"God Exists, Her Name Is Petrunya" by Teona Strugar Mitevska, a film from North Macedonia, is the winner of the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury in the International Competition. In the Forum, the Jury awarded the Austrian documentary "Erde" (Earth) by Nikolaus Geyrhalter, and in the Panorama they choose "Buoyancy", an Aiustralian production dircetd by Rodd Rathjen. In addition, the Jury awarded a Commendation to the Panorama entry "Midnight Traveler" by Hassan Fazili.
The international jury with Jury President Juliette Binoche awarded the Golden Bear to the film "Synonymes" by Israeli director Nadav Lapid. Other awards include "Grâce à Dieu" (By the Grace of God) by François Ozon about hushed up cases of children's abuse in the Catholic Church of France currently heard at court in Lyon (Silver Bear, Jury Grand Prix), "Systemsprenger" (System Crasher), a debut film by Nora Fingerscheidt (Silver Bear, Alfred Bauer Prize), and the second out of three German competition entries, "Ich war zuhause, aber" (I was at home, but) by Angela Schanelec (Silver Bear, Best Director). The favorite of the audience and critics, Wang Xiaoshuai's Chinese competition entry "Di jiu tian chang" (So Long, My Son) won the two performance awards. The Silver Bear for Best Actress went to Yong Mei, the one for Best Actor to Wang Jingchun.
At February 7, the Danish-Canadian co-production "The Kindness of Strangers" by Lone Scherfig opened the Berlinale in 2019. The director, who comes from within the scope of the Dogma Group, has been a guest of the festival several times. It was the last Berlinale under the direction of Dieter Kosslick, which the church film organizations INTERFILM and SIGNIS honored at the Ecumenical Reception of the Churches on February 10 with an honorary award.
The Ecumenical Jury has been in existence since 1992. The first church jury, sent in 1954 by the Office catholique internationale de cinéma (OCIC), was established when the Bears were awarded by a public vote. It was not until 1956 that two international juries (for feature and documentary films) were appointed by the festival. The first Protestant INTERFILM jury awarded their prize in 1963 to the American film "Lilies of the Field" by Ralph Nelson.
Link: Festival website
See also the Pro-Fil-website of the festival with articles about films of the Berlinale (in french)