Berlin 2012: Olivia Silver's Family Drama 'Arcadia' Wins Crystal Bear

BERLIN – Olivia Silver’s family drama Arcadia has won the Crystal Bear for best feature film in the Berlin Film Festival’s Generations section for children and youth films.

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The drama stars John Hawkes, Ryan Simpkins, Kendall Toole and Ty Simpkins as a family traveling cross-country in a dented station wagon heading for California and the promise of a better life. But a key person is missing: their mother.

The Crystal Bear jury gave a special mention to the Japanese film Just Pretended to Hear from director Kaori Imaizumi. The film is a look at an introverted little girl whose mother dies suddenly and whose father begins to slip into dementia.

Also a winner in the Generations section was the Dutch drama Kauwboy from director Boudewijn Koole, which took the Grand Prize of the Deutsche Kinderhilfswerk. The film depicts a 10-year-old boy dealing with a troubled family situation who finds solace by caring for a young bird which has fallen out of its nest.