Berlinale Awards Crystal Bear to ‘Maya, Give Me a Title,’ Teddy Award to ‘Lesbian Space Princess’

The 75th Berlin International Film Festival came to a close with the Berlinale Publikumstag (Audience Day) on February 23. The Award Ceremony was held Saturday evening, and the prestigious Golden Bear was awarded to Norwegian live-action film Dreams (Sex Love) by Dag Johan Haugerud (as well as a Fipresci Jury Prize and Guild Film Prize).

French filmmaker Michel Gondry (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) won his first Crystal Bear for Best Film in the Generation Kplus competition with his cut-out animation feature Maya, Give Me a Title. The film is inspired by the Oscar-winning director’s tradition of crafting animated movie trailers starring his young daughter Maya, based on her title suggestions, as a way of keeping them close despite living far apart.

Maya, Give Me a Title was nominated for the Lumiere for Best Animated Feature and is set to make its North American premiere at the New York International Children’s Film Festival on March 2.

The animated queer sci-fi comedy Lesbian Space Princess, from Australian filmmakers Leela Varghese and Emma Hough Hobbs, won the festival’s Teddy Award for Best Feature Film. The Teddy Awards honor international films with LGBT themes. It was also a runner-up for the Audience Prize in the Panorama competition.

Lesbian Space Princess centers on an introverted princess who is thrust into a quest for a powerful weapon she must trade for the release of her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens. The pic made its official World Premiere in Berlin following its work-in-progress debut at Adelaide Film Festival in October, where it won the Audience Award for Best Feature.

Other notable animation wins included a Crystal Bear for Best Short Film for Wish You Were Ear by Mirjana Balogh (Hungary) and a Special Prize from the Generation Kplus international jury for Sylwia Szkiłądź’s short Autokar (Belgium/France).

Wish You Were Ear is set in a world where ex-partners have to swap a chosen body part after a break-up, meaning every relationship leaves a visible mark an da physical piece of the other person behind. In the short, our protagonist yearns for their original form, but finds theirself on a journey of self acceptance.

Autokar follows a young girl on a bus ride from Poland to Belgium. As her anxieties about traveling alone roll along, the chance drop of her pencil leads her into a fantastical world between the rows of seats.

See the full list of award winners here.