The Golden Bear (German: Goldener Bär) is the highest prize awarded for the best film at the Berlin International Film Festival and is, along with the Palme d'Or and the Golden Lion, widely considered among the most prestigious film festival awards. The bear is the heraldic animal of Berlin, featured on both the coat of arms and flag of Berlin.
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👉 Golden Bear in the context of Zhang Yimou
Zhang Yimou (simplified Chinese: 张艺谋; traditional Chinese: 張藝謀; pinyin: Zhāng Yìmóu; born 14 November 1950) is a Chinese filmmaker. He made his directorial debut with Red Sorghum (1987), which won the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. Since then, he has established himself as a leading figure of China's Fifth Generation directors and one of the most successful directors in the world. Zhang directed the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympic Games as well as the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games. Since 2004, Zhang has collaborated with local governments across China to promote tourism through the “Impression” series of outdoor live stage productions, beginning with Impression Liu Sanjie in Yangshuo. Despite his frequent official affiliations, Zhang has, at various points in his career, fallen foul of Chinese censors.
One of Zhang’s early recurring themes is the resilience of ordinary people, as in To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999). Beginning with Hero (2002), which ushered the Chinese film industry into the era of big-budget blockbusters, his work increasingly reflected an interest in grand narratives and critical engagement with politics and history, as in Curse of the Golden Flower (2006), One Second (2020) and Under the Light (2023). His films are also noted for their rich use of colour, as in Raise the Red Lantern (1991) and House of Flying Daggers (2004), and for their portrayals of women that propelled “Mou Girls” to stardom, such as Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi and Ni Ni. His highest-budgeted film to date is the all-star The Great Wall (2016), which became his greatest bomb. His highest-grossing film to date is Full River Red (2023), which became the seventh highest-grossing film of all time in China. Zhang was awarded an honorary doctorate from Yale University in 2010 and from Boston University in 2018. In 2022, he joined the Beijing Film Academy as a distinguished professor.
In this Dossier
Golden Bear in the context of Cinema of Italy
The cinema of Italy (Italian: cinema italiano, pronounced [ˈtʃiːnema itaˈljaːno]) comprises the films made within Italy or by Italian directors. Since its beginning, Italian cinema has influenced film movements worldwide. Italy is one of the birthplaces of art cinema and the stylistic aspect of film has been one of the most important factors in the history of Italian film. As of 2018, Italian films have won 14 Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film (the most of any country) as well as 12 Palmes d'Or (the second-most of any country), one Academy Award for Best Picture and many Golden Lions and Golden Bears.
The history of Italian cinema began a few months after the Lumière brothers began motion picture exhibitions. The first Italian director is considered to be Vittorio Calcina, a collaborator of the Lumière Brothers later active from 1896 to 1905. The first films date back to 1896 and were made in the main cities of the Italian peninsula. These brief experiments immediately met the curiosity of the popular class, encouraging operators to produce new films until they laid the foundations for the birth of a true film industry. In the early 1900s, artistic and epic films such as Otello (1906), The Last Days of Pompeii (1908), L'Inferno (1911), Quo Vadis (1913), and Cabiria (1914), were made as adaptations of books or stage plays. Italian filmmakers were using complex set designs, lavish costumes, and record budgets, to produce pioneering films. In the early years of the 20th century, silent cinema developed, bringing numerous Italian stars to the forefront until the end of World War I.
Golden Bear in the context of Berlin International Film Festival
The Berlin International Film Festival (German: Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin), usually called the Berlinale (German pronunciation: [bɛʁliˈnaːlə] ), is an annual film festival held in Berlin, Germany. Founded in 1951 and originally run in June, the festival has been held every February since 1978 and is one of Europe's "Big Three" film festivals alongside the Venice Film Festival held in Italy and the Cannes Film Festival held in France. Furthermore, it is one of the "Big Five", the most prestigious film festivals in the world. The festival regularly draws tens of thousands of visitors each year.
About 400 films are shown at multiple venues across Berlin, mostly in and around Potsdamer Platz. They are screened in nine sections across cinematic genres, with around twenty films competing for the festival's top awards in the Competition section. The major awards, called the Golden Bear and Silver Bears, are decided on by the international jury, chaired by an internationally recognisable cinema personality. This jury and other specialised Berlinale juries also give many other awards, and in addition there are other awards given by independent juries and organisations.
Golden Bear in the context of Bernardo Bertolucci
Bernardo Bertolucci OMRI (/ˌbɜːrtəˈluːtʃi/ BUR-tə-LOO-chee; Italian: [berˈnardo bertoˈluttʃi]; 16 March 1941 – 26 November 2018) was an Italian film director and screenwriter with a career that spanned 50 years. Considered one of the greatest directors in the history of cinema, Bertolucci's work achieved international acclaim. With The Last Emperor (1987) he became the first Italian filmmaker to win the Academy Award for Best Director, and he received many other accolades including a BAFTA Award, a César Award, two Golden Globes, a Golden Lion in 2007, and an Honorary Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2011.
A protégé of Pier Paolo Pasolini, Bertolucci made his directorial debut at 22. His second film, Before the Revolution (1964), earned strong international reviews and has since gained classic status, being called a "masterpiece of Italian cinema" by Film4. His 1970 film The Conformist, an adaptation of the Alberto Moravia novel, is considered a classic of international cinema, and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay and the prestigious Berlin Golden Bear. His 1972 erotic drama Last Tango in Paris was controversial due to its rape scene and comments made by actress Maria Schneider about her treatment on set. Bertolucci's later films such as the historical epic 1900 (1976), the family drama La Luna (1979), and the darkly comedic Tragedy of a Ridiculous Man (1981), were also controversial but acclaimed.
Golden Bear in the context of Rain Man
Rain Man is a 1988 American road comedy-drama film directed by Barry Levinson and written by Barry Morrow and Ronald Bass. It tells the story of abrasive and selfish wheeler-dealer Charlie Babbitt (Tom Cruise), who discovers that his estranged father has died and bequeathed his multimillion-dollar estate to his other son, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant of whose existence Charlie was unaware. Morrow created the character of Raymond after meeting real-life savant Kim Peek; his characterization was based on both Peek and Bill Sackter, a good friend of Morrow who was the subject of Bill, an earlier film that Morrow wrote.
Rain Man competed at the 39th Berlin International Film Festival, where it won the highest prize: the Golden Bear. The film was released theatrically by MGM/UA Communications Co. under the United Artists label in the United States on December 16, 1988, to critical and commercial success. Praise was given to Levinson's direction, the performances (particularly Cruise and Hoffman), the screenplay, the musical score, the cinematography, and the film's portrayal of autism. The film grossed $354–$429.4 million on a $25 million budget, becoming the highest-grossing film of 1988, and received a leading eight nominations at the 61st Academy Awards, winning four: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor (for Hoffman), and Best Original Screenplay.