A multitalented group of people will decide who brings home the top prizes from Berlin, while Iran shows its colors.

This year’s jury president was announced back in December of 2023 and you can find four reasons to love Academy Award winner Lupita Nyong'o detailed by yours truly here.

Joining Nyong’o on her Competition jury will be American director and actor Brady Corbet, Hong Kong filmmaker Ann Hui, German director and screenwriter Christian Petzold, Spanish director Albert Serra, Italian actress and filmmaker Jasmine Trinca and Ukrainian novelist and poet Oksana Zabuzhko.

They will be in charge of bestowing the following awards:

• Golden Bear for Best Film (awarded to the film’s producers)

• Silver Bear Grand Jury Prize

• Silver Bear Jury Prize

• Silver Bear for Best Director

• Silver Bear for Best Leading Performance

• Silver Bear for Best Supporting Performance

• Silver Bear for Best Screenplay

• Silver Bear for Outstanding Artistic Contribution

The Encounters jury will be evaluating the 15 films which are featured in the section this year. These are a three-member jury which choose the winners for Best Film, Best Director and the Special Jury Award. This year the jury is made up of Argentinian filmmaker Lisandro Alonso, Canadian director Denis Côté and Italian born director Tizza Covi. 

The Berlinale Shorts jury will see Turkish/German director and screenwriter Ilker Çatak, Spanish sound artist and researcher Xabier Erkizia and American director, screenwriter, video artist and lecturer Jennifer Reeder, evaluating the 20 nominated films. The three member jury will be choosing the winner of the Golden Bear for Best Short Film, the winner of the Silver Bear Jury Prize (Short Film) and the Berlin Short Film Candidate for the European Film Awards. 

Since 2006, the GWFF Best First Feature Award has been given to one outstanding debut film across the Berlinale sections. In total, 16 directorial feature film debuts from the sections Competition, Encounters, Panorama, Forum and Generation are nominated for the GWFF Best First Feature Award. A three-person jury will decide on the award, and they are NY-born director, screenwriter and producer Eliza Hittman, Canadian Andréa Picard, who is a Senior Film curator at the Toronto International Film Festival and innovative Danish producer Katrin Pors. 

The Berlinale Documentary Award jury, for a prize funded by rbb will see three jury members evaluating 20 documentary forms from the sections Competition, Berlinale Special, Encounters, Panorama, Forum and Generation are nominated for the Berlinale Documentary Award. French/Iraqi filmmaker Abbas Fahdel, will be joined by Berliner writer and director Thomas Heise and French director, artist, and anthropologist Véréna Paravel.

And finally, last but not least, the International Jury and the Children’s and Youth Jury at Generation will consider a selection has now been made of members comprising the International Jury as well as the Children’s and Youth Jury, who will award Glass Bears and cash prizes at Generation. This year’s jury is made up of Sudanese filmmaker and producer Amjad Abu Alala, German/Iranian thespian Banafshe Hourmazdi and American director Ira Sachs.

The Berlinale Talents section, which features talks and masterclasses, will fall under this year’s theme of "Common Tongues – Speaking Out in the Language of Cinema.” Berlinale Talents sets an example for diversity in filmmaking, tolerance and unity among all those who love cinema and who together with everyone stand for open exchange and freedom in art. The program consisting of 14 major public talks and countless other events for the 202 invited Talents spans the usual wide range of cinematic disciplines and cultures and invites – in keeping with this year's focus on language and understanding – to enter into conversation with internationally renowned guests and among each other. Among them Martin Scorsese, Lupita Nyong’o, Joanna Hogg, Ira Sachs, Peaches, Abderrahmane Sissako, Tsai Ming-liang and Mati Diop. For the full program, check out their website, after February 6th, when all will be announced.

Earlier today, the Berlinale also issued the following statement, in support of Iranian filmmakers Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha whose latest film, My Favourite Cake, is a highly anticipated title in Competition. They were banned from traveling outside their country to attend the Berlinale, in yet another missed opportunity by the Iranian government to use cinema to their best advantage. But more on that to come. Meanwhile, here is the Berlinale full statement:

Berlinale Issues Call for Freedom of Movement, Freedom of Expression for Competition Directors Maryam Moghaddam & Behtash Sanaeeha

Earlier this month, the Berlinale was pleased to announce the selection of the Iranian film My Favourite Cake by Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha in Competition at this year’s 74th edition of the festival. 

Since then, the festival has learned that as of the time of writing Iranian writers/directors Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha have been banned from travelling, have had their passports confiscated, and face a court trial in relation to their work as artists and filmmakers.

The Berlinale is a festival fundamentally committed to freedom of speech, freedom of expression and freedom of the arts, for all people around the world, and the festival is shocked and dismayed to learn that Moghaddam and Sanaeeha could be prevented from traveling to the festival to present their film and meet their audience in Berlin.

The Berlinale Directors Carlo Chatrian und Mariëtte Rissenbeek stated: “We call for the Iranian authorities to return the passports and to end all restrictions preventing Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha from freely travelling to Berlin this February, together with the other international directors and filmmaking talents from around the world, so they can present their new film My Favourite Cake as part of the Berlinale’s 2024 Competition.”

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha’s previous film Ballad of a White Cow was presented in Competition at the 2021 Berlinale, emerging as an audience favourite in public voting that year. Their new film, My Favourite Cake, has now been selected in Competition in 2024. 

My Favourite Cake was supported by the Berlinale’s World Cinema Fund, and prior to this was developed as a project through the Berlinale when it participated in the 2020 Berlinale Co-Production Market, where it was recognised with the prestigious Eurimages Co-Production Development Award. 

Maryam Moghaddam and Behtash Sanaeeha share a long and rich history with the Berlinale, and must be allowed to return to Berlin this February.