Congratulations!

The end of the Berlinale is award-winning time. Today, Sunday, 22 February at 14.00, the winners of the Golden and Silver Bears will be announced. Some of the additional awards were already announced last night. Among them:
* The Award of the Ecumenical Jury to Central do Brasil by Walter Salles. Special Prize to the Short Film Cinema Alcazar by Florence.
* The Pierrot Prize For Young European Cinema 1998 (best director's debut) to Petits desordres amoureux by Olivier Peray.
* The CICAE Award, given by the jury of the International Confederation of Art Cinemas to Le Gone du chaaba by Christophe Ruggia.Prize of the CIAE Forum-Jury to Sergej Eisenstein: Mexikanskaja Fantasija by Oleg Kowalow.
* The Award of the Jury of the Guild of German Art Cinemas goes to Left Luggage by Jeroen Krabbe.
* The FIPRESCI Awards, given by the International Film Critics Association to Sada by Nobuhiko Obyashi (Competition), to Sue by Amos Kollek (Panorama) and to Shivrei Tmunot Jerushalaim by Ron Havilio.
* The TEDDY AWARD 1998 goes to The Man in Her Life by Carlos Siguion-Reyna (Jury Prize); Hold You Tight by Stanley Kwan (best film); Peppermills by Isabel Hegner (best short); The Brandon Teena Story by Susan Muska, Greta Olafsdottir (best documentary). Special mention to Uncut by John Greyson.
* The Wolfgang Staudte Award, given by the Society for Safeguarding Film and Television Rights (GWFF) to Xiao Wu by Jia Zhang Ke.
* The Caligari Award, given by the German Federal Association of Communal Film Work, to Kasaba by Nuri Bilge Ceylan.
* Readers Jury of Siegessaeule to The Brandon Teena Story by Susan Muska, Greta Olafsdottir.
* Peace Film Prize 1998 to Lidija Bobrowa for her film W toj stranj.
* Don Quixote Prize of the international umbrella organisation for film societies (FICC) to Thirteen by David Williams. Special mentions to W toj stranje by Lidija Bobrowa and Radio no jikan by Koki Mitani.
* The NETPAC-Prize goes to Jia Zhang Ke for Xiao Wu.

SHOWING TODAY
Francis Ford Coppola's The Rainmaker (which closes the Berlinale tonight) is the tale of Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon), a lawyer who learns to hate corporate America after he falls in love with a battered married woman. "It was an interesting world I didn't know much about," says Coppola. "The world of the law profession in Memphis, the seedy side of it, the ambulance chasers. The underbelly of the law business." GM
 

Doggone it
Scenes of chaos at the Wag the Dog press conference, as 800 hacks scrambled to see Robert De Niro.Meanwhile, De Niro was dishing out verbal gems. "It didn't really compare to anything I'd ever experienced on film," he growled of his recent fracas in the Paris courtroom. "I thought you were supposed to be innocent until proven guilty. The judge appeared to think he was in a film himself."

EXTRA
Gwyneth Paltrow wowed the Great Expectations press conference, posing for pics and signing autographs. She also put paid to any suggestion that she was out to establish a sexier image in the film, admitting that in several scenes she had a body double. "Obviously I prefer to be clothed as a general rule," she blushed, "and the nude scenes were a little uncomfortable." HB

UPDATE
* Late Panorama entry Pearls & Swine by Oskar Jonasson (in the presence of the director) will be shown at the Filmpalast today at 18.30.

* Fernando Lara, the festival's delegate from Spain has expressed his concern at the lack of Spanish translations at competition screenings. The translations were stopped a couple of years ago for financial reasons. According to the festival the same financial constraints mean that the translations will not be reinstituted.

* Last-night nerves? End-of-festival blues? Feeling a bit homesick? It always gets a bit edgy towards the end of a long and arduous festival - but that's no reason for one isolated incident to spoil the whole shooting match. Que? Apparently a camera crew was involved in a small scuffle with security the other day, but a camera-crew boycott of the closing night, as rumoured, will harm
the media as much as the festival. Take a chill pill, guys.

* A last-minute sponsor for the Blue Angel Award has come to the rescue of this prize for the Best European Film at the festival in the shape of AGICOA, who have stumped up DM50,000 for the privilege. Merci AGICOA!

* Festival director Moritz de Hadeln met yesterday with the Russian delegation led by Sergey V Lazaruk, deputy chairman of the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Cinematography, and stressed the traditional ties between the festival and the Russian film industry. He also expressed his happiness that Russian cinema is undergoing something of a resurgence following several years in the doldrums.

*Yesterday, festival director, Moritz de Hadeln met with Venice director Felice Laudadio and their discussions had one common theme - the films are the stars of the festival and the stars are welcome.

* Moritz de Hadeln made his annual appearance at the Teddys. His speech reinforced his support for this event.

* On Friday international delegates of the Berlinale and the selection commitee met in the festival club. Moritz de Hadeln thanked all present for their work and stated that a gathering like this at the end of the festival was the appropiate setting for evaluating the festival.

* Yoram Golan is back in Berlin organising the Israeli stand - but only just! Before the festival the Minister of Industry Mr Sharansky pulled most of the funds from his department for the film industry and caused the cancellation of the stand at the European market and practically the whole of the Israeli presence.
After much lobbying of the government by the festival and various international friends of Israeli cinema, some of the funds were reinstated and Golan arranged a presence. Berlin without the Israeli delegation would not be the same.

Bad Boy Wenham
"I'd be put in the loony asylum if I thought it was going to earn 200 million dollars," quips Australian actor David Wenham of competition film The Boys, "but the buzz in Berlin for the film is good. I actually think it's the best film I've done."
The affable and not remotely loony Australian actor, nursing a hangover in the Interconti yesterday and limping through a full day of interviews, is being hailed as 'the new Russell Crowe' by enthusiastic hacks. Wenham laughs.
"I feel sorry for poor Russell," he opines. "If I'm the new Russell Crowe, does that make Russell the old Russell Crowe? You know, I think he'd like to be Russell by himself." Hero Brown

Double identity
Is Berlin in February really so inhospitable that it's only worth a star's visit if they're in more than one film? Ask Lambert Wilson (On connait la chanon, Trop (peu) d'amour), Rachel Weisz (I Want You, Land Girls) and Robert De Niro (Jackie Brown, Great Expectations, Wag The Dog).
Past winners of the 'two films at the same time' award include Robert Downey Jr (1996 for Home For The Holidays, Richard III and Restoration), Danny DeVito (1993 for Hoffa and Jack the Bear) Anthony Hopkins (1994 for Remains Of The Day and Shadowlands) and Emma Thompson that same year (Remains Of The Day, In The Name of The Father). Harvey Keitel has only managed the companion pieces Smoke and Blue In The Face in 1995, which doesn't count. Natalie Gravenor

Correction to 'Nova signs with Sony' from 15 February:
Nova has an agreement solely with Phoenix Pictures and not Sony or any division thereof. Not all of Phoenix's films must be placed through the Sony distribution pipeline.

And the winner is...
Berlin 98 has been given the thumbs up from Nik Powell, Chairman of the European Film Academy (EFA). "This year's competition reel is one of the strongest I've seen in any festival for a long time," he says. Powell, who's been in Berlin on EFA business, wouldn't be drawn on his top tip. HB

WHAT THE PAPERS SAY
The Berlinale takes a look at how the German and international media view the festival.

"The film was great. But everything smelled unbearably like sweet aftershave."
Impressed filmgoer after the Wag The Dog screening at the Zoo Palast in taz

About the Gay Teddy Award:
"It used to be a stuffed animal. Panorama staff combed toy stores for the cuddliest teddy and gave all the cuddle test. The '98 version is, for the first time, a hard statue on a stone base, designed by cult comic artist Ralf Koenig. Berliner Morgenpost
 
 

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