We’ve got amazing hosts who will guide us through an unforgettable award ceremony this year. The talented duo, Jack Woodhead and Mark Wartenberg, will provide us with some great music to keep us entertained. And we have the charming Brix Schaumburg and the delightful Zsombor Bobák as our hosts for the night. Get ready for an amazing time!
Jack Woodhead
Jack Woodhead – Performer and composer. Host of the Teddy Award Ceremony 2017 and 2018. Jack has written shows for and performed at Wintergarten Varieté Berlin, Bar jeder Vernunft, Tipi am Kanzerlamt, GOP Varieté, and toured internationally including sell out runs in Melbourne, and Bangkok.
Mark Wartenberg
Mark Wartenberg – Actor and lyricist. German/French/Indonesian stage and film performer. Currently working on a musical. Recently filmed all of Shakespeare’s sonnets. Premiering a new show in London in April.
Brix Schaumburg is a German actor. He just published his first children’s book with Carlsen and a new TV series will be airing soon. He also is a singer and speaker, has won several awards and is actively striving towards more visibility and acceptance.
Zsombor Bobák
Zsombor Bobák joined the TEDDY team in 2018 and has since then seen almost all queer films at the Berlinale. With his insightful and competent interviews and conversations with the directors, he gives us a deep insight into the world of queer cinema and the makers every year on TEDDYAWARD TV. He holds an M.A. in Preservation and Presentation of the Moving Image from the University of Amsterdam and is a PhD student at the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz. His field of research is queer archiving methods that bring the LGBTQ+ history of Central and Eastern Europe to life. He is passionate about queer moving images and recently started to explore the productive engagement of academic research and found footage filmmaking.
You want to be part of an unforgettable night and experience the ceremony live, click here to get your tickets now!
The wait is over. The 74th Berlinale is finally starting. If you want to keep up to date with the premieres of LGBTQIA+ films, then you’ve come to the right place! Every day we will inform you about the latest films and screening times. In addition to the premieres, you will also find interesting interviews with the film makers over the next ten days.
Then all that’s left to do is buy your cinema ticket, order some popcorn and enjoy the screening!
For even more information and interviews about this year’s queer films, follow us on Instagram and Facebook.
The first interviews with the film makers are here:
Crossing
Lia, a retired teacher, has promised to find her long-lost niece, Tekla. Her search takes her to Istanbul where she meets Evrim, a lawyer fighting for trans rights, and Tekla starts to feel closer than ever.
He pays him a visit in Frankfurt during his work trip to Europe. He talks about their time in Beijing, back in 2015. He listens, sometimes answers, unblurring those seemingly important details which do not matter any longer. Worn-out joy and fresh weariness. This might be the last time they meet.
Using diary excerpts, photographs and memories from companions, the film paints the portrait of the artist Jürgen Baldiga who sensitively and authentically captured the West Berlin queer scene of the 1980s and early 1990s with his camera.
Lia, a retired teacher, has made a promise to find out what happened to her long-lost niece, Tekla. When Lia learns from a neighbour, Achi, that Tekla might have left their Georgian homeland and be living in Turkey, Lia and Achi set off together to find her. Arriving in Istanbul, they discover a beautiful city full of connections and possibilities. But searching for someone who never intended to be found is harder than they expected – until they meet Evrim, a lawyer fighting for trans rights. As Lia and Achi weave their way through the city’s backstreets, Tekla starts to feel closer than ever. Levan Akin’s fourth feature film is filled with an impressive emotional immediacy. Two initially hesitant strangers overcome not only ideological but also internal boundaries on their mission and join forces. The topography of the city plays just as important a role in this ode to humanity as the array of characters that live within it.
This year’s TEDDY AWARD after-party promises to be anything but boring. Featuring DJ FRNZTE, DJ Marsmaedchen, and DJ Monique, the party will be filled with great music and the hottest beats. But before you hit the dance floor on February 23rd, let us introduce you to the talented DJs who will be providing the music.
FRNZTE
FRZNTE is an East Berlin-born DJ, Pole Performer and Cultural Producer.
In her pole performances, she combines performative, choreographic, and sculptural elements, often referring to the architectural context. Her body wrapping and moving around the pole becomes a kinetic sculpture and gesture of empowerment. Most recently FRZNTE collaborated with Transmoderna, a digital art and electronic music collective co-founded by world renowned DJ Dixon. She has also performed with Peaches at Deutsche Oper, Berlin, on a bridge crossing the Spree as part of the performative boat ride Another Map to Nevada organized by The Performance Agency, as well as on a privatized parking lot within Guerrilla Architects & Alicia Augustín’s theater play 1km² Berlin – Akt II: A place to be. Die Tragödie der offenen Stadt. The digital performance project Next Waves Theatre hosted by Volksbühne brought FRZNTE on screen into the public’s living room; and the architecture magazine ARCH+ put her on the front page for their Berlin Praxis issue published in 2021. She is occasionally on tour with the Icelandic artist and musician Apex Anima. They create a highly energetic audio-visual live show in which they fuse ethereal with physical, platonic with erotic and static with acrobatic moments. As a DJ her mix of Hip Hop, Disco, Techno, Booty Beats and the most beautiful All Time Favourites transform art shows, film events and nightclubs into an extravaganza of wild parties. Her music is both trash and glam. Sometimes, she brings her pole to the party and stirs up a mirage of smoke with her slowly spinning high heels for her hypnotic Pole DJ Set.
And we continue with Marsmaedchen
DJ Marsmaedchen
This exceptional acoustic phenomenon accelerates the intergalactic understanding of species with its universal language: all kinds of music. The dance floor becomes a terrestrial melting pot: Marsmaedchen is polyamorous in terms of sound, because almost every musical genre has beautiful examples. Extraterrestrial electro, weightless vocal house, intergalactic alternative/indie and rock that makes the big bang fizzle out? Marsmaedchen had them all, even if not in one evening. Her soundscape for a collective dance orgy: driving bass and safer sounds. There’s also the odd bit of well-placed trash. Marsmaedchen also fights for space peace. Their weapons: Confetti cannons and Balkan beats from a better world. Even the so-called mainstream is not only tolerated, but celebrated: with pop, charts and party classics, Marsmaedchen catapults the mood into higher spheres. And when homesickness for her Milky Way flares up, she lets Urban & R `n B pulsate through the speakers. As a self-confessed extraterrestrial, Marsmaedchen is at home everywhere, second home: Berlin. In addition to the capital’s clubs, she is often on the road in Hamburg, Cologne, Dresden and Munich. SO36, Gretchen Club, Übel und Gefährlich, Knust, Hühnerposten, Artheater, Kraftwerk Mitte and, of course, especially at SchwuZ. Night flight permission granted. Beat us up, Marsmaedchen!
Let´s not forget DJ Monique
DJ Monique
As a DJ, I know that it’s a great challenge to get a crowd of people from different backgrounds, ages, and musical tastes on the dance floor. My favourite thing to do is play timeless classics that have dominated the charts for years and are loved by every generation. They have the power to turn a party from good to amazing and get a crowd of strangers in a party mood together. I enjoy filling the dance floor and creating an unforgettable party for everyone. I’m always looking for that one perfect song that will get everyone on the dance floor and get them moving. As a DJ, it’s my passion to wow the crowd with the best songs of all time. That’s why I prefer to play all-time favourites. I just love to see people getting down on the dance floor and celebrating life. Let’s get wild!
We are thrilled to have DJs performing at our TEDDY afterparty, which will take place at the Volksbühne this year. If you want to be a part of the TEDDY AWARD event, you can purchase tickets by visiting the Volksbühne website.
This year’s Special TEDDY AWARD for outstanding achievement and long-term service to queer cinema goes to the Berlin-based filmmaker Lothar Lambert. Lothar Lambert, that is also LoLa: from the 1970s to today, that means underground, in its most original meaning. Hardly any filmmaker has come closer to people who do not fit into any social mold. With his characters borrowed from life, he created a cinematic cornucopia of everyday queer life in Berlin and took it to the extreme.
Previous winners of the Special TEDDY AWARD include Tilda Swinton, Werner Schroeter, Ulrike Ottinger, Monika Treut, John Hurt, Udo Kier, Christine Vachon, Joe Dallesandro, Evita Bezuidenhout, Rosa von Praunheim and Elfi Mikesch.
Tickets for the 38th TEDDY AWARD ceremony at the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz on 23 February 2024 are available online in the Volksbühne webshop or by phone via the ticket hotline +49 30 24065777
The award ceremony begins at 8.30 pm (admission from 7.30 pm). From 11 pm the legendary TEDDY AFTER SHOW PARTY will take place in the salons and foyers of the Volksbühne.
We are delighted to present our international jury for the 38th TEDDY AWARD. This year, five renowned, creative festival and film professionals will decide on the winners of the TEDDY in the categories Best Feature Film, Best Short Film, Best Documentary / Essay Film and the TEDDY Jury Award from the queer films nominated at the Berlinale.
Cerise Howard was appointed as Program Director of the Melbourne Queer Film Festival in May 2023. She hails from Aotearoa New Zealand and has for several years been a co-curator of the Melbourne Cinémathèque. She co-founded the Czech and Slovak Film Festival of Australia and was its Artistic Director from 2013-2018; she was also a co-founding member of tilde: Melbourne Trans and Gender Diverse Film Festival. She has been a Studio Leader at RMIT University since 2019, specialising in courses interrogating the shortcomings of the canon and incubating film festivals. She is a long-time commentator and widely published writer on film; a regular broadcaster on Melbourne radio station 3RRR, and was a member of the International Jury Board of the East-West: Golden Arch Awards, celebrating Eurasian cinema, between 2018 and 2021.
Diego Armando Elia Aparicio (b. 1993) is the founder and artistic director of Queer Wave: the Cyprus LGBTQIA+ Film Festival. For his work on Queer Wave, he was one of 20 finalists worldwide shortlisted for the 2021 Commonwealth Youth Awards, amongst one thousand nominees from 43 countries. He is an alumnus of the Festival Atelier, the Future of Film Festivals Forum, the Global Cultural Relations Programme and Developing Your Film Festival. In 2018 he served as an official jury member for Giornate degli Autori at the Venice International Film Festival. He has assisted the Giornate programming team as pre-selector every year since 2019. In 2022 he was part of the selection panel for the European Parliament’s LUX Audience Award. He has worked in the production and direction departments for several international co-productions, including feature films and limited series which have premiered in Venice, the Cannes Critics’ Week and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. He graduated with a physics degree from Imperial College London in 2016. He is a member of the European Film Academy.
Kami Sid is a prominent transgender activist and artist from Karachi. She happens to be the first transgender fashion model from the region and has worked as an artist and speaker in several fictions and documentaries in the past. Kami runs a community based queer youth organisation “Sub Rang” that mainly focuses on creating safe spaces and ensuring the well being of LGBTQ+ and non-binary people from urban Pakistan. She is also Coordinator at Humraz Male Health Society, working for HIV/AIDS and Mental Health . Kami has been working with Aks International festival as a head of Karachi chapter since 2016, she has been successfully opening queer and trans dialogues with universities and public spaces in Karachi through Aks festival. In the past month, Kami made history by organizing the first Hijra Festival, a trans led street festival with political agendas demanding equal rights for transgender/Hijra community of Pakistan. The Hijra festival was attended by thousands of transgender and queer community member from all over Pakistan. Kami has been awarded for her work on national and international platforms. As the producer of Aks festival in Pakistan, she has recently started Aks Out Reach project that is used as tool for sensitization and educational awareness across Pakistan. Kami organized Aks festival’s events in more than 12 different cities in 2022 and is eager to reach out to many more this year. Kami is also a trained mobile filmmaker for the empowerment of minorities and is currently working on her debut documentary on trans youth in Pakistan as a director.
Curator, film researcher and audience designer born and based in Recife, Brasil, with a programming background at the festivals Janela Internacional de Cinema do Recife (programming coordinator, 2015-2023), Belo Horizonte International Short Film Festival (2017-2019) and forumdoc.bh – Documentary and Ethnographic Film Festival (2018), currently part of the programming team at FENDA – Experimental Festival of Film Arts (2022-2023). Developer of the platform fuga, aimed at the intercontinental exchange of dissident film. Curator of retrospective film collections including Brasil Distópico (2017), L.A. Rebellion (2017-2019) and CUIR – FILM Y EXPERIMENTO – LATINOAMÉRICA (2021).
Vic Carmen Sonne is an actress and writer based in Copenhagen, Denmark. In 2016 Vic graduated from the Danish National School of Performing Arts, without prior formal education, and as the youngest applicant ever accepted. Throughout her career, Vic has been dedicated to forging emotional connections in cinema by challenging norms and illuminating the often-unseen complexities of human life. This dedication has manifested through nonconformist narratives, challenging stereotypes, and societal norms and is a defining feature of her filmography. In 2016, Vic starred in Rasmus Heisterberg´s feature film IN THE BLOOD for which she won a Bodil Award for Best Actress (the Danish Critic’s Association). Shortly after, she started her continuing collaboration with director Hlynur Palmason’s when she boarded his WINTER BROTHERS, for which she received the Robert Award (the Danish Film Academy) for Best Supporting Actress. In 2018 she starred in Isabella Eklöf´s Sundance premiere, the grand jury prize nominee HOLIDAY . The film was recognized widely, awarding Vic with a Bodil for Best Actress. In 2019, Vic was invited to sit on the feature narrative and documentary jury for Film Festival Oslo Fusion, a festival focusing on LHBTQIA2S+ and QTIBIPOC alongside Bartholomew Sammut. Vic’s contributions to cinema were internationally acknowledged in 2020 with the Shooting Star award at the Berlinale. In 2022, Vic in “Godland,” Palmason, premiered at Cannes and was shortlisted for the Academy Awards’ Best International Feature. Vic’s coming projects include E.L. Katz’s “Azrael,” Milad Alami’s “Bullshit,” the Netflix series “The Helicopter Heist” created by Ronnie Sandahl and directed by Daniel Espinosa, and Magnus von Horn’s “The Girl with the Needle.”
