The Berlinale Camera is awarded to a film personality or an institution to whom the film festival feels especially attached. This award is a way of expressing thanks and has been given every year since 1986. Between 1986 and 2003 the Berlinale Camera was donated by the Berlin jeweller David Goldberg. Since 2004, the Berlinale Camera has been sponsored and manufactured by Georg Hornemann Objects. For the Berlinale 2008, the trophy has been redesigned by the Düsseldorf-based goldsmith himself. The new Berlinale Camera has 128 components and is modelled on a real camera. Many of the silver and titanium parts are movable, from the swivel head to tripod.

Berlinale Camera 2011

At the 61st Berlin International Film Festival Israeli film pioneer Lia van Leer, founding president of ARTE, Jérôme Clément, Berlin's arthouse cinema owners Franz and Rosemarie Stadler as well as the American singer, actor and activist Harry Belafonte will be awarded Berlinale Cameras. Lia van Leer In the 1950s Wim and Lia van Leer shared a passion for cinema, collected prints and launched film clubs in Haifa, Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. In 1973, George Ostrovsky approached the van Leers to propose creating a distinct facility for the Jerusalem Cinematheque. So the Jerusalem Film Center was born in 1981, a vital cultural hub, home to the Israel Film Archive and the Jerusalem Film Festival, which was started in 1984. Among many awards, she received the prestigious Israel Prize in 2004 for her lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel. She has been a guest of the Berlinale several times and presided over the International Jury in 1995. In 2003, at the first Berlinale Talent Campus, she served as mentor of this new initiative. The Berlinale Camera was awarded to Lia van Leer on February 13 at Kino International.

Jérôme Clément As founding and long-standing president of ARTE, Jérôme Clément shaped the image of this German-French cultural television station. After studying at two elite universities, Clément worked at the French Ministry of Culture as of 1980 and later in close association with François Mitterand. In 1989 he was appointed president of the newly founded German-French television station. Over his 20-year term, he contributed decisively to the success of this intercultural project. In France, Jérôme Clément, who has also made a name for himself as a book author, has received several orders of knighthood and the National Cross of Merit. On February 14, 2011 at 5.30 pm, Jérôme Clément was awarded the Berlinale Camera at ARTE's reception in the Akademie der Künste (Academy of Arts) at Pariser Platz.

Franz and Rosemarie Stadler For almost forty years Franz and Rosemarie Stadler ran the filmkunst 66, a multi-prize-winning arthouse cinema in Berlin Charlottenburg. In 1971 Franz Stadler took over the two-theatre cinema in the Bleibtreustraße and before long the sophisticated programme he put together established it as one of one of the most important institutions for independent cinema in Berlin. Stadler also initiated a number of film festivals - some based on specific genres, others on specific themes - and was awarded Germany's Federal Cross of Merit for his services to cinema. On February 15, 2011, Franz and Rosemarie Stadler received their Berlinale Camera.

Harry Belafonte Singer, actor, activist - over the past 70 years the entertainer Harry Belafonte, born in New York in 1927, has worked in many professions. The young Belafonte's big role model was the singer, actor and left-wing activist Paul Robeson. Whether it was his admiration for Robeson, who was persecuted as a leftist in the United States, or his friendship to Martin Luther King, or the ever-present discrimination against Afro-Americans in the US of the 1950s and 1960s, many things came together during this time, which made it possible for Harry Belafonte to become one of the most popular promoters of the American civil rights movement. He was always socially engaged. His criticism of American foreign and social policy never ceased to cause a stir. Since 1987 he has been a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador. Harry Belafonte was awarded the Berlinale Camera in the Friedrichstadtpalast on February 13, 2011.