Next year there will be an innovation at the 73rd International Film Festival in Berlin. As the festival has announced, the Berlinale Series program section will for the first time award a prize for the best series production with the “Berlinale Series Award”. A three-person jury decides on the award. The Berlinale emphasizes that this is the first prize of this kind at an A festival.
The festival’s website states that the Berlinale is “one of the first film festivals to show series as a collective experience on the big screen”. The now-announced series award “will certainly help highlight the artistic value of a form that has had a lasting impact on the way stories can be told,” said Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian (50) in a statement.
The major international festivals include – among others – the film festivals in Cannes, Venice, San Sebastián and Locarno. In recent years, series productions have been presented here with increasing frequency, but without competition.
For example, the Danish directors Nicolas Winding Refn (52) and Lars von Trier (66) presented their new series or seasons “Copenhagen Cowboy” and “Riget Exodus” at this year’s Venice Film Festival. At the Berlinale 2022 in the Berlinale Series section – among others – the Argentine mini-series “Iosi, el espía arrepentido” by Daniel Burman (49) and the Danish production “Ellas vagt” by Lone Scherfig (63) were shown, at that time also excepted Competitor.
The Berlinale will take place from February 16th to 26th next year.
