Berlinale 2019: Juliette Binoche, delights & disappointments, and the festival winners
Monday, February 18, 2019 at 12:23PM Seán McGovern concludes his coverage of the Berlin International Film Festival.
Juliette Binoche presents the Golden Bear to Israel's Nadav Lapid for his drama "Synonyms"
There is a bittersweet conundrum with film festivals, that no matter how many films you see, you still only get one colourfully subjective corner of a greater kaleidoscope of stories. But you do get a sense both from the conversations you have in line and the energy on the ground as to what you absolutely must see. Each year we ask the same question, no different for the 69th Berlinale: was it a good year, or a bad year? The answer is... a resounding shrug of the shoulders.
Not that the festival was without worthy winners. In typically pluralistic European style, a veritable bread basket of awards were given to a range of films both in the main competition and beyond, led by our “beautiful” president Juliette Binoche. I don't know if it was a translation thing, but the amount of times that Binoche was referred to as “our beautiful president” during Berlinale was insane...