Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn wins Golden Bear

Radu Jude takes top prize at virtual edition

by Amber Wilkinson

Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn
Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn Photo: Silviu Ghetie/Micro Film 2021

Radu Jude has taken home the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for his lockdown shot social satire Bad Luck Banging Or Loony Porn.

The jury said the film, about a secondary school teacher's leaked sex tape, "captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time. Of this very moment of human existence. It does so by provoking the spirit of our time (i.e., zeitgeist), by slapping it, by challenging it to a duel. And while doing that, it also challenges this present moment in cinema, shaking, with the same camera movement, our social and our cinematic conventions".

The Silver Bear for Best Director went to Dénes Nagy for Second World War drama Natural Light and the Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize was given to Japanese director Ryusuke Hamaguchi for ensemble drama Wheel Of Fortune And Fantasy, and Hong Sang-soo, won the Silver Bear for black and white drama Introduction.

The acting awards - which were non-gendered for the first time - went to Maren Eggert for her lead role in Maria Schrader's comedy I'm Your Man, while Lilla Kizlinger picked up the best supporting gong for her role in Bence Fliegauf's Forest - I See You Everywhere.

Rounding out the awards at this year's truncated, online edition of the festival, was Yibrán Asuad, who took home the Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution for the editing of Alonso Ruizpalacios' documentary hybrid A Cop Movie.

The members of the International Jury were Ildikó Enyedi (Hungary), Nadav Lapid (Israel), Adina Pintilie (Romania), Mohammad Rasoulof (Iran), Gianfranco Rosi (Italy) and Jasmila Žbanić (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

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