Teddy Award Berlin - Der queere Filmpreis

Shakespeare's most popular comedy is a merry-go-round of young lovers and supernatural wood sprites. An extravaganza of Hollywood stars and fantastic special effects by Max Reinhardt, the 'great magician' of the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. more

Engl. Title: White Night
Won-Gyu is a flight attendant and is constantly in transit. Anonymous hotel rooms are all the home he knows. Tae-Jun is a motorbike courier who spends almost all his time on the streets. Two men with two jobs that keep them on the move. Two lives that are just a series of fleeting moments. Having clicked on the internet they arrange to meet in Seoul. But they only have a few hours. Won-Gyu never wanted to return to the city because Seoul reminds him of an event that has left him sad and angry. [...] more

Bambi was born Jean-Pierre Pruvot in a tiny Algerian village in 1935. Even as a child,she refused to meet the expectations of her extended family, choosing instead to find a way to become the woman she always knew herself to be. A Cabaret Carrousel de Paris performance in Algiers in the 1950s proved to be all the encouragement she needed to emigrate to the French capital, assume the stage name of ‘Bambi’ and lead the life she longed for on the music-hall stages. Jean-Pierre, known [...] more

Engl. Title: In the Praise of the Day
Friday afternoon in a park in Jerusalem. Shabbat is about to begin and people are making their final preparations. The park is almost empty – apart from the gay cruising scene. A young man, Oren, needs to make a phone call, but he hasn’t got a mobile with him. He addresses a passing orthodox Jew but isn’t sure if the man has even understood him. But the cleric is after something else entirely. Oren acquiesces,caught between curiosity and fear, desire and danger. Then his lover [...] more

Like everywhere else in the world, gays and lesbians in Cameroon also seek refuge in the city. The two young gay men in this film are crazy about Rihanna and Lady Gaga, who has been a gay icon since her hit song ‘Born this way’. But the tolerance Lady Gaga sings about is just a dream for these two young men. In their country, homosexual relations are subject to punishment of up to five years’ imprisonment, andit is almost impossible to come out to your own family. This film [...] more

Engl. Title: It's All so Quiet
Helmer is 55 and a bachelor. He tends a remote farm and looks after his ailing father.Theirs is a brittle, tight-lipped relationship. When his father moves ever clother towards the grave, Helmer shifts him upstairs. He then clears out all the junk from the ground floor, throws the house plants on the dung heap, orders a new bed, and begins to live a life of his own. From time to time, Ada from the neighbouring farm drops in with her sons, and the milk truck driver regularly seeks Helmer’s [...] more

In early 1930s Berlin, aspiring writer Brian Roberts falls in love with honky-tonk singer Sally Bowles. The ex-pat American with her zest for life takes the uptight British academic on a merry tour of the nightlife of a capital city already abounding with the aggressive presence of the Nazis. The relationship is tested when they meet rich aristocrat Max and Sally begins an affair with him. But she’s not the only one ...This film version of the Broadway musical won eight Oscars. Based [...] more

Engl. Title: A Fold in my Blanket
Dimitrij loves going off on solo climbing expeditions. He'll do anything to escape the gruellingly surreal conformity of the small Georgian town he lives in and the monotony of the courthouse where he works. His father, the judge, presides over the courthouse with the same despotic manner he rules the dinner table at home. A man hands out faded flags in the neighbourhood; an aunt suffering from Alzheimer'sis convinced her brother-in-law has robbed her; and people come together on dreary [...] more

42-year-old Abby is married, well-heeled and a lesbian. She and her wife have two children – they are the perfect family. Then one day she sustains a head injury from a baseball whilst playing with her children and, all at once, her neatly arranged balance of gym, school, family and housework goes awry: ”I don't want this!” is her desperate mantra as she is taken to hospital. She embarks upon a renovation project in the near by city and, before long, puts both her tidy [...] more

Engl. Title: Belated
Heavy clouds hang over the tobacco fields in the mountainous jungle of north western Argentina. Here, far from the big city, live Ernesto and Helena. They long to have children, but their passion is spent. One day, Helena’s cousin Joaquin arrives. He has just gone through detox and his mother has banished him to this remote place for rehabilitation. Although they all keep to themselves, the young man’s presence bringslife to their marriage. An atmosphere begins to develop that nobody [...] more

Engl. Title: The 727 Days Without Karamo
An Austrian woman has been forced to live alone with her children ever since her husband Karamo was deported to Africa. A man tries to instil hope in his Chinese wife that she will soon be allowed to return to Vienna. Others talk of the long wait forresidence permits, of struggles with forms and offices, of German courses, income statements and domestic spot checks by the police which infer that their marriage is asham. The complicated, state regulated reality experienced by various bi-national [...] more

An old man is dying. His carer Noel sits quietly by his side. Dina, the man’s granddaughter, appears in an animal costume. She raids the fridge and then goes off to have fun with her friends. When she returns late at night, her grandfather is dead. Dina and Noel lovingly stroke the man’s hands, comb his hair, smoke a cigarette, share a laugh and then go out into the night time city. Loud electronic music awaits them in a club. As the sun rises they leap into the sea’s clear, [...] more

A clique gathers in a house in the country to hold its own personal funeral ceremony for a friend who has committed suicide. It's not unusual for extreme situations to lure people out of their shells. In this case,the suicide prompts them to switch off for a while; this weekend at least, these young people are no longer thinking about tomorrow. Instead, they surrender entirely to the moment and give their feelings free reign. They dance, love, argue, drink, go for walks, or take naps. But [...] more

In her previous work, underground artist Beth B has often addressedsuch topics as sexual repression and boundary transgression. In EXPOSED, she leads us through New York’s 21st century undergroundwhere classic burlesque – usually catering to the male gaze –  is being radically redefined, prevalent sexual clichés are interrogated,and deeper meanings are teased out in a humorous and sometimes shocking way. From its founder James Habacker, we learn [...] more

Engl. Title: Fifis is Howling from Happiness
Bahman Mohassess was a celebrated artist at the time of the Shah. Trained in Italy, he created sculptures and paintings in his homeland. But audiences often took offence at the pronounced phalli on his mostly naked bronze figures and his work was regularly censored. All traces of him were lost after the revolution. It was said he destroyed his remaining paintings and disappeared. Mitra Farahani, who began her career as a painter, finds Mohassess in a hotel in Rome. The old man is flattered [...] more

When female impersonator Victor catches cold and loses his voice, the youngElizabethstands in for him. The British remake of Viktor und Viktoria is a revue film with many song-and-dance routines and considerable visual appeal. more

Engl. Title: First Time
The first time can be really hard, especially when you feel you've got something to prove to your mates. Alex and the others hang out at the beach, chatting and bragging. He tries to get closer to Sofia with a joke she finds totally unfunny. Nevertheless they go off together. A first awkward kiss, they lie in the grass, zips get undone. They both want something to happen but it simply doesn't work out. Nevermind, they think, but what will they tell the others? more

Engl. Title: Free Fall
Marc is shaken to the core when he meets a fellow police officer, Kay, on a trainingcourse and begins to develop feelings for him. When Kay asks to be transferred to Marc’s unit, his well-arranged life begins to sink into chaos. Torn between his love forhis pregnant girlfriend Bettina and the rush of a completely new experience, his life begins to spin increasingly out of control. He soon finds himself increasinglye stranged from his family, but running away with Kay is not an option. [...] more

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In 1989, together with a group of female friends, Su Friedrich rented and renovated an old loft in Williamsburg, an unassuming working-class district of Brooklyn. In 2005 this former industrial zone was designated a residential area and the factories,manufacturers and artists' lofts were priced out by property speculators lured by tax breaks. Friedrich spent five years documenting with her camera the changes in the area between East River and the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway. She shows the [...] more

Cesar Oiticica Filho's first film is a visually striking found-footage documentary about the filmmaker's uncle, Hélio Oiticica (1937-1980), one of the most important Brazilian artists of the 20th Century. Foregoing voiceover narration and expert analyses, the film allows Oiticica himself to narrate his life and expound upon his art in his own words, and in extremely rare archival audio and visual material. The artist's commentary guides us through his artistic development [...] more

When William Friedkin’s film Cruising was screened in competition at the Berlinale in 1980 it unleashed a wave of controversy – and not just at the festival. Gay activists accused the film, in which Al Pacino plays an undercover cop investigating a case inNew York’s gay and leather scene, of stirring up homophobic stereotypes. Moreover, forty minutes of allegedly overly explicit scenes were deleted in order tosecure a less restricted rating for the film’s release. Oscar-nominated [...] more

Engl. Title: When I was a Boy, I was a girl
Goca is a transvestite in Belgrade, the capital city of a country where organising orpartcipating in a gay pride parade is forbidden. She is raising a daughter who is really her niece. Although her eighteen-year-old boyfriend steals the money she risks life and limb to earn as a sex worker, Goca still loves him and manages to retain her sunny, open-minded nature. On her thirty-ninth birthday she decides to celebrate he rcoming out on stage in front of a live audience. And so she tells them [...] more

Engl. Title: The Town of Whales
Machi, Tomohiko and Hotaru attend the same high school. Machi misses her older brother, who disappeared six years earlier. The trio takes up his trail, which leads them first to Tokyo and then across the sea.Together, these two girls and a boy comprise a fragile love triangle. It is a game of attraction and boundary setting, of closeness and distance. The three of them are atan age marked by profound insecurity and a constant desire to search, as well as by curiosity and the spirit of discovery. [...] more

Luis leaves his partner and flies to Berlin from Spain for a weekend of lighthearted partying, experimenting with drugs and casual physical encounters. He meets Viktor, a mysterious man who holds a fascinating, disconcerting attraction. Struggling with his inhibitions about being overpowered by a stranger, Luis submits to Viktor with a trusting passion. Shortly afterwards, Luis is confused with a missing Greek named Dimitri who is being desperately sought by his sister and cousin. Although [...] more

James, Catherine and Patricia. A house on the beach not far from New York. It is1978. A neighbour with a soft spot for James drops by from time to time. James with his big-checked jacket, his camera and his unfinished novel. Catherine with her paintings and her men’s suits. Patricia with her cigarettes. In his directorial debut, Carter has created a tender, associative film about the friendship of three misfits.James used to be a successful TV soap actor until probable mental illness [...] more

Marc is a wealthy but terminally ill man who is living life to the full one final time. Alongside his ordered existence as a human resources manager in Luxembourg he enjoys a bacchanalic life with young male 'companions' in the luxury hotels of majorcities whose opera houses happen to be playing Mozart’s Don Giovanni. This opulently filmed documentary follows Marc on his journeys, accompanies him on his visits to doctors, and allows him to expound upon his personal philosophy [...] more

The video examines the role of intimacy in relation to desire and physical proximity.Using images and sounds that are surrogates for the liquidity or porosity of the body, of being inside and outside, it slips between the sensual image and its abstraction.Isla Leaver-Yap more

Engl. Title: The Package
At a new school Leandro meets the lively Jefferson. They form an instant attachment and soon realise that theirs is no ordinary friendship. But Jefferson has to tell Leandro something and he is clearly struggling to get it out. Leandro enquires further, hoping it’s some kind of a joke. Except Jeff doesn’t look like he’s joking. If they want to be together there's one irreversible thing Leandro must deal with: Jeff is HIV positive. more

Engl. Title: Out in East Berlin - Lesbians and Gays in the DDR
Unlike the Federal Republic, by 1968 homosexuality was already de-criminalised in the German Democratic Republic’s penal code. But the ‘workers’ and farmers’ state' did not exactly welcome its gay and lesbian citizens with open arms; their sexuality was taboo and they were often marginalised from public life. The ‘bewitched’ generation that had seen the war and were now trying to live lives of inconspicuous normality felt threatened by younger homosexuals [...] more

The fact that Paul Bowles is less well known than fellow writers like William S.Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg or Jack Kerouac may be because, after pursuing a nomadic lifestyle at the beginning of the 1950s, publicity-shy Bowles decided to settlein Tangiers. There, far away from the hurly-burly of the literary world, the town became a permanent home for this homosexual writer and composer and Jane, his lesbian wife. Bowles' austere, almost Calvinistic view of humankind and the psyche, as well [...] more

Starring Francisca Gaál in a breeches role. Dressed as a boy, a street musician gets a job pumping gas. When s/he starts to have feelings for her patron, watch out for complications in this comedy shot in German in Budapest. more

”What I really want to do is what I am doing now: perform,” says Jason Holliday in”his” portrait. Jason – black, gay and a self-declared hustler – directs himself, follows directions, narrates, invents, confesses, makes claims and ultimately challenges the camera, the film team composed of Shirley Clarke and Carl Lee (with whom she also collaborated on The Connection and The Cool World) and us, the viewers, as far asour notions of identity and truth are concerned. [...] more

It is 1951. New York poet Elizabeth Bishop is looking for new inspiration for her work.  She travels to Rio de Janeiro to visit Mary, a college friend. The shy Elizabeth is overwhelmed by Brazilian sensuality. She is the antithesis to Mary’s dashing partner, architect Lota de Macedo Soares. Although frosty at first, the architect soon makes a play for Elizabeth and, when her scheduled departure is unexpectedly delayed, the poet finally succumbs to Lota’s advances. Mary is jealous, [...] more

In May, 2011 a concert was held in New York’s Town Hall to commemorate the influential Canadian singer-songwriter Kate McGarrigle who had died of cancer a year previously at the age of 63. This film shows the intimate group of people on stage including her children Rufus and Martha Wainwright, her sister Anna McGarrigle and friends from the music business such as Emmylou Harris, Norah Jones, Antony Hegarty and Teddy Thompson, all of whom weave magic with Kate’s musical legacy. Their [...] more

In 1929 Chicago, two unemployed musicians flee angry mobsters by dressing up as women and joining a female band on tour. Billy Wilder’s riotous comedy, with its legendary performance by Marilyn Monroe is based on a German screenplay from the1930s. more

A person of undefined gender and ethnicity is sent by a German cultural institution to a city in China, where s/he experiences a cruel conspiracy against her/his loved one. more

A captivatingly courageous and touching film about a lesbian couple in Cambodia.The two women have known and loved each other since the time of the Khmer Rouge. The deep bond existing between them and their strength have helped them overcome all different kinds of resistance, including that of their families. more

When female impersonator Victor catches cold and loses his voice, the young Elizabeth stands in for him. The British remake of Viktor und Viktoria is a revue film with many song-and-dance routines and considerable visual appeal. more

Engl. Title: Will You Still Me Tomorrow?
Introverted Wei-chung has been married to Feng for nine years. They have one son together, and Feng would like to have another child with him. One day Stephen, an old friend who now organises weddings, appears and encourages Wei-chung to return to the gay life he had previously. Anxious not to lose his wife, Wei-chung tentatively begins seeing a flight attendant behind Feng’s back.Wei-chung’s impulsive sister Mandy dumps her fiancée San San in the middle of a supermarket. [...] more

Engl. Title: Two Mothers
Katja and Isabella decide to have a child. However, like many lesbian couples they soon discover that this is much more difficult than they first imagined. Most of the sperm banks and fertility clinics refuse to treat them, citing legal arguments.Fortunately, they are able to find one doctor willing to help them for a large sum. After a while, Katja decides she wants to call a halt to their ‘project’ on account of the way it is taking its toll on their relationship – not to [...] more