For the grand finale of the festival on Saturday, February 14th, the juries have awarded their prizes. The International Jury headed by jury president Darren Aronofsky chose Taxi by Iranian director Jafar Panahi as winner of the Golden Bear. Officially Panahi is banned from his profession and forbidden to leave the country. In his place his niece Hanna Saeidi received the award statuette. The Ecumenical Jury awarded El botón de nácar (The Pearl Button) by Patricio Guzmán (International Competition), Ned Rifle by Hal Hartley (Panorama) and Histoire de Judas by Rabah Ameur-Zaïmeche (Forum). Patricio Guzmán also won a Silver Bear for Best Script.
On February 5, 2015, the 65th Berlin Film Festival started with Isabelle Coixets Nobody Wants the Night. 19 entries competed for the Golden and the Silver Bears, among them the new films by Andreas Dresen, Peter Greenaway, Werner Herzog, Terrence Malick, and Alexei German. The festival devoted an Hommage to Wim Wenders, awarding him a Honorary Golden Bear on February 12 in the Berlinale Palace. The Berlinale Classics section presented a digital restored version of E. A. Duponts Varieté, a German production from 1925, with Emil Jannings and Lya de Putti in leading parts.
The Ecumenical Jury awards prizes in the International Competition, the Forum and the Panorama. The jury members were introduced at the Ecumenical Reception on February 8. Main speaker of the reception was well known German script writer Fred Breinersdorfer, among others author of the scenario of Sophie Scholl - Die letzten Tage (Silver Bear and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury, Berlin 2005). Elser, his new film about the lone resistance fighter who made an attempt on Hitler's life, was shown in this year's competion (out of competition):
Link to the festival homepage: http://www.berlinale.de/en/HomePage.html