Berlin, February 25 The Spanish film “20,000 species of bees” received the Gilde Prize for artistic and theatrical cinema, while the Mexican film “Tótem” won the Ecumenical Prize, two of the prizes awarded by the independent juries that follow the Berlinale, before the officials. Of the party.
The Spanish production, directed by Estíbaliz Urresola, was honored for its innovative vision and its inspection of the interior of a family confronted with infantile transsexuality, underlined the jury representing the exhibitors of the cinematographic group Gilde.
Urresola’s film also received the reader’s award from the newspaper “Berliner Morgenpost”, which valued the “authentic and strong message” that this production sends to society, through a girl who asks her mother to listen to it .
The Ecumenical Prize jury, for its part, voted unanimously for the film by Mexican Lila Avilés, selected as “20,000 species of bees” among the 19 candidates of the official section of the Berlinale.
The team highlighted in “Totem” the values transmitted by the family portrait presented around a terminally ill young man, and the birthday party organized for him by his relatives.
Another Mexican film, “Adolfo”, by Sofía Auza, received the Crystal Bear in the Generation 14Plus section, aimed at young audiences.
The story of the boy who loses his father and must find a new home for a cactus named Adolfo captivated the Generation jury “because of his sense of humor” and his “philosophical poetic” dialogue, according to the arguments of the price.
The French film “Orlando, my political biography”, by the Spaniard Paul B. Preciado, won the Teddy prize for the best documentary, aimed at the LGTBI community, as well as the readers’ prize of the newspaper “Tagesspiegel”.
His film, which was screened in the “Encounters” section, includes the voices of 26 characters aged 8 to 70 and begins with them a “complex and at the same time homogeneous” philosophical and literary journey, notes the jury for this. award.
The announcement of these prizes preceded this Saturday’s gala during which the official Berlinale prizes will be awarded, according to the verdict of the jury chaired by American actress Kristen Stewart and with Spanish director Carla Simón among its members.
Simón attends the festival after winning Gold in 2022 with “Alcarràs”.
Last night was awarded the prize of the International Federation of Film Critics (FIPRESCI), which was won by the Australian “The Survival of Kindness”, a film directed by Rolf de Heer, which begins with the image of aboriginal woman abandoned in a cage, in the middle of the desert, by a group of white men.
“20,000 Species of Bees” and “Totem” both focus on two girls over the age of eight: in Mexico, Naima Senties is the daughter of a dying patient. In the Spanish version, Sofía Otero plays a child who does not recognize himself either by his gender or by the name he has been given, Aitor, but rather feels the identity of Lucía being born within him.