Berlinale 2013

The 63rd Berlinale is over. Of the 21 movies I saw this year, here my personal favorites.

Best film: "Upstream Color"
Runner-up: "一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"
honorable mentions: "Das merkwürdige Kätzchen", "Gloria", "Harmony Lessons"

(German family dynamics captured and slowly pressurized in "Das merwürdige Kätzchen" (u.l.); Kazakhstani campus bullying and the origin of violence in "Harmony Lessons" (u.r.); American horror story about the loss of self in "Upstream Color" (central); Chilean grandma's journey of heartbreaks and self-fulfillment in "Gloria" (l.l.); Chinese kung-fu master's extraordinary life revisited, WKW-style, in "The Grandmaster" (l.r.))

Best director: Shane Carruth ("Upstream Color")
Runner-up: Ramon Zürcher ("Das merkwürdige Kätzchen")
honorable mentions: 王家衛 ("一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"), Emir Baigazin ("Harmony Lessons")

Best lead actor: 梁朝偉 Tony Leung ("一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)")
Runner-up: Ethan Hawke ("Before Midnight")
honorable mentions: Paul Rudd + Emile Hirsch ("Prince Avalanche"), Peter Mullan ("Top of the Lake")

Best lead actress: Paulina Garcia ("Gloria")
Runner-up: Luminița Gheorghiu ("Child's Pose")
honorable mentions: Julie Delpy ("Before Midnight"), 章子怡 Zhang Ziyi ("一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"), Juliette Binoche ("Camille Claudel 1915"), Pauline Etienne ("La religieuse)

(sexy Chilean grandma determined to get her groove back, possessive Romanian mother on a mission to save her son, ambitious French feminist caught between career and family, stubborn Chinese kung-fu heiress bent on avenging her father's death, gifted French sculptor abandoned by her family and brought to the edge of sanity, innocent French girl forced into a life behind monastery walls and condemned to endless abuse)

Best supporting actor: Lance LeGault ("Prince Avalanche")
Runner-up: Yoo Jun-sang ("Nobody's Daughter Haewon")
honorable mentions: 張晉 ("一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"), Sergio Hernández ("Gloria")

Best supporting actress: Robyn Malcolm ("Top of the Lake")
Runner-up: Louise Bourgoin ("La religieuse)
honorable mentions: Holly Hunter ("Top of the Lake"), 李佩甄 ("明天記得愛上我 (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?)")

Best screenplay: "Before Midnight"
Runner-up: "Frances Ha"
honorable mentions: "Prince Avalanche", "Das merkwürdige Kätzchen"

Best editing: "Upstream Color"
Runner-up: "一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"
honorable mention: "Das merkwürdige Kätzchen"

Best cinematography: "一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"
Runner-up: "Upstream Color"
honorable mention: "Harmony Lessons"

Best art direction: "一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"
Runner-up: "Upstream Color"
honorable mentions: "Harmony Lessons", "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman", "La religieuse"

(brothels, train stations, opium parlors in early 20th century China in night rains, midday snow, and all kinds of lights and shades; strict lines and stern surfaces in schools, yards and prisons against the backdrop of sprawling Kazakhstani landscape; bloodshed and romance dowsed in fantastical colors in modern-day Bucarest; everyday objects of all shapes and sizes given an alluring and theatening tone in futuristic America; stately villas and foreboding monasteries of 18th century France in clean frames and textured materials)

Best costume design: "La religieuse"
Runner-up: "一代宗師 (The Grandmaster)"
honorable mentions: "Gloria", "Das merkwürdige Kätzchen"

Best film music: "Upstream Color"
Runner-up: "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman"
honorable mentions: "明天記得愛上我 (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?)", "Frances Ha"

Best musical number: living-room guitar duo in "Gloria"
Runner-up: Will you still love me tomorrow? in "明天記得愛上我 (Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?)"

Best sound: "Upstream Color"
Runner-up: "The Necessary Death of Charlie Countryman"

Best off-screen moment: Linklater/Delpy/Hawke Berlinale reunion

(1995, 2004, 2013)