In a year that critics agreed presented an outstandingly high level of films in competition the second highest honour went to Hungarian auteur Bence Fliegauf for Just the Wind. Fliegauf's drama about a day in the life of a Roma family and based on a true story of a series of murders of Roma in Hungary. The film also picked up the Amnesty International and the Peace Prizes. The director depicts with great humanity the lives of the Roma who are shown as vulnerable, constantly on the run and subjected to daily humiliation in society. The jury was headed by veteran British director Mike Leigh.
Central Europeans benefited from their policies of funding minority coproductions with Croatia, Slovenia, Macedonia and Romania all scoring wins with coproductions in the Panorama section. The Parade, a Serbian, Croatian, Macedonian, Slovenian coproduction directed by Srdjan Dragojevic won the main Panorama Audience Award while Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood by Italian director Daniele Vicari, a Romanian coproduction, took second prize in the same section.
The Parade which depicts an attempt to hold a gay pride parade in the macho culture of Serbia also won the Else Readers Choice award of the gay and lesbian magazine Siegessaule. The film takes a humourous look at both homophobia and homosexuals as the world of gangsters and gays clashes against the backdrop of Belgrade's ethnic mix of Serbs, Croatians, Bosnian Muslims and Kosovars.
The documentary Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood looks at the shocking and brutal police suppression of protestors at the G8 Summit in Genoa that resulted in numerous injuries and one death.
62 Berlinale 2012 Prize Winners
Main Competition
Golden Bear: Grand Prize: Caesar Must Die by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Silver Bear: Jury Prize: Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf (Hungary)
Produced by Inforg-M&M Film (www.informstudio.hu)
Best Director: Christian Petzold for Barbara
Best Actress: Rachel Mwanza for War Witch
Best Actor: Mikkel Boe Folsgaard for A Royal Affair
Best Screenplay: Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg for A Royal Affair
Outstanding Artistic Achievement: Luta Reitemeier for cinematography in White Deer Plain directed by Wang Quanan
Alfred Bauer Prize: Tabu by Miguel Gomes
Special Mention: Sister by Ursula Meier
Generation Section:
Crystal Bear for Best Kplus Feature Film: Arcadia by Olivia Silver
Special Mention: Kikoeteru, furi we sita dake by Kaori Imaizumi
Grand Prize: Deutsche Kindershilfswerk for Best Feature Film: Kauwboy by Boudewijn Koole
Special Mention: Gattu by Rajan Khosa
Special Prize: Deutsche Kindershilfswerk for Best Short Film: BINO by Bille Pleffer
Special Mention: L by Thais Fujinaga
Panorama Audience Award:
Fiction Film: Parada (The Parade) by Srdjan Dragojevic (Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia)
Supported by Croatian Audiovisual Centre (www.havc.hr)
Coproduction Mainframe Film Production (www.mainframeproduction.com) and Forum Film Ljubljana (www.pokrajina-st2.org)
Second Prize: Diaz-Don't Clean Up This Blood by Daniele Vicari (Italy, Romania, France)
Coproduced in Romania by Mandragora Movies (www.mandragora.ro)
Romanian National Centre for Cinema (www.cncinema.abt.ro)
Third Prize: Zingu by Cao Hamburger
Panorama: Audience Award: Documentary Film
First Prize: Marina Abramovic: The Artist is Present by Matthew Akers
Second Prize: Call Me Kuchu by Malika Zouhali-Worral and Katherine Fairfax Wright
Third Prize: La Vierge, les Coptes et Moi by Namir Abdel Messeeh
Independent Juries
Ecumenical Jury
Main Competition : Caesar Must Die by Paolo and Vittorio Taviani
Special Mention: War Witch by Kim Nguyen
Panorama: The Wall by Julian Roman Polsler
Special Mention: Parada (The Parade) by Srdjan Dragojevic (Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia, Slovenia)
FIPRESCI Jury
Competition: Tabu by Miguel Gomes
Panorama: Atomic Age by Helena Klotz
Forum: Hemel by Sacha Polak
C.I.C.A.E Prizes
Panorama: Death for Sale by Faouzi Bensaidi
Forum: Our Homeland by Yang Yonghi
Europa Cinemas Label
My Brother the Devil by Sally El Hosaini
Peace Film Prize
Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf
Amnesty International Prize
Just the Wind by Bence Fliegauf