To celebrate its one-off summer event next month, the Berlin International Film Festival is introducing a one-off award. For the first, and presumably last, time, Berlin audiences will get to vote on their favorite film of the Berlinale competition lineup.
Berlin’s international jury in March, in an online-only version of the festival, picked Radu Jude’s Romanian satire Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn as the best film of the 2021 lineup.
The regular Berlin audience will get their say during the Berlinale’s in-person summer event, which runs June 9-20. The 15 competition titles will screen at a series of outdoor venues, alongside winners from the festival’s other sections. The Berlin fans can then vote for the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award.
Berlin has had an audience award for its Panorama sidebar since 1999, but never for its main competition.
“Our stalwart audiences had to wait a long time for the news that they would be able to enjoy the Berlinale films this year. That’s why we wanted to give viewers an additional way to participate in the Berlinale and created the 2021 Berlinale Competition Audience Award,” said Berlinale co-directors Mariette Rissenbeek and Carlo Chatrian. “We’re looking forward to strong participation and we’re curious to see which film wins.”
Both the Competition and Panorama Audience Awards will be presented June 20 and followed by screenings of the two winners.
Other awards that will be announced during this year’s summer festival included the Berlinale Documentary Awards for best documentary film, which comes with $49,000 (40,000 euros) in prize money, and the best first feature award for this year’s outstanding directorial debut, which is endowed with a $61,000 (50,000 euro) bursary.
