John Michael McDonagh’s ‘Calvary’ has won best film in the Panorama strand at the 64th Annual Berlin Film Festival.
The announcement was made ahead of the evenings Berlinale awards ceremony, when the winners of the coveted Golden and Silver Bears were presented.
Other films in the Panorama Strand included ‘Yves Saint Laurent’ by Jalil Lespert, ‘Is the Man Who is Tall Happy?’ by Michael Gondry and ‘Things People Do’ by Saar Klien.
‘Calvary’s’ line up of Irish actors includes Chris O'Dowd, Aidan Gillen, Dylan Moran, Domhnall Gleeson, David Wilmot, Pat Shortt, Gary Lydon and Killian Scott. The cast and crew remain on a high after a recent string of success at the Sundance Film Festival and the announcement that Fox Searchlight Pictures has acquired US right for the film.
Chinese director Diao Yinan’s noir thriller ‘Black Coal, Thin Ice’ was a winner of the Golden Bear award and also picked up the Best Actor Silver Bear for ‘Liao Fan’. Wes Anderson‘s crowd-pleaser ‘The Grand Budapest Hotel’ was the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize winner.
Other winners of the independent jury awards at the Berlin Film Festival include best competition film ‘Stations of the Cross’, best forum film ‘At Home’ and a special mention for films ‘Triptych’ by Robert Lepage and Pedro Pires, and ‘71’ by Yann Demange.
Both the prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas and the Berliner Morgenpost Readers’ Jury Award went to Richard Linklater’s ‘Boyhood’, which was shot over a 12-year period. The filmmaker also scooped a Silver Bear for directing. The Amnesty International Film Prize went to Jehane Noujaim’s ‘The Square’.
As well as ‘Calvary’, Irish titles that screened at the festival included ‘The Food Guide to Love’, ‘The Last Hijack’, Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Frank’, Subotica Entertainment’s ‘Gold’ and ‘Young Ones’, and ‘A Thousand Times Goodnight’ co-produced by Jackie Larkin and Leslie McKimm at Newgrange Pictures.
