Opening film The International Location Berlin, Germany No. of films 383 films | Closing film Eden Is West Founded 1951 | |
Awards Golden Bear (La Teta Asustada) | ||
The 59th Berlin International Film Festival was held from 5 February to 15 February 2009. The opening film of the festival was Tom Tykwer’s The International, screened out of competition. Costa-Gavras's immigrant drama Eden Is West served as the closing night film at the festival. The festival's jury president was actress Tilda Swinton of the United Kingdom.
Contents
The Golden Bear was awarded to Peruvian film La Teta Asustada directed by Claudia Llosa. The retrospective dedicated to the Golden Age of 70mm filmmaking from 1955 to 1970, titled 70 mm - Bigger than Life was shown at the festival.
Admission for the festival was reported to be among the highest in years, and it also set a record for ticket sales, with some 270,000 tickets sold by the halfway mark, compared to 240,000 sold for the entire run of the festival the previous year. The final ticket tally was the largest in the festival’s 59-year history.
Jury
The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:
In competition
The following films were selected in competition for the Golden Bear and Silver Bear awards:
Out of competition screening
The following films were selected for the out of competition screening at the festival:
Awards
The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:
Golden Bear
The Golden Bear went to La teta asustada by Claudia Llosa.