Berlinale: Teddy Awards Lineup Offers a Surprising Cross-Section of New Queer Cinema
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Now in its 35th year, the Teddy Awards are among the Berlinale’s most affectionately regarded institutions. Presented annually to standout LGBTQ-themed titles across the festival’s entire lineup, they have a looser, hipper, more inclusive reputation than other Berlin prizes: fittingly, they’re annually presented not at an exclusive black-tie affair, but a publicly accessible ceremony followed by an almighty dance-’til-dawn party.
Yet the Teddys’ prestige survives their informality. Surveying their list of past winners, it’s notable how many defining queer works have been recognized along the way: from Pedro Almodóvar’s “Law of Desire” (the inaugural winner, in 1987) to Cheryl Dunye’s “The Watermelon Woman,” from Derek Jarman’s “The Last of England” to John Cameron Mitchell’s “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” from Sebasti
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A spider crawls on Lisa’s (Liliane Amuat) back and Mara (Henriette Confurius) creates uninterrupted surface from Lisa’s back, her shoulders, her clothes to Mara’s hand.
They exchange the spider hand to hand in smooth, lyrical motions and then transfer it back on the wall.
It’s the new Zürcher brothers’ film, Das Mädchen und die Spinne or The Girl and the Spider, premiering at the 71st Berlin International Film Festival.
And just like this smooth transition of movements and energies where there would otherwise be chaos, the brothers craft another tale within interiors (like their earlier feature The Strange Little Cat) with abundant chaotic forces at play but with filmmaking that is fluid and always in control, showing a lot and trusting us to take in little by little.
Loveling Director Gustavo Pizzi on Berlinale Series Standout The Last Days of Gilda
Emiliano Granada, provided by
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One thing’s clear from the 2021 Berlin Film Festival’s get-go: Its Berlinale Series strand grows stronger every year, and features for the first time two Latin America series which underscore the creative excitement of the limited miniseries format.
“The Last Days Of Gilda,” Gustavo Pizzi and star Karine Teles’ adaptation of the same-titled stage play by Rodrigo de Roure is in its style, a playful portrayal of a woman trapped in a political and social tsunami now storming Brazil.
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Ramon and Silvan Zurcher on the Controlled Chaos of Shooting Berlin Encounters Player The Girl and the Spider
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Director: Ramon Zürcher, Silvan Zürcher
With: Henriette Confurius, Liliane Amuat, Ursina Lardi, Flurin Giger, André M. Hennicke, Ivan Georgiev, Dagna Litzenberger Vinet, Lea Draeger, Sabine Timoteo, Birte Schnöink. (German dialogue)
Running time: Running time: 98 MIN.
Credit: Zurcher Film
It’s been eight years since twin brother directing duo Ramon and Silvan Zürcher’s “The Strange Little Cat” caught the eye of audiences around the world, playing at major festivals in Turkey, India, Argentina, Portugal and beyond. The pair has finally returned, this time to Berlin, where their second feature of a trilogy on human togetherness, “The Girl and the Spider,” screens in the Encounters section.