The seventy fifth Berlin Worldwide Movie Pageant wrapped its Era competitors of kids and youth movies with honors for a various and highly effective slate of administrators, led by Irish filmmaker Brendan Canty, whose drama Christy took dwelling the Grand Prize within the 14plus class.
A uncooked and deeply affecting coming-of-age story, Christy follows a 17-year-old boy navigating the streets of working-class Cork after being kicked out of his foster dwelling. Reuniting along with his estranged brother Shane, Christy finds himself at a crossroads, caught between the pull of his previous and the opportunity of a brand new future.
The worldwide jury praised the movie’s emotional authenticity and non-professional solid, stating, “This movie bursts with vitality and uncooked emotion, capturing a teen’s seek for belonging with putting realism. The director’s deep bond with the neighborhood shines via and makes each body really feel alive and recent.”
Belgian director Maja-Ajmia Yde Zellama acquired a Particular Point out for Têtes Brûlées, a transferring portrait of a 12-year-old lady rising up in a Tunisian-Muslim household in Brussels, navigating grief after the sudden dying of her older brother. “A daring but mild work,” the jury famous, lauding the movie’s “visually recent imagery and heartfelt storytelling.”
In the meantime, the pageant’s youth jury awarded its high honor, the Crystal Bear for Finest Movie, to Antoinette Jadaone’s Sunshine from the Philippines. The drama, centering on a promising younger gymnast dealing with an surprising being pregnant, was hailed as “an immersive actuality that feels genuine and deeply transferring.” The jury recommended its “delicate view on its trendy and socially important matter” and “darkish, but hopeful and empowering environment.”
A Particular Point out within the youth jury class went to Brazilian director Lucia Murat’s Hora do Recreio (Playtime), a documentary-fiction hybrid tackling problems with training, violence, and racism in Brazilian faculties. “A movie whose visuals alone left a profound affect on us,” the jury famous, emphasizing its pressing social message and revolutionary storytelling method.