Mati Diop Doc ‘Dahomey’ Wins Berlin Golden Bear

Dahomey, a documentary from French-Senegalese filmmaker Mati Diop, has won the Golden Bear for best film at the 74th Berlin International Film Festival.

The multifaceted docu-fictional essay explores the return, in November 2021, of plundered royal treasures of the African Kingdom of Dahomey from Paris to the present-day Republic of Benin, examining the complicated response of those in Benin, whose culture has developed for more than a century without these artifacts.

While taking the stage to accept her award, Diop made a direct political statement, calling out, “I stand with Palestine!”

Jury president, the Oscar-winning 12 Years a Slave and Black Panther actor Lupita Nyong’o, announced the Golden Bear winner from the stage of the Berlinale Palast Saturday night. Nyong’o is the first Black and first African to chair the Berlinale jury.

Dahomey is only the second African film to win the top prize at Berlin, following Mark Dornford-May’s South African operatic drama Breathe Umphefumlo (U-Carmen eKhayelitsha) in 2015. Art house streamer Mubi picked up Dahomey for North America and much of the world in a deal announced on Friday.

Dahomey is also the second documentary in a row to take Berlin’s Golden Bear, following On the Adamant from French filmmaker Nicolas Philibert last year.

Hong Sangsoo, a regular on the Berlinale award stage — he won back-to-back-to-back Silver Bears in 2020 (The Woman Who Ran), 2021 (Introduction) and 2022 (The Novelist’s Film) — made it a quartet on Saturday, winning the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize for A Traveler’s Needs. The project marks his third collaboration with French star Isabelle Huppert, following In Another Country (2012) and Claire’s Camera (2017). Finecut is selling A Traveler’s Needs internationally.

Best director honors went to Dominican filmmaker Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias for Pepe, an unclassifiable mash-up of documentary and fiction about a hippo brought to Colombia by drug king Pablo Escobar. (The film is narrated by the hippo.) Bruno Dumont’s sci-fi spoof L’ Empire, which Memento International is selling, took the Silver Bear jury prize.

MCU alum Sebastian Stan won Berlin’s Silver Bear for best leading performance for his role in Aaron Schimberg’s twisted New York-set fable A Different Man, in which he plays a man who undergoes radical plastic surgery and begins to question his own identity.

“This is my first European film festival,” said Stan. “For a little boy from Romania, that is very meaningful for me, so thank you.” A24 produced A Different Man and is releasing stateside.

Emily Watson won the best supporting actor honor for playing a terrifying nun alongside star Cillian Murphy in Tim Mielants’ Irish-set drama Small Things Like These. FilmNation is handling the movie’s international sales.

In a gesture to the political debate surrounding the war in Gaza, which has overshadowed much of the discussion around cinema at this year’s Berlinale, the international jury gave a special documentary prize to No Other Land. The project, directed by a collective of Israeli and Palestinian filmmakers, is a sobering look at the Israeli government’s attempts to expel Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, a rural village in the occupied West Bank. No Other Land screened in Berlin’s Panorama sidebar section, where it won the audience award for best documentary. Taking to the stage, two of the film’s directors, one Israeli and one Palestinian, called on the “powerful people in this room” to call for a ceasefire in Gaza and to “stop the occupation” of the West Bank by Israel. At the very least, one of the directors said, Germany should stop supplying weapons to Israel.

Juliana Rojas, who won the Encounters prize for best director for Cidade; Campo, also used the Berlinale stage to call for a ceasefire in Gaza, as did Ben Russell and co-director Guillaume Cailleau, winners of the best film prize in the Encounters section for Direct Action. “We are against the genocide,” Russell said.

Two of this year’s critical favorites, Matthias Glasner’s German melodrama Sterben (Dying) and The Devil’s Bath, an Austrian horror film from Goodnight Mommy directors Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala, both picked up Silver Bears. Glasner received one for best screenplay and The Devil’s Bath cinematographer Martin Gschlacht took home a trophy for the “outstanding artistic contribution” category. The Match Factory is selling Sterben worldwide, with Playtime handling The Devil’s Bath.

This is the fifth and final Berlinale under the artistic direction of Carlo Chatrian, who, along with Berlinale managing director Mariëtte Rissenbeek, will be leaving after this year and replaced by former London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle taking over a dual role.

Winners of the 74th Berlinale

Golden Bear for Best Film

Dahomey dir. Mati Diop

Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize

A Traveler’s Needs dir. Hong Sangsoo

Silver Bear Jury Prize

L’ Empire dir. Bruno Dumont

Silver Bear for Best Director

Nelson Carlos De Los Santos Arias for Pepe

Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance

Sebastian Stan for A Different Man

Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance

Emily Watson for Small Things Like These

Silver Bear for Best Screenplay

Matthias Glasner for Sterben (Dying)

Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution

Martin Gschlacht for the cinematography for The Devil’s Bath

Best Film

Direct Action dirs. Guillaume Cailleau, Ben Russell

Best Director

Cidade; Campo dir. Juliana Rojas

Special Jury Award (ex aequo)

The Great Yawn of History dir. Aliyar Rasti, Some Rain Must Fall dir. Qiu Yang

GWFF Best First Feature Award

Cu Li Never Cries dir. Pham Ngoc Lan

Berlinale Documentary Award

No Other Land dirs. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor

Berlinale Short Film Awards

Golden Bear Best Short Film

An Odd Turn dir. Francisco Lezama

Silver Bear Jury Prize

Remains of the Hot Day dir. Zhang Wenqian

A previous version of this story misidentified actress Emily Watson for Emma Watson.