Berlin 2013: 'Shopping' and 'Mother, I Love You' Take Generation Awards

BERLIN  - The international juries judging this year's Generation section, Berlin's children and youth cinema sidebar, picked two films with remarkably similar plot lines for their top honors.

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The jury for Generation 14plus, for films aimed at older youth, picked Shopping, the feature from New Zealand duo Mark Albiston and Louis Sutherland, for their top prize. While the Generation Kplus jury selected Mother, I Love You from Latvian filmmaker Janis Nords.

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In both features, the young protagonist, dealing with his own personal problems, drifts into a world of petty crime. In the case of Shopping, the character is Willie, a mixed-race Samoan struggling to find his place in the  mostly-white New Zealand of 1981. In Mother, I Love You the main character is 12-year-old Raimonds, an introverted boy who mostly absent mother means he has to face more of life's challenges on his own.

Satellite Boy, an Australian drama from director Catriona McKenzie about two boys trying to cross the outback in order to save their home, received special mention from the Kplus jury, as did the Kasia Roslaniec's Polish drama Baby Blues, about a reluctant 17-year-old mother, from the jury for  Generation 14plus.

The Rocket from Kim Mordaunt, winner of this year's best first feature honor in Berlin, also received the Crystal Bear for best film awarded by the Children's jury to a film from the Generation Kplus section. The youth jury voting on the Generation 14plus section gave its top Crystal Bear honor to Baby Blues.