International Film Festival Berlin 1997

The 47th Berlin International Film Festival took place from February 13 to 24. February 1997 instead.

Competition section

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)
The chaotic dump	Kevin Allen	Great Britain
The English patient	Anthony Minghella	United States	Ralph Fiennes , Juliette Binoche , Willem Dafoe
The river	Tsai Ming-Liang	Taiwan
Miss nobody	Andrzej Wajda	Poland
Miss Smilla's sense of snow *	Bille August	Denmark , Germany , Sweden	Julia Ormond , Jim Broadbent , Richard Harris
Secrets of the heart	Montxo Armendáriz	France , Portugal , Spain
Genealogies of a crime	Raul Ruiz	France , Portugal	Catherine Deneuve , Michel Piccoli , Andrzej Seweryn
Get on the bus	Spike Lee	United States	Isaiah Washington
Witch hunt	Nicholas Hytner	United States	Daniel Day-Lewis , Winona Ryder , Paul Scofield
In love and war	Richard Attenborough	United States	Chris O'Donnell , Sandra Bullock
The island in Vogelstrasse	Søren Kragh-Jacobsen	Denmark , Great Britain , Germany	Jack Warden
Larry Flynt - The Naked Truth	Miloš Forman	Canada , USA	Woody Harrelson , Courtney Love , Edward Norton
life is a building yard	Wolfgang Becker	Germany	Jürgen Vogel , Christiane Paul
Leneged Einayim Ma'araviyot	Joseph Pitchhadze	Israel
Lucie Aubrac	Claude Berri	France	Carole Bouquet , Daniel Auteuil , Patrice Chéreau
May fu	Huang Jianxin	People's Republic of China
Port Djema	Eric Heumann	France , Italy , Greece	Jean-Yves Dubois , Nathalie Boutefeu
Rosewood Burning	John Singleton	United States	Jon Voight , Ving Rhames , Don Cheadle
Se qing nan nu	Tung Shing Yee	Hong Kong	Leslie Cheung
Setouchi munraito serenade	Masahiro Shinoda	Japan
On the trail of death	Gerardo Herrero	Spain , France , Germany , Argentina
Tri istorii	Kira Muratova	Russia , Ukraine
Four days in September	Bruno Barreto	Brazil , USA	Alan Arkin , Fernanda Torres
William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet	Baz Luhrmann	United States	Leonardo DiCaprio , Claire Danes
Where ai chu catch	Ho Yim	Hong Kong , Japan	Jordan Chan , Yasuko Tomita

* = Opening film

International jury

The president of the international jury this year was French cultural politician Jack Lang . Under his leadership, the following jury members selected the winners: Hark Bohm , Férid Boughedir , Maggie Cheung , Fred Gronich , David Hare , Per Holst , Boleslaw Michalek , Humberto Solás , Marianne Sägebrecht and Ying Ning .

Award winners

Leonardo DiCaprio

Golden Bear : The Golden Bear was awarded this year to Milos Forman for his film Larry Flynt - The Naked Truth .
Silver bears were awarded in the following categories:
- Raúl Ruiz received a Silver Bear from the jury for his life's work.
- Best director: Eric Heumann
- Best Actress: Juliette Binoche for The English Patient
- Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio for Romeo and Juliet
- Silver bear for a special individual achievement: Zbigniew Preisner for his film music for Die Insel in Vogelstrasse
- Special jury award: Tsai Ming-liang for his film The River

Honorary Golden Bear

American actress Kim Novak received an Honorary Golden Bear . She was also honored with a retrospective of her best films at the festival.

Other award winners

Romy Haag

Teddy Award : MURDER and murder by Yvonne Rainer
Special Teddy Award: Romy Haag
Alfred Bauer Prize : William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet) by Baz Luhrmann
The Blue Angel : Secrets of the Heart of Montxo Armendáriz
Caligari Film Prize : Nobody's Business by Alan Berliner
Wolfgang Staudte Prize : The Sertao of Memories (O Sertão das Memórias) by José Araújo and Picado fino (“Fine Powder”) by Esteban Sapir
NETPAC ( Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema ) Prize: [Focus] by Satoshi Isaka

Panorama section

The following films were shown in this year's Panorama: Brassed Off - With timpani and trumpets by Mark Herman , Bubblegum (short film) by Peter Strickland , Conversation with the Beast by Armin Mueller-Stahl , Marvin's Daughters by Jerry Zaks , Nobody's Business by Alan Berliner , Tupamaros by Heidi Specogna and Rainer Hoffmann .

Children's film festival

This year the Children's Film Festival had its 20th anniversary. A retrospective with ten of the best films from 20 years was shown to mark the anniversary. This year, the German film Der Flug des Albatros by Werner Meyer received the Transparent Bear .