Berlin

As of 2020, the Berlinale Documentary Film Award will be endowed with € 40,000 in prize money sponsored by public broadcaster Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb). Thanks to the support from rbb, the award for the best documentary film will also be presented at the Berlinale in the future. Starting in 2020, rbb media will be involved with the festival as a co-partner. The partnership is agreed for five years.

In total, approximately 18 current documentaries from the sections Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Forum, Generation, Berlinale Special and Perspektive Deutsches Kino will be nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Film Award. A three-person jury will choose the winner and the € 40,000 in prize money will be shared by the director and the producer of the winning film. The award will be presented during the official Awards Ceremony at the Berlinale Palast on February 29, 2020.

The Berlin International Film Festival has long been committed to documentary film and documentary forms, as evidenced both by the programmes of many festival sections, initiatives, and special series, as well as in the European Film Market (EFM). In 2019, approximately 100 documentary films and documentary forms were shown at the festival. The Berlinale Documentary Film Award launched in 2017.

“We’re very pleased that we can maintain our dedication to documentary film at the Berlinale by presenting the Documentary Film Award together with our media partner rbb. The involvement of rbb subsidiary, rbb media, as a co-partner of the festival and its valuable commitment to the Berlinale is the perfect complement,” commented Mariette Rissenbeek, Executive Director of the Berlinale.

“Our long-time relationship with the Berlinale is characterised by the broadcaster’s closeness to the themes of the festival. This is why we are especially pleased to support the Berlinale with rbb media as festival co-partner, and to actively encourage a very special kind of film with rbb as the Berlinale Documentary Award sponsor,” commented Patricia Schlesinger, Director of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (rbb).