el otro Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The awards ceremony for the 57th Berlin International Film Festival have just concluded. The Golden Bear went to a film not many people talked about during the fest -- Tuya's Marriage. Below you will find my live blog of the actual show (which was mostly in German, with brief moments in English). Along with the winners in each category, you will find my personal thoughts below:

-- German band Mia opens the show. Charlotte Roche hosts, briefly introduces Berlinale director Peter Kosslick. His entire speech is in German -- sorry, could not translate that fast.

-- Gael Garcia Bernal is introduced and presents The Silver Bear award for outstanding artistic achievement, which goes to ... The Good Shepherd. There's your obligatory American award. Robert De Niro skipped town last week, and was not there to accept the award.

-- Next up, Nansun Shi presents the Silver Bear for best use of music in a film, which goes to David Mackenzie for Hallam Foe ... and for his extremely pop-centric soundtrack.

-- Hiam Abbass presents the Silver Bear for best actor in a film to Julio Chávez for El Otro. I can see why he won, but his performance was a little too vague for me.

-- Mario Adorf steps up to present the award for best actress and -- out of nowhere -- Nina Hoss wins for Yella! Wow, no one -- including Hoss -- saw that coming, as Marion Cotillard and Marianne Faithfull were huge front-runners. She's shocked. Big, big surprise. Yella was the best film, but Cotillard should have won the best actress.

-- Molly Malene Stansgaard presents the best director award to Joseph Cedar for Beaufort. I did not see Beaufort, but from what I heard it was beautifully shot. I guess we knew Petzold was not winning when Hoss took best actress. Oh well. So far all of my picks are wrong. Boo!

-- Willem Dafoe steps up to present the Silver Bear for Grand Jury Prix ... which goes to El Otro. Huh? Man, obviously the jury saw something in this film that a lot of us did not see, as this is the second award tonight for El Otro. Director Ariel Rotter takes forever to deliver his speech, just barely makes it through without breaking down on stage.

-- The somewhat odd German band Mia performs once more after opening the show.

-- Gerhard Meixner introduces the best first feature award. It takes three people to announce this award, which goes to Vanaja. Lots in German, trying to keep up ...

-- Javier Bardem steps up to present the Alfred-Bauer-Prize (in memory of the festival's founder) for particular innovation in filmmaking, which goes to ... I'm a Cyborg, But That's Okay. Hey, I loved this film -- this award is definitely okay with me. Park Chan-Wook accepts ... sorry, no idea what he's saying. All in German.

-- Writer-director Paul Schrader finally finds his way to the stage with fest director Peter Kosslick to present The Golden Bear! And the award (after a terribly long intro) goes to ... Tuya's Marriage. Hmm, very interesting choice ... and a film not many people talked about during the festival. Figures, one of the three I did not see ...

A theme is starting to crop up amongst the 9a.m. press screenings -- one that can certainly be unwrapped by simply scanning the audience and watching them yawn, while waiting to see who will start snoring first. Sure, the fest has started to catch up to the press; folks are sleep deprived, barely hanging on to the couple hours they're getting here and there, and trying desperately to inject into their brains the necessary caffeine to get them through at least one more film (thanks Dunkin Donuts!)

But, there's also a problem with the content: On Sunday morning, In Memory of Myself bored most into confusion, our friend David Hudson over at GreenCine Daily informed us that yesterday's 9a.m. flick, When A Man Falls in the Forest, happened to tumble onto the wrong side of good -- and, today, The Other (or El otro) kept the theme alive with its non-existent score, little dialogue and aimless wondering. I missed yesterday's 9a.m. screening when my hotel botched the wake-up call; if this theme continues, I just might give those at the front desk an extra something to screw up again.