Berlin

The audience has voted: The 25th Panorama Audience Award for the best feature film goes to Sira by Apolline Traoré, Kokomo City by D. Smith wins in the category Panorama Dokumente. D. Smith had boarded her plane already when she learnt about the award and quickly got off to be present at the ceremony. The prizes are awarded by the Berlinale section Panorama together with radioeins and rbb television (Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg).

In Sira a young nomad named Sira refuses to surrender after a brutal attack to her fate without a fight and instead takes a stand against Islamist terror. A feminist counterpoint to current reporting from the Sahel region.

Kokomo City features a series of moving interviews and encounters with four Black trans sex workers from New York and Georgia in which they talk frankly about their experiences. Questions of belonging and identity within the Black community are candidly addressed.

The award-winning feature film will be shown after the short award giving ceremony at Zoo Palast starting at 5.30 pm on Sunday, February 26. Knut Elstermann will moderate the ceremony and the awards will be presented by Martina Zöllner, head of programm of the contentbox culture at the RBB and Michael Stütz, Head of Panorama. The winner of the Panorama Dokumente section will be shown at 9.00 pm. Both screenings will take place at Zoo Palast 1.

The Panorama Audience Award has been bestowed since 1999. As of 2011, both the best feature film and the best documentary have been honoured. During the Berlinale, all cinema-goers are invited to rate the films in the Panorama section on a voting card. In total around 22,000 were cast and evaluated.

This year, Panorama presented a total of 35 feature films from 30 production countries, nine of them were in Panorama Dokumente.

Panorama Audience Award 2023 Winner – Feature film

Sira

Burkina Faso / France / Germany / Senegal 2023

by Apolline Traoré

The second and third place of the Panorama Audience Award go to:

Al Murhaqoon (The Burdened)

Yemen / Sudan / Saudi Arabia 2023

by Amr Gamal 

Sages-femmes (Midwives)

France 2023

by Léa Fehner 

Panorama Audience Award Winner – Documentary

Kokomo City

USA 2023 

by D. Smith

The second and third place of the Panorama Audience Award – Documentary go to:

The Eternal Memory

Chile 2023

Au cimintière de la pelliculle

France / Senegal / Guinea / Saudi-Arabia 2023

by Thierno Souleymane Diallo