The Golden Bear 2022 Scooped By Spanish Director Carla Simón's Alcarràs

The first big film festival of the year has announced its winners. The 72nd Berlinale's silver bears have found their new owners, and the principal - Golden Bear of the International Competition went to a Spanish female director Carla Simón for Alcarràs, which features a rural Catalan life and the Solé family who faces an uncertain future and menace of losing their beloved peach-tree orchard.

This year the international jury was chaired by a screenwriter, director and producer M. Night Shyamalan. He was joined on the panel by Karim Aïnouz, Anne Zohra Berrached, Saïd Ben Saïd, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi and Connie Nielsen.

The second most prestigious award - Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize - was handed to Korean director Hong Sangsoo for his film So-seol-ga-ui yeong-hwa (The Novelist's Film), Silver Bear Jury Prize - to Natalia López Gallardo's Robe of Gems, meanwhile a Silver Bear for Best Directing was awarded to Claire Denis for her Avec amour et acharnement (Both Sides of the Blade).

It's the second year when Berlin Film Festival introduced a gender-neutral acting awards and those were snatched by two prominent ladies: Meltem Kaptan for Best Leading Performance (Rabiye Kurnaz gegen George W. Bush / Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush) and Laura Basuki for Best Supporting Performance (Nana / Before, Now & Then). If you add up a Silver Bear for Best Screenplay, which went to another female filmmaker Laila Stieler for Rabiye Kurnaz gegen George W. Bush / Rabiye Kurnaz vs. George W. Bush, the majority of bears in the International Competition have been won by women, so acknowledgements in filmmaking are really making the difference in the past few years.

Click here for a full list of winners.

The festival will still be open till February 20 and dedicated to catch-up screenings. Despite severe Covid-19 conditions in Germany, Berlinale 2022 has succeeded to carry on in six days packed with a tight program of premieres and to host and award ceremony, although not everybody was able to attend like Isabelle Huppert who was supposed to to receive the festival's honorary prize last night but couldn't come due to testing Covid positive.

Berlin Film Festival and Carla Simón symbolically round all three major festivals now won by female directors: French director Audrey Diwan’s Happening won the Golden Lion in Venice 2021 and Julia Ducournau’s Titane - the Palme d’Or in Cannes 2021.