The Iranian film "Keyke mahboobe man" (My Favourite Cake) by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha has won the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury for a film in the International Competition at the 74th Berlinale. The film was also awarded by the Jury of International Film Critics (Fipresci). The Golden Bear went to the documentary film "Dahomey" by French director Mati Diop, whose family comes from Senegal. The Grand Jury Prize went to "Yeohaengjaui pilyo" (A Traveller's Needs) by Hong Sangsoo.
In Panorama, the Ecumenical Jury honoured the Norwegian film "Sex" by Dag Johan Haugerud, which also received the prizes of the two cinema associations CICAE (Confédération Internationale des Cinémas d'Art et d'Essai) and Label Europa Cinemas. In the Forum, the jury awarded its prize to the Latvian-Lithuanian co-production "Marijas klusums" (Maria's Silence) by Dāvis Sīmanis and a Special Mention to "Intercepted" by Oksana Karpovych, a documentary montage about the war in Ukraine. The Fipresci Prize in Panorama went to "Faruk" by Aslı Özge (Germany, Turkey, France 2024) and in Forum to "The Human Hibernation" (Spain 2024) by Anna Cornudella Castro.
The festival opened on 15 February with the film "Small Things Like These" by Tim Mielants (Ireland, Belgium 2024), which tells of the repressive treatment of non-marital pregnancy by the Catholic Church in Ireland until almost the end of the 20th century. The number of films screened has been reduced from 287 (2023) to 236, and the "Perspektive Deutsches Kino" series has been dropped. In addition to the International Competition, the Panorama and the Forum, where the Ecumenical Jury awards its prizes, there are the sections Berlinale Special, Encounters, Forum Expanded, Berlinale Shorts and Generation, the Retrospective and the Berlinale Classics with digitally restored films. It's the last Berlinale for Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian and Managing Director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, who were appointed to succeed Dieter Kosslick in 2019. Special honours this year went to Martin Scorsese, who received an Honorary Golden Bear, and Edgar Reitz, who was awarded a Golden Camera.