The Quiet Migration, Fantastic Machine, collect Berlinale Awards

Choi’s first fiction film and second feature focusing on transnational adoption was well received at the Berlinale which hosted its world premiere.

Commenting on her award, the Danish director who herself was adopted from South Korea said: "I feel very honoured and I want to thank the jury for this generous recognition and congratulate the entire team who made this film possible. I’m very grateful and touched, as adoptees we come from a humble beginning not knowing where from or from whom. This film is about how it feels to be a body out of place and about the need to belong.

The Quiet Migration produced by Manna Film is due to open in Denmark April 13, with TrustNordisk handling sales.

Read our interview with Malene Choi - Malene Choi - The Quiet Migration: "As a child I thought I came from another planet!": CLICK HERE.

Meanwhile Danielson & Van Aertryck’s And the King said-what a Fantastic Machine which had collected a Special Jury Award from Sundance’s World Cinema Documentary strand, brought home from Berlin both a Special Mention and the AG Kino Gilde-Cinema Vision from the Generation 14plus section.

The thought-provoking Swedish documentary produced by Plattform Produktion, takes us through humanity’s obsession with image and how over time, this has changed human’s behaviour.

The film will next open Stockholm’s Tempo Documentary Film Festival March 6.
Heretic handles sales. (read our interview - Axel Danielson - Maximilien Van Aertryck about their Sundance-bound Fantastic Machine: CLICK HERE)

The Berlinale's top Golden Bear prize was handed out to the French documentary On the Adamant by Nicolas Philibert which deals with mental health care. The award marks a trend of A-festivals rewarding a standout non-fiction work, after the Golden Lion award 2022 to Laura Poitras' All the Beauty and the Bloodshed.

On the series side, Kerren Lumer-Klabbers’s Norwegian dystopian satirical drama The Architect produced by Nordisk Film for Viaplay won a Special Mention at the inaugural Berlinale Series Awards. (read our interview - The Architect’s Kerren Lumer-Klabbers on creating a heightened sci-fi world within set boundaries: CLICK HERE)

Finally the 6x50’ Finnish eco-thriller Tipping Point written by Brendan Foley was bestowed the Co-pro Series Pitch Award. The ‘Casablanca on Ice’ set in Svalbard, combines climate change, espionage, military subversion as a backdrop to a family drama,” said Foley who is collaborating for the third time with Finnish producer Markku Flink after Cold Courage and The Man Who Died.

The series turns on the young eco-activist Anna who is at war with her oil executive father, until he is murdered and she discovers he wasn’t the man she thought. She gathers his few friends to Svalbard, the Arctic Cold War and climate change hotspot, chasing an elusive piece of stolen software that could heal or destroy the world. The series produced by Finland's Reelmedia in co-production with Norway's Maipo Film, is due to start filming in 2024.