Berlinale 2018 - 'Fortuna' Wins Crystal Bear for Best Children's Film

24/02/2018 - The story of an African refugee who finds shelter in a Swiss monastery won the grand prize in Berlin's Generation sidebar. Fortuna, director Germinal Roaux's black-and-white tale of a young Ethiopian refugee who finds shelter at a Swiss monastery, picked up the grand prize for best film, the Crystal Bear, from Berlin's Generation sidebar. Fortuna won over both Generation's international jury and the youth jury of young film goers, who hand out separate prizes, with both agreeing the feature, starring Kidist Siyum Beza, Bruno Ganz, Patrick D'Assumcao and Yoann Blanc, was the best on offer in the selection of films for children and young audiences.. The international jury said Fortuna “transcends religious and political dogma in a beautifully realized tale of purity and survival as seen through the eyes of a strong-willed Ethiopian girl.” Generation's international jury gave a special mention to Dressage, from Iranian director  Pooya Badkoobeh, a drama about a young girl troubled by the consequences of a seemingly harmless robbery. A special mention from the youth jury went to Peruvian drama Retablo from director Alvaro Delgado-Aparicio, a story set in a remote mountain village about a boy, in the words of the jury “on his journey to becoming a man in a world marked by violence.”

(Hollywoodreporter AWARDS)