News - TEDDY AWARD - The Queer Film Award at the Berlin International Film Festival

TEDDY 40 Special Programme

Collage Retro Films — Copyright © Berlinale

The 40th TEDDY AWARD anniversary is celebrated with the Berlinale special programme TEDDY 40, consisting of six short films and eight feature films from the history of the TEDDY AWARD, as well as a series of discussions.

Here is an overview of the TEDDY 40 special series:

575 Castro Street

United States | Directed by Jenni Olson

575 CASTRO STREET begins with the following introduction: “In February 1977, the SAN FRANCISCO GAY FILM FESTIVAL was born when a self described 'ragtag bunch of hippie fag filmmakers' got together and projected their Super 8 short films on a bed sheet. Many of these films explored gay themes, but (…) many were simple studies in light and motion.
Most of these films passed through Harvey Milk´s Castro Camera Store at 575 Castro St. for proce...

Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros

Philippinen | Regie Auraeus Solito

In diesem Film steht die Reinheit der ersten Liebe der Armut und der Korruption gegenüber, die das Leben in den Slums von Manila prägen. Hier lebt der 12-jährige Maxi. Seine Familie ist arm. Für seine kleinkriminellen Angehörigen räumt er das Haus auf, kocht, wäscht, flickt die zerfetzten Jeans und beschafft notfalls das nötige Alibi, um Geschwister oder den Vater vor der Verhaftung zu bewahren. Dass Maxi schwul ist, wird akzeptiert. Geliebt und ...

Entropia

Hungary | Directed by Flóra Anna Buda

Three women, three lives in parallel worlds, until the moment a fly causes a bug in the system. The universe collapses, sex is in the air, bras are overrated and the stars twinkle! In the animated film Entropia by Hungarian artist Flóra Anna Buda, colours explode and sensually unleash new possibilities: Thanks to the fly, all that is abstract comes to life and sexuality plays an integral role. While there are echoes of the sci-fi series Black Mir...

Kokomo City

United States | Directed by D. Smith

Morning routines and conversations in bed, gossip and real talk. In encounters and interviews, D. Smith portrays four Black trans sex workers in New York and Georgia. The protagonists discuss their lives with relish but without any sugar-coating. The conversations that emerge are deep and passionate reflections on socio-political and social realities as well as perceptive analyses of belonging and identity within the Black community and beyond. D...

Liebe, Eifersucht und Rache

Germany | Directed by Michael Brynntrup

Explores the mobile meanings of language in film with the help of sophisticated telecommunications; an aural/oral offering. A quirky short film presented under the (extremely) tongue-in-cheek guise of an educational video for non-native German speakers. The narrative takes place in a gay leather bar, as a man shares a telephone conversation with an escort dressed in drag, looking for sex. A peculiar delight from the famously subversive Michael Br...

Mil nubes de paz cercan el cielo, amor, jamás acabarás de ser amor

Mexico | Directed by Julián Hernández

17-year-old Gerardo and his friend Bruno have split up. Gerardo finds himself wandering aimlessly about the streets of Mexico City. As he meanders, he is tortured by images: every male body he sees rekindles memories of his lover, who is with him once again in his imagination. However, his wet dreams do not alleviate his suffering, nor does masturbation provide him with any kind of relief. Even his brief, surprising sexual encounters with strange...

Mondial 2010

Lebanon | Directed by Roy Dib

A Lebanese gay couple decides to take a road trip to Ramallah. The film is recorded with their camera as they chronicle their journey. The protagonists and the viewers are invited through the couple's conversations into the universe of a fading city.

The Watermelon Woman

United States | Directed by Cheryl Dunye

Racist tendencies might appear to have been expunged from emancipation and gender discourse – but this is far from being the case. The racism inherent in mainstream culture is not necessarily recognised as such by alternative thinkers. Dunye takes a stance with a reflection on a representative figure of this complex issue.

Tomboy

France | Directed by Céline Sciamma

There is definitely something boyish about ten-year-old Laure. She has recently moved to a new area with her parents and her little sister, Jeanne. It’s summertime and all the other neighbourhood children are playing outside – only Laure is alone, for she knows nobody of her own age.
But then, one day, she meets Lisa, a girl who is exactly the same age. Laure allows her new acquaintance to believe that she is a boy. Laure becomes Mikaël, and, no ...

To Write from Memory

United States | Directed by Emory Chao Johnson

Meticulously, they inspect their own body as the camera looks on, documenting every step of their transition. Yet what starts off as a young filmmaker’s audiovisual diary soon expands into a confrontation with their own past. It is not easy to break out of a cocoon spun from motherly demands and grievances – especially when your body gets treated as a family matter, and when your need for autonomy is met with incomprehension.

Tunten lügen nicht

Germany | Directed by Rosa von Praunheim

Ichgola Androgyn, Bev StroganoV, Tima die Göttliche and Ovo Maltine are four headstrong transvestites who met in West Berlin in the mid-eighties. These four queens have been busy fertilising the cultural scene in both Germany and the rest of the world ever since. Time and again, director Rosa von Praunheim has been fortunate enough to work with each one of them in various films.
This film is a portrait of these four wilful, courageous transvestit...

Una Mujer Fantástica

Chile, United States, Germany, Spain | Directed by Sebastián Lelio

Marina and Orlando are in love and plan to spend their lives together. She is working as a waitress and adores singing. Her lover, twenty years her senior, has left his family for her. One night, when they return home after having exuberantly celebrated Marina’s birthday at a restaurant, Orlando suddenly turns deathly pale and stops responding. At the hospital, all the doctors can do is confirm his death. Events follow thick and fast: Marina find...

Verführung: Die grausame Frau

Germany | Directed by Elfi Mikesch, Monika Treut

Wanda is both a mysterious dominatrix and a shrewd businesswoman. Her profession is cruelty—specialising in luring her lovers into the trap called seduction. In her gallery in Hamburg Harbour, Wanda stages sadomasochistic rituals as bizarre theatrical performances. In her private life, too, Wanda is a sovereign ruler.
Loosely based on motifs from Sacher-Masoch’s novel Venus in Furs, the film provoked far-reaching reactions: its BDSM scenes not on...