Feb 29, 2020
The Panorama Audience Awards go to Otac (Father) and Welcome to Chechnya

The audience has voted: The 22nd Panorama Audience Award for the best feature film goes to Otac (Father) by Srdan Golubović. Welcome to Chechnya by David France wins in the category Panorama Dokumente. The prizes are awarded by the Berlinale section Panorama together with radioeins and rbb television (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg).

Otac (Father) shows Nikola fighting for his children. After they have been taken away from him by social services, he sets off on foot to lodge a complaint in Belgrade. Srdan Golubović delivers a moving tale about inequality. Welcome to Chechnya is the first documentary about the activists who join forces to save other people’s and their own lives in the face of the systematic persecution of the LGBTQI* community carried out by the Chechen authorities. David France’s film is a tour de force charged with resilience and courage.

The official awards ceremony will take place on Berlinale Publikumstag, Sunday, March 1, at 5 pm in CinemaxX 7 at Potsdamer Platz. Martina Zöllner, rbb programme manager for documentation and fiction, and Robert Skuppin, radioeins programme director, will present the prizes. Knut Elstermann, radioeins film expert, will moderate the event together with Panorama head Michael Stütz. The award-winning feature film will be shown immediately after the award ceremony, the winner of the Panorama Dokumente will be shown at 8 pm, also in CinemaxX 7.

The Panorama Audience Award has been bestowed since 1999. As of 2011, both the best feature film and the best documentary have been honoured. During the Berlinale, all cinema-goers are invited to rate the films in the Panorama section on a voting card. In total around 20,000 votes were cast and evaluated.

This year, Panorama presented a total of 36 feature films from 30 production countries, 13 of them were in Panorama Dokumente.

Panorama Audience Award Winner - Feature Film 2020:
Otac (Father)
Serbia / France / Germany / Croatia / Slovenia / Bosnia and Herzegovina
by Srdan Golubović

2nd Place Panorama Audience Award Winner - Feature Film 2020:
Futur Drei (No Hard Feelings)
Germany
by Faraz Shariat

3rd Place Panorama Audience Award Winner - Feature Film 2020:
Håp (Hope)
Norway / Sweden
by Maria Sødahl

Panorama Audience Award Winner - Panorama Dokumente 2020:
Welcome to Chechnya
USA
by David France

2nd Place Panorama Audience Award Winner - Panorama Dokumente 2020:
Saudi Runaway
Switzerland
by Susanne Regina Meures

3rd Place Panorama Audience Award Winner - Panorama Dokumente 2020:
Petite fille (Little Girl)
France
by Sébastien Lifshitz

Press Office
February 29, 2020