10 Golden Berlinale Bears: a retrospective
Not all recipients of the Golden Bear are well-remembered. The jury has surely made some questionable calls. But some worthy winners of the coveted competition are timeless works that live on in the annals of film.
2004: 'Head-On'
With Fatih Akin's 2004 Golden Bear for the bold family drama "Head-On," a German film again won the coveted best film award. In was nearly a 20 year wait. The last homegrown work to be crowned was Reinhard Hauff's 1986 drama "Stammheim," the story of the trial of the far-left militant Baader-Meinhof gang in the court of Stammheim prison.
1953: 'The Wages of Fear'
Back in 1951, the Berlin festival awarded various prizes in different film genres. A year later, that was trimmed down to a single top award, the Golden Bear. The winner in 1953: the French-Italian thriller "The Wages of Fear", directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and starring Yves Montand. Even today, it's regarded as a defining action movie.
1959: 'Les Cousins'
"Les Cousins," directed by Claude Chabrol, won the Golden Bear at the 9th Berlin film Festival in 1959. The film was an important early contribution to the French New Wave, a style of film-making which revolutionized cinematic conventions.
1961: 'La Notte'
Two years later, in 1961, the Berlinale jury proved its keen intuition for developments in contemporary film. Michelangelo Antonioni's existentialist drama "La Notte," starring Marcello Mastroianni and Jeanne Moreau, is an Italian neo-realist classic that remains influential to this day.
1976: 'Buffalo Bill and the Indians'
After some relatively uninspiring choices in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the jury in 1976 again awarded the Golden Bear to a remarkable film: Robert Altman's revisionist Western film "Buffalo Bill and the Indians, or Sitting Bull's History Lesson," starring Paul Newman. Altman's film was part of the "New Hollywood" cinema that saw a new generation of young directors redefine US filmmaking.
1982: 'Veronika Voss'
A German film won the coveted Golden Bear again in 1982 with Rainer Werner Fassbinder's "Veronika Voss." The honor for his black and white post-war drama came just in time, too: the prolific German director died a few months later at the age of 37.
1996: 'Sense and Sensibility'
The Golden Bear for Taiwan-born director Ang Lee's "Sense and Sensibility" in 1996 was another excellent choice. The period drama starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet is based on Jane Austen's novel of the same name – and firmly placed the director at the top of his league.
1999: 'The Thin Red Line'
The jury made an even more spectacular choice three years later when it awarded the top Berlinale prize to the epic war film, "The Thin Red Line." The prize also helped American director Terrence Malick reenter the limelight, his first film in 20 years marking a triumphant comeback. The action movie artfully portrayed the Guadalcanal Campaign in the Pacific during World War II.
2002: 'Spirited Away'
The 2002 award for an animated fantasy film, "Spirited Away," came as a surprise. It was the jury's first ever for a cartoon since the Berlinale's very first year, when prizes were awarded in many different categories. But Hayao Miyazaki's poetic animation of a girl in a fantasy world was ultimately a popular choice for Golden Bear.
2015: 'Taxi'
The jury's 2015 Golden Bear winner was no surprise: "Taxi," an Iranian docufiction starring and directed by Jafar Panahi. Some experts said it was a politically motivated choice as the director is banned from making films in his native country. But "Taxi" was most surely also honored for its artistic qualities.