The Berlinale Summer Special has already brought its audience eleven fantastic nights in 16 Berlin open-air cinemas. Almost all of the invited film teams were able to travel to Berlin to personally present their films to the audience. The mood at the Summer Special is marvellous, and it reaffirms that cinema continues to inspire and move.

Tonight, the Summer Special of the 71st Berlinale ends with the announcement of the Audience Awards and their respective screenings.

New this year, is the addition of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award to the traditional Panorama Audience Award. Accordingly, the Berlinale wishes to enable the audience to participate even more in this festival, which has been divided into two parts due to COVID-19.

Of the 15 films in the Competition, the movie-goers were able to choose the winning film of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award. 8,498 ballots were counted.

The Panorama Audience Award has been voted on since 1999. This year, the Panorama presented 16 feature films from which viewers could choose their favourites. 5,658 ballots were counted to determine the winning film of the Panorama Audience Award.

Both prizes, the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award and the Panorama Audience Award, are presented by the Berlin International Film Festival together with radioeins and rbb television. The two award ceremonies will take place tonight on June 20, 2021 and will be moderated by radioeins film expert Knut Elstermann. Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian will hand over the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award, and Panorama head Michael Stütz and radioeins programme director Robert Skuppin will present the Panorama Audience Award.

The presentation of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award begins at 7 pm in the Freiluftkino Museumsinsel, and that of the Panorama Audience Award will start at 9.30 pm in the Freiluftkino Kreuzberg.

The winning film of the Panorama Audience Award will be shown directly after the award ceremony. Due to the exceptional length (217') of the winning film of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award and the resulting difficulties for the programming, Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and his Class) will not be shown today on the Museum Island but at 9.45 pm in the Freiluftkino Pompeii.

The second-placed audience favourite Ich bin dein Mensch (I’m Your Man) will be shown directly after the award ceremony (7 pm) of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award at Museum Island. 

The 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award goes to:

Herr Bachmann und seine Klasse (Mr Bachmann and His Class)

(Germany)

by Maria Speth

In a German city with a complex history of both excluding and integrating foreigners, a charismatic teacher provides his pupils, who all come from different countries originally, with the key to feeling at home in Germany and becoming citizens of the world.

Award-winner Maria Speth will receive the award in person tonight.

The second and third place of the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award go to:

Ich bin dein Mensch (I’m Your Man)

(Germany)

by Maria Schrader

Ghasideyeh gave sefid (Ballad of a White Cow)

(Iran / France)

by Behtash Sanaeeha, Maryam Moghaddam

The Panorama Audience Award 2021 goes to:

A Última Floresta (The Last Forest)

(Brazil)

by Luiz Bolognesi

In powerful images, alternating between documentary observation and staged sequences, and dense soundscapes, Luiz Bolognesi documents the Indigenous community of the Yanomami and depicts their threatened natural environment in the Amazon rainforest.

Award-winners Luiz Bolognesi, Pedro José Marquez Valencia and Talita del Collado will receive the award in person tonight.

The second and third place of the Panorama Audience Award go to:

Miguel’s War

(Lebanon / Germany / Spain)

by Eliane Raheb

Genderation

(Germany)

by Monika Treut