The Berlin International Film Festival has made its first decisions for the 2021 festival. The Berlinale 2021 is being planned as a physical festival. A hybrid model is intended for the European Film Market (EFM).

The implementation of the Festival and Market will take place in accordance with the then-applicable rules and regulations, thus ensuring the greatest possible security for all guests. Adjustments in the festival structure, the film programming and the total number of invited films will be defined by the festival management within the coming weeks.

Moreover, it has already been decided that in 2021 the section Generation will only show feature-length films with a running time of at least 60 minutes – and no short films – in its two competition programmes Generation Kplus and Generation 14plus.

The official film registration starts on September 1st, 2020. You will then find the regulations on www.berlinale.de.

“Festivals and markets are places of encounter and communication. This applies to the public as well as to the industry. We see an important and unique feature of festivals in their lively relationship with the audience. In times of the corona pandemic, it has become even clearer that we still require analogue experience spaces in the cultural realm”, says the director duo of the Berlinale, Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian. “We are pleased that festivals with physically present audiences are slowly taking place again around the world, and we wish our colleagues much success.”

2021: Performance Awards Gender-Neutral / New: Jury Prize

The Berlinale has reorganised the prizes awarded by the International Jury in the Competition. For the first time, the performance awards will be defined in a gender-neutral way. Instead of the awards for the Best Actor and the Best Actress, a “Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance” and a “Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance” shall each be awarded on a gender-neutral basis.

In addition thereto, the “Silver Bear Jury Prize” constitutes a further new awards category.

The former “Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize” was suspended in 2020 due to new findings about the position of the first Berlinale director, Alfred Bauer, under National Socialism, and this prize will no longer be awarded in the future. The evaluation of an external specialist historical study on Alfred Bauer will be available in late summer and then published.

The International Jury of the Competition will award the following eight prizes:

• Golden Bear for Best Film (awarded to the film’s producers)
• Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize
• Silver Bear for Best Director
• Silver Bear Jury Prize
• Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance
• Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance
• Silver Bear for Best Screenplay
• Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution

“We believe that not separating the awards in the acting field according to gender comprises a signal for a more gender-sensitive awareness in the film industry,” commented the director duo of the Berlinale.