Berlinale 2014

The 64th Berlinale is over. Of the 24 movies I saw this year, these are my personal favorites.

Best film: "Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross)"
Runner-up: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
honorable mentions: "白日焰火 (Black Coal, Thin Ice)", "Boyhood", "Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho (The Way He Looks)"

(Fairyland murder/heist mystery set in the last golden days of an European hotel designed by Wes Anderson (u.l.); Brazilian blind schoolboy's discovery of romance and sexuality through all senses but sight (u.r.); German schoolgirl's journey to divinity as propaganda for/indictment against religious fundamentalism (central); American family epic about that thing called life documented over the course of 12 years (l.l.); Chinese film noir dissecting love under the most precarious circumstances (l.r.))

Best director: Dietrich Brüggemann ("Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross)")
Runner-up: Wes Anderson ("The Grand Budapest Hotel")
honorable mentions: 刁亦男 (Yinan Diao) ("白日焰火 (Black Coal, Thin Ice)"), Richard Linklater ("Boyhood"), Yann Demange ("'71")

Best lead actor: Pierre Niney ("Yves Saint Laurent")
Runner-up: Ralph Fiennes ("The Grand Budapest Hotel")
honorable mentions: Mikael Persbrandt ("En du elsker (Someone You Love)"), Cillian Murphy  ("Aloft"), Florian Stetter ("Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters)"), Ghilherme Lobo ("Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho (The Way He Looks)")

(French fashion icon caught in depression, lust, addiction and fame; the smoothest hotel concierge trying to escape imprisonment and save his protegé; commitment-phobic musician coping with a new addition to his isolated, responsibility-free life; son with guilt and abandonment issues setting out to find estranged mother; renowned German poet Schiller torn by his love for two sisters at the same time; visually impaired Brazilian teenager having to clear some hurdles before finding the one)

Best lead actress: Hannah Herzsprung & Henriette Confurius ("Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters)")
Runner-up: Brooke Bloom ("She's Lost Control")
honorable mention: Jennifer Connelly ("Aloft"),

Best supporting actor: Guillaume Gallienne ("Yves Saint Laurent")
Runner-up: Sean Harris ("'71")
honorable mentions: 林雪 (Suet Lam) ("那夜凌晨，我坐上了旺角開往大埔的紅van (The Midnight After)"), Sofus Rønnov ("En du elsker (Someone You Love)"), 黃軒 (Xuan Huang) ("推拿 (Blind Massage)")

Best supporting actress: Franziska Weisz ("Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross)")
Runner-up: Patricia Arquette ("Boyhood")
honorable mentions: Uma Thurman  ("Nymphomaniac: Volume I"), Trine Dyrholm ("En du elsker (Someone You Love)"), Claudia Messner ("Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters)")

Best screenplay: "Kreuzweg (Stations of the Cross)"
Runner-up: "Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho (The Way He Looks)"
honorable mentions: "Blind", "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters)"

Best editing: "Blind" 
Runner-up: "'71"
honorable mentions: "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "白日焰火 (Black Coal, Thin Ice)", "Boyhood"

Best cinematography: "'71"
Runner-up: "The Two Faces of January"
honorable mentions: "The Grand Budapest Hotel", "She's Lost Control", "Blind"

(speed, menace, deadly hide-and-seek in the mean streets of Belfast; deception and intrigue lurking under the seductive Greek sun; innocence of first love and other sweet sentiments materialized in an explosion of sugary colors; professional intimacy and personal solitude expressed through strict lines and pushy lens; spotless Scandinavian aesthetics reflecting a pure existence or the imaginative limitation of someone who can't see?)

Best art direction: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Runner-up: "白日焰火 (Black Coal, Thin Ice)"
honorable mention: "那夜凌晨，我坐上了旺角開往大埔的紅van (The Midnight After)"

Best costume design: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
Runner-up:  "The Two Faces of January"
honorable mentions: "La belle et la bête (Beauty and the Beast)", "Yves Saint Laurent"

Best film music: "Die geliebten Schwestern (The Beloved Sisters)"
Runner-up: "The Grand Budapest Hotel"
honorable mention: "Yves Saint Laurent"

Best musical number: "Space Oddity" in "那夜凌晨，我坐上了旺角開往大埔的紅van (The Midnight After)"
Runner-up: "There's Too Much Love" in "Hoje eu quero voltar sozinho (The Way He Looks)"
honorable mention: every time Trine Dyrholm opens her mouth to sing in "En du elsker (Someone You Love)"

Best sound: "'71"
Runner-up: "Blind"
honorable mention: "Thou Wast Mild & Lovely"