Meanwhile, British filmmaker Grant Gee won the Silver Bear for Best Director for “Everybody Digs Bill Evans,” a somber black-and-white biopic portraying the life of legendary jazz pianist Bill Evans, numbed by grief following the death of his bass player.

German starlet and film titan Sandra Hüller delivered a transformative performance in “Rose,” winning the Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance. Directed by Markus Schleinzer, the film follows a woman passing as a man in a 17th-century village to obtain social and economic freedom.

Remaining Silver Bear awards went to Geneviève Dulude-De Celles for Best Screenplay in “Nina Roza,” following a Montreal-based art expert who returns to his Bulgarian homeland to verify a young painting prodigy, while Outstanding Artistic Contribution was awarded to couple Anna Fitch and Banker White for “Yo (Love Is a Rebellious Bird),” an inventive documentary portraying the vibrant life of the late Yolanda Shea through long form interviews and a third scale reproduction of her house.

The Teddy Awards marked a triumph for queer cinema, celebrating both emerging talents and seasoned pioneers in the genre. The Best Feature Film award went to Ian de la Rosa's “Iván & Hadoum,” a star-crossed romance about a trans man and cis woman working as seasonal pickers on a farm in Southern Spain.

The tender portrayal of a romance transcending social boundaries won over the jury with a flourish. U.S. native director Brydie O'Connor received the Best Documentary Film award for “Barbara Forever,” a portrait of the life of legendary lesbian filmmaker Barbara Hammer. Lastly, Gaël Kamilindi won Best Short Film for “Taxi Moto.”

Perhaps most significantly, acclaimed French director Céline Sciamma received a well-deserved Special Teddy Award for her extraordinary contributions to queer cinema. Sciamma, who first attended the Berlinale with her Teddy-winning film “Tomboy” in 2011, was honored for her ongoing influence and legacy as one of the most prolific and outspoken feminist and queer filmmakers of the 21st century. The Teddy Foundation noted her work "igniting the screen with singular masterpieces" and described her as "not only an influential filmmaker and screenwriter, but a passionate cinephile and human being with courage and posture."

Standouts Worth Seeing

Berlinale’s commitment to fostering new voices was underscored by longtime partner Mastercard, which, together with Berlinale Talents, hosted an industry gathering and announced the winners of its Mastercard Enablement Programme, supporting emerging talent with community-based projects.

Beyond the award winners, a vast selection of films garnered critical acclaim and are most definitely worth watching. Alain Gomis’ “Dao,” a Golden Bear nominee, presents a sparkling, three hour dramedy that follows a diasporic family across two ceremonies: a wedding in France and a funeral ritual in Guinea-Bissau.

Gomis, a Berlinale veteran who won the Silver Bear in 2017 for “Félicité,” blends genres of fiction and documentary, using a mix of seasoned actors and first-time performers, some of whom were his own family members.

Other films worth watching are Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's “Soumsoum, the Night of the Stars,” a magical realist fable that follows a 17-year-old girl haunted by visions and supernatural powers she can’t understand, Pete Muller's documentary “Bucks Harbor,” set among the fishermen of Downeast Maine, and Adrian Goiginger's “Four Minus Three,” a meditation on love, loss, grief, and becoming.

You can access the full list of films here.