Ulrike Ottinger will soon have another Berlinale award to go with Special Teddy she won at the film festival in 2012. The filmmaker and artist is set to receive the Berlinale Camera at the fest’s upcoming 2020 edition. According to a press release, Ottinger will be presented with the honor Saturday, February 22, ahead of the premiere of her new doc, “Paris Calligrammes.”
The Berlinale Camera is given to “personalities and institutions who have made a special contribution to filmmaking and with whom the festival feels closely connected.”
Ottinger has previously screened 12 films at Berlinale, including “Johanna D’Arc of Mongolia” and “The Image of Dorian Gray in the Yellow Press.”
“With the Berlinale Camera, we celebrate artists whose work has always maintained a close relationship between the subjects which comprise cinema and the act of ‘film-making’ itself. In light of this, Ulrike Ottinger is the ideal recipient of an award that bears the word ‘camera,’” Executive Director Mariette Rissenbeek and Artistic Director Carlo Chatrian stated. “As a painter, a photographer, an all-round artist, she has always regarded cinema as a form of art which is created and crafted by meeting other people, objects, books, stories, places, sets in which reality makes itself felt. Her latest film ‘Paris Calligrammes’ is a beautiful autobiography and a captivating journey through time.”
“A big thank you for such a wonderful prize,” Ottinger said. “Hopefully a miracle will come out of this and my wish that my script will be transformed into a film with moving pictures will be fulfilled.”
Described as “one of the most important German filmmakers since the 1970s,” Ottinger has picked up German Film Critics Association Awards for docs “Chamissos Schatten,” “Prater,” and “China. Die Künste – der Alltag. Eine filmische Reisebeschreibung.” She received Germany’s Federal Film Prize and the Hannah Höch Prize of the City of Berlin for her work. Her films have played at film fests all over the world and her art has been showcased at the Biennale di Venezia, the documenta, and the Berlin Biennale.
Ottinger’s filmography also includes “Countdown,” “Taiga,” and the “Berlin Trilogy.” “Ticket of No Return,” “Freak Orlando,” and “Dorian Gray” make up the latter.
The 2020 Berlinale will run February 20-March 1. Head over to the fest’s website to check out the films that have been lined up so far. The competition titles have not yet been announced.
