed by Mati Diop
Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
A Traveler’s Needs (Yeohaengjaui pilyo), directed by Hong Sangsoo
Silver Bear Jury Prize
The Empire (L’Empire), directed by Bruno Dumont
Silver Bear for Best Director
Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias for directing Pepe
Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
Sebastian Stan in A Different Man, directed by Aaron Schimberg
Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
Emily Watson in Small Things Like These, directed by Tim Mielants
Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
Matthias Glasner for Dying (Sterben), also directed by Matthias Glasner
Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution
Martin Gschlacht for the cinematography in The Devil’s Bath (Des Teufels Bad), directed by Veronika Franz & Severin Fiala
Panorama Audience Awards
Memories of a Burning Body (Memorias de un cuerpo que arde), dir. by Antonella Sudasassi Furniss
No Other Land, directed by Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor
That’s a wrap on Berlinale. The main international jury at the 74th Berlin Festival included actress Lupita Nyong’o (as president), Brady Corbet, Ann Hui, Christian Petzold, Albert Serra, Jasmine Trinca, and Oksana Zabuzhko. Congratulations to all of the winners! Once again, lots of political picks and unexpected films appearing on this awards list. I’m not sure why this keeps happening with Berlinale… something about the jury and awards always seems off. Even if there are a few good films in the competition, they never end up winning much. That said, I am glad to see Sebastian Stan winning for A Different Man – one of the better films in the competition line-up, and one of the best performances of 2024 so far. I don’t even recall Emily Watson being in Small Things Like These, which is why it seems like such a strange choice… I hated Pepe, missed The Empire, and skipped Dying because it’s 3 hours long. Most of the other films in the competition were not very good, and my top jury pick would’ve probably been A Different Man anyway. My colleagues also praised Langue Étrangère, My Favourite Cake, and Nepalese film Shambhala (watch the trailer). Not many of these will end up with much of a life beyond Berlinale anyway. Oh well. Onward to the next festival.
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