Berlin International Film Festival 1998

The 48th Berlin International Film Festival took place from February 11 to 22. February 1998 instead.

Preparations for the 48th Berlinale were marked by rejections and clumsy negotiations about films for the competition. First, Clint Eastwood canceled the festival. For his film Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil , the producers preferred to bring the film to the cinemas without a festival appearance. Life is beautiful by Roberto Benigni should have its premiere in the competition. Through hesitant negotiations, Benigni decided to show the film at the 1998 Cannes Film Festival . There the film began its way to world success. There were political entanglements over the film Kundun by Martin Scorsese . The festival and Scorsese wanted to show the film in competition. Chinese protests then led to a decision against the film.

Competition section

Robert De Niro at a press conference at the 1998 Berlin International Film Festival

The following films faced the judgment of the international jury in the program of the official competition this year :

Movie title	Director	Country of production	Actor (selection)
Barbara	Nils Malmros	Denmark , Faroe Islands	Anneke von der Lippe
The Big Lebowski	Joel Coen	USA , UK	Jeff Bridges , John Goodman , Julianne Moore
The other's gaze	Vicente Aranda	Spain	Laura Morante
The boxer	Jim Sheridan	USA , Ireland	Daniel Day-Lewis , Emily Watson
The Boys	Rowan Woods	Australia	David Wenham , Toni Collette
Central Station	Walter Salles	Brazil , France	Fernanda Montenegro
The commissioner	George Sluizer	Great Britain , USA , Germany , Belgium	John Hurt , Armin Mueller-Stahl
Catch long	Lin Cheng-sheng	Taiwan
Girls' Night	Nick Hurran	Great Britain	Brenda Blethyn , Julie Walters
Good Will Hunting	Gus Van Sant	United States	Robin Williams , Matt Damon , Ben Affleck
Hold you tight	Stanley Kwan	Hong Kong
I want you	Michael Winterbottom	Great Britain	Rachel Weisz
Jackie Brown	Quentin Tarantino	United States	Pam Grier , Samuel L. Jackson
Jeanne et le garçon formidable	Olivier Ducastel , Jacques Martineau	France	Virginie Ledoyen
Kalman's secret	Jeroen Krabbe	USA , Netherlands , Belgium , Great Britain	Laura Fraser , Isabella Rossellini , Topol
Life is a chanson	Alain Resnais	France , Great Britain , Switzerland	Sabine Azéma , Agnès Jaoui
The mambo game	Michael Gwisdek	Germany	Corinna Harfouch , Jürgen Vogel
Sada	Nobuhiko Obayashi	Japan	Hitomi Kuroki
The butcher boy	Neil Jordan	Ireland , USA	Eamonn Owens
The Sound of One Hand Clapping	Richard Flanagan	Australia	Kerry Fox
Strana happy	Valery Todorovsky	Russia , France
Il Testimone dello sposo	Pupi Avati	Italy
Tian yu	Joan Chen	Hong Kong , USA , Taiwan
Much (too little) love	Jacques Doillon	France	Lou Doillon
Wag the dog	Barry Levinson	United States	Dustin Hoffman , Robert De Niro , Anne Heche

International jury

The president of the jury was the British actor Ben Kingsley . Under his leadership, the following members of the jury selected the winners: Senta Berger , Li Cheuk-to , Leslie Cheung , Hector Olivera , Helmut Dietl , Brigitte Roüan , Annette Insdorf , Maja Turowskaja , Maurizio Nichetti and Michael William-Jones .

Award winners

Fernanda Montenegro

Golden Bear : This year the Golden Bear went to the Brazilian film Central Station by Walter Salles.
Silver bears were awarded in the following categories:
- This year the jury decided to award a Silver Bear to Alain Resnais for his life's work.
- Best director: Neil Jordan for Der Schlächterbursche
- Best Actress: Fernanda Montenegro for Central Station
- Best Actor: Samuel L. Jackson in Jackie Brown
- Silver Bear for an outstanding individual contribution to Matt Damon on his screenplay for Good Will Hunting
- Special Jury Prize to Barry Levinson for Wag the Dog

Panorama section

Outstanding films in the panorama program: Abre los ojos by Alejandro Amenábar , Sue by Amos Kollek , Le Gone du chaâba by Christophe Ruggia and Fintar o Destino by Fernando Vendrell . The actor Richard O'Brien received a special " Teddy Award " this year .

Honorary Golden Bear

The French actress Catherine Deneuve received an Honorary Golden Bear for her life's work .

Other award winners

Glass Bear : Where the Elephant Sits by Mark Lowenthal

Teddy Award (feature film): Ang Lalaki sa buhay ni Selya by Carlos Siguion-Reyna and Hold You Tight by Stanley Kwan

Special Teddy Award: Richard O'Brien

FIPRESCI Prize (competition): Sada by Nobuhiko Obayashi

FIPRESCI Prize (Forum): Shivrei T'munot Yerushalayim by Ron Havilio

FIPRESCI Prize (Panorama): Sue - A Woman in New York by Amos Kollek

Alfred Bauer Prize : Hold You Tight by Stanley Kwan

The Blue Angel : Kalman's Secret by Jeroen Krabbé

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (competition): Central Station by Walter Salles

Ecumenical Jury Prize (Forum): Wang hsiang by Hsu Hsiao-ming

Prize of the Ecumenical Jury (Panorama): Sue - A Woman in New York by Amos Kollek

UNICEF Prize (Children's Film Festival): Danny's test of courage by Bob Swaim

Caligari Film Prize (Forum): Kasaba by Nuri Bilge Ceylan

Wolfgang Staudte Prize (forum): Xiao Wu by Zhang Ke Jia

Retrospective

The Berlinale retrospective is dedicated to the brothers Robert and Curt Siodmak . Curt Siodmak is awarded the " Berlinale Camera " for his life's work.