Berlinale | The Teddy Awards
A cinematic manifest of queer existence

Combining immigrant dramas, queer coming-of-age stories and big-ticket entrants, the 39th Teddy Award presents an eclectic mix of feature films, shorts and documentaries.

In a world, in which the lives of queer people are increasingly politicised, few awards exist honouring their existence, and none equal to the Teddys. One of Berlinale’s most exciting events, the Teddy Awards, in their thirty-ninth edition this year, have celebrated queer cinema for half of the Berlinale’s lifespan. The Award has championed queer cinematic talent, providing it with a global platform, its iconic bear statue is internationally recognised as the Oscars of international queer filmmaking. 

Veteran auteurs like Todd Haynes, Pedro Almodóvar, Derek Jarman, Isaac Julien, Jay Duplass, Gus Van Sant, and global stars like Tilda Swinton and James Franco, have been honoured with a Teddy. The Teddy after-awards party is legendary, and among the most coveted media events in the film festival circuit – an invitation guarantees brag rights. But more importantly, queer films, actors, screenwriters, and filmmakers, from diverse backgrounds, some early in their careers, some discriminated in their home countries, get to showcase their talent at Berlinale, with the opportunity to not just win the coveted Teddy trophy, but international recognition.

Through its meticulous selection of movies and actors, the Teddys have long provoked political and social sensibilities fearlessly, and defined queerness beyond the sexual, as profound humane awareness of one another. There have been rich pickings for contention from this year’s Berlinale selection: An eclectic mix of movies, documentaries and short films, for the Teddy categories of best feature film, best documentary, best short film, as well as the jury and special awards.

From immigrant dramas to the intensely seductive

In Ata Noturno, a Brazilian film, the lives of an actor and a politician spiral dangerously out of control, when a shared fetish for sex in public spaces, leaves them in a reckless game of pleasure, success and death. With provocative imagery showing the sheer risque of existing as a queer person in any society, the film poses the important question, of what we deem acceptable in society: How much visible queerness is actually allowed? (Would a straight couple behaving the same way be as shocking?) As countries across the globe reintroduce censory laws about “gay propaganda”, Ata Noturno showcases the complexity of queer identities in the light of day. 
  Romance blossoms in Dreamers, a drama that follows two Nigerian asylum seekers with big dreams and little hope in the UK. Dreams in Nightmares follows three young black women, on an American road trip while dealing with often insurmountable personal struggles. Lesbian Space Princess, an animated crowd-pleaser, blends sci-fi with the pains of growing up. Another coming-of-age story, Casi Septiembre, is told through the eyes of a teenage girl, who lives in a Spanish seaside town. It competes as a short film.

In Janine zieht aufs Land, a pre-op trans woman moves into the German countryside. What for many would be an idyllic dream, Janine's struggles become existential, for herself and a village that finds itself on the edge. Legendary queer filmmaker Rosa von Praunheim (Nicht der Homosexuelle ist pervers, sondern die Situation, in der er lebt, 1971)  presents Satanic Sow, a wild carnival ride through queer life, and perhaps best described as a fictionalised autobiography.

Big-ticket entrants

Then there are the big-ticket entrants. One runner-up in the competition is Hot Milk, capturing the angst and suffocation of living as a queer person with a perpetually ailing mother. Ira Sach’s next outing, Peter Hujar's Day, shows the late photographer Peter Hujar (played by Ben Whishaw) and his friend Linda Rosenkrantz (played by Rebecca Hall) reminiscing in a room over moody New York. Hollywood veteran Richard Linklater’s Blue Moon brings to screen the life of Broadway lyricist Lorenz Hart. 
  Although independently produced Indian films have always found a place in the Berlinale’s roaster, there hasn’t been a queer film competing for a Teddy, since the Award’s inception in 1987. The closest we have come this year is with the animated space odyssey Lesbian Space Princess (after the US-produced animated film Sita Sings the Blues in 2008). Its director Leela Varghese is of Indian-Australian origin. 

With its unwavering commitment to honour queerness in films, the Teddy Awards by no means live in the shadows of the Berlinale. After 39 years of existence, their essence remains what it has always been — a beacon for queer identities around the globe, and a cinematic battleground for recognition in society.