| 59th Berlin International Film Festival | |
| Number: | 383 films |
| Opening: | The International |
| Closing: | Eden Is West |
| Location: | Berlin, Germany |
| Awards: | Golden Bear |
| Date: | 5 - 15 February 2009 |
| Founded: | 1951 |
| Website: | Website |
| Chronology: | Berlin International Film Festival |
| Preceded By: | 58th |
| Followed By: | 60th |
The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009.[1] The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition.[2] Costa-Gavras's Eden Is West served as the closing night film at the festival.[3] [4] The festival's jury president was the British actress Tilda Swinton.[5]
The Golden Bear was awarded to Peruvian film The Milk of Sorrow directed by Claudia Llosa. The retrospective dedicated to the Golden Age of 70mm filmmaking from 1955 to 1970, titled 70mm – Bigger than Life was shown at the festival.[6]
Admission for the festival was reported to be among the highest in years, and it also set a record for ticket sales, with some 270,000 tickets sold by the halfway mark, compared to 240,000 sold for the entire run of the festival the previous year. The final ticket tally was the largest in the festival's 59-year history.[7]
The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:[8]
The following films were selected in competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:[9]
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| About Elly | درباره الی | Asghar Farhadi | Iran | |
| Cheri | Stephen Frears | United Kingdom | ||
| Everyone Else | Alle Anderen | Maren Ade | Germany | |
| Forever Enthralled | 梅蘭芳 | Chen Kaige | China | |
| Giant | Gigante | Adrián Biniez | Uruguay, Germany, Argentina | |
| Happy Tears | Mitchell Lichtenstein | United States | ||
| In the Electric Mist | Bertrand Tavernier | |||
| Katalin Varga | Peter Strickland | Romania, United Kingdom, Hungary | ||
| Little Soldier | Annette K. Olesen | Denmark | ||
| London River | Rachid Bouchareb | France, United Kingdom | ||
| Mammoth | Mammut | Lukas Moodysson | Sweden, Germany, Denmark | |
| The Messenger | Oren Moverman | United States | ||
| The Milk of Sorrow | La Teta Asustada | Claudia Llosa | Peru | |
| My One and Only | Richard Loncraine | United States | ||
| Rage | Sally Potter | United Kingdom, United States | ||
| Ricky | François Ozon | France, Italy | ||
| Storm | Sturm | Hans-Christian Schmid | Germany, Denmark | |
| Sweet Rush | Tatarak | Andrzej Wajda | Poland | |
The following films were selected for the out of competition screening at the festival:
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Eden Is West (closing film) | Eden à l'ouest | Costa-Gavras | France, Greece | |
| The Dust of Time | Η Σκόνη του Χρόνου | Theo Angelopoulos | Greece, Germany, Italy, Russia | |
| Deutschland 09 – 13 kurze Filme zur Lage der Nation | Fatih Akin, Tom Tykwer, Wolfgang Becker, Sylke Enders, Dominik Graf, Romuald Karmakar, Nicolette Krebitz, Isabelle Stever, Hans Steinbichler, Hans Weingartner, Christoph Hochhäusler, Dani Levy and Angela Schanelec | Germany | ||
| The International (opening film) | Tom Tykwer | United States | ||
| Notorious | George Tillman Jr. | |||
| The Private Lives of Pippa Lee | Rebecca Miller | |||
| The Reader | The Reader | Stephen Daldry | United Kingdom, Germany | |
The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:[10] [11]
Sotigui Kouyaté for London River
Birgit Minichmayr for Everyone Else
Oren Moverman and Alessandro Camon for The Messenger