The ceremony took place last sunday (February 10, 2019 at 5.15 pm Meistersaal) with a  welcome address by Paz Lázaro, Michael Stütz and a Laudatory speechby  Rajendra Roy

Wieland Speck's curatorial work in no small measure helped establish the Panorama section as a platform for independent and challenging cinema. Since the mid-1970s, Speck has been involved in film and video in a variety of capacities, and has worked as both author and publisher.

As a director, screenwriter and producer, he has numerous film and television productions to his name, and his credits as an actor include films by David Hemmings, Robert van Ackeren, Ulrike Ottinger and Ian Pringle. He has also worked at a large number of film institutions and festivals.

In 1982 he joined the Panorama section of the Berlinale – back then still known as Info-Schau – as assistant to section head Manfred Salzgeber. It was in this capacity that he established the world's first queer film prize, the TEDDY AWARD, in 1987. In 1992 Wieland Speck took over as section head, remaining in this position until 2017. During his years at Panorama, he not only programmed but defined the section - formally, thematically and geographically. In 1999, Speck gave audiences a voice with the introduction of the Panorama Audience Award, awarded annually to one documentary and one feature film.

The Panorama 40 special programme, jointly curated with his long-standing colleague Andreas Struck to mark the section's 40th anniversary, is Wieland Speck's Berlinale swan song.

Made by Düsseldorf-based goldsmith Georg Hornemann, the Berlinale Camera consists of 128 individual components and is modelled on a real film camera.