Awards of Independent Juries for Films in the Forum 2023

Prize of the FIPRESCI Jury

The Jury of the „Fédération Internationale de la Presse Cinématographique“ (FIPRESCI), the international association of film critics, awards a film from the Forum programme. 

Hosam Mostafa Fahmy, Susanne Gietl and Elena Rubashevska awarded ÎNTRE REVOLUȚII (Between Revolutions) by Vlad Petri.

CICAE Art Cinema Award

The „Confédération Internationale des Cinémas D´Art et Essai" (C.I.C.A.E.), the international association of arthouse theatres, also awards a film from the Forum.

This year's jurors Zsófia Buglya, Bruno Castro and Ibrahim Saad selected EL ROSTRO DE LA MEDUSA (The Face of the Jellyfish) by Melisa Liebenthal. The jury provided the following statement:

"Through its use of mixed media at the service of a personal fingerprint, addressing identity as a topic both imagined and real, and the playful approach on filmmaking, this film dwells into the irony of living in the present times. The film grasps control while looking deep into personal doubts and desires, accepting that change is a part of life and cinema. Congratulations to Melisa Liebenthal and the team of the Argentinian film EL ROSTRO DE LA MEDUSA (The Face of the Jellyfish)!"

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury

Since 1992, the international film organisations of the Protestant and Catholic Churches – INTERFILM and SIGNIS – have been represented by the Ecumenical Jury. It consists of six members and awards several prizes at the festival, one of them to a film in the Forum. The prizes go to directors who have succeeded in portraying actions or human experiences that are in keeping with the Gospels, or in sensitising viewers to spiritual, human or social values.

The 2023 Ecumenical Prize goes to JAII KEH KHODA NIST (Where God Is Not). Paul De Silva, Arielle Domon, Kerstin Heinemann, Miriam Hollstein, Anne Le Cor and Alberto Ramos Ruiz were the members of this year's jury, which provided the following statement on the award-winning film:

“How can the horror of political imprisonment and torture be told? The Iranian filmmaker and architect Mehran Tamadon, who has lived in France since his youth and returns to his homeland time and again for projects, has found an impressive way. He places his characters Homa Kalhori, Taghi Rahmani and Mazyar Ebrahimi in a space which recreates their former prisons - “where god is not“, as one of the jailors said. And as such, becomes a rogue scenario that triggers in them memories of past suffering, humiliation and torture. An original cinematic device allowing for a performative reenactment to sharing their harrowing experiences, which becomes a denunciation of a reality that is still Iran’s nowadays.”

Caligari Film Award

The 2023 Caligari Film Award was given to the film DE FACTO by Selma Doborac at a ceremony at silent green Kulturquartier on February 24. Since 1986, the prize, donated by the German Association of Municipal and Cultural Cinemas together with Filmdienst, has honoured a stylistically and thematically innovative film from the programme of the Berlinale Forum. This year's jury consisted of Borjana Gaković (Sinema Transtopia Berlin), Janna Schmidt (CITY 46 / Municipal Cinema Bremen e.V.) and Silvia Bahl (filmdienst.de, media partner). Read more on the award selection as well as the complete jury statement here on our website.