28th Berlin International Film Festival
# 28th Berlin International Film Festival

The 28th annual Berlin International Film Festival was held from 22 February to 5 March 1978. Director Wolf Donner successfully managed to shift the festival's date from June to February, a change which has remained ever since. This was the first year the festival was held in February. The festival opened with Opening Night by John Cassavetes and closed with Steven Spielberg's out of competition film Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The jury awarded the Golden Bear to Spain for its contribution to the festival. The three Spanish films which were screened at the festival and won it were short film Ascensor directed by Tomás Muñoz and feature films La palabras de Max by Emilio Martínez Lázaro and Las truchas by José Luis García Sánchez.

A new section for children was introduced at the festival. The Part 2 of the retrospective dedicated to West German actress Marlene Dietrich was shown at the festival, as well as the retrospective called "Censorship – Banned German Films 1933-1945".

## Jury

The following people were announced as being on the jury for the festival:

* Patricia Highsmith, writer (United States) - Jury President
* Sergio Leone, director, screenwriter, and producer (Italy)
* Theodoros Angelopoulos, director, screenwriter, and producer (Greece)
* Jacques Rozier, director and screenwriter (France)
* Konrad Wolf, director and screenwriter (East Germany)
* Frieda Grafe, essayist and film critic (West Germany)
* Antonio Eceiza, director and screenwriter (Spain)
* Ana Carolina Teixeira Soares, director and screenwriter (Brazil)
* Larisa Shepitko, director and screenwriter (Soviet Union)

## Films in competition

The following films were in competition for the Golden Bear award:

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Country |
| - | - | - | - |
| The Fall | A Queda | Ruy Guerra and Nelson Xavier | Brazil |
| My Father's Happy Years | Apám néhány boldog éve | Sándor Simó | Hungary |
| Advantage | Авантаж Avantazh | Georgi Djulgerov | Bulgaria |
| Lone Wolf | Бирю́к Biryuk | Roman Balayan | Soviet Union |
| The Brothers Lionheart | Bröderna Lejonhjärta | Olle Hellbom | Sweden |
| | Co jsme udělali slepicím | Josef Hekrdle and Vladimír Jiránek | Czechoslovakia |
| The Contraption | | James Dearden | United Kingdom |
| Germany in Autumn | Deutschland im Herbst | Alf Brustellin, Hans Peter Cloos, Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Alexander Kluge, Beate Mainka-Jellinghaus, Maximiliane Mainka, Edgar Reitz, Katja Rupé, Volker Schlöndorff, Peter Schubert and Bernhard Sinkel | West Germany |
| The Teacher | El brigadista | Octavio Cortázar | Cuba |
| | אסקימו לימון Eskimo Limon | Boaz Davidson | Israel |
| Flaming Hearts | Flammende Herzen | Walter Bockmayer and Rolf Bührmann | West Germany |
| Paper Flowers | Flores de papel | Gabriel Retes | Mexico |
| Jörg Ratgeb – Painter | Jörg Ratgeb – Maler | Bernhard Stephan | East Germany |
| A Night Full of Rain | La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia | Lina Wertmüller | Italy, USA |
| | Ascensor | Tomás Muñoz | Spain |
| What Max Said | La palabras de Max | Emilio Martínez-Lázaro | Spain |
| Trout | Las truchas | José Luis García Sánchez | Spain |
| Moritz, Dear Moritz | Moritz, lieber Moritz | Hark Bohm | West Germany |
| Opening Night | | John Cassavetes | USA |
| Outrageous! | | Richard Benner | Canada |
| The Dog Who Loved Trains | Pas koji je voleo vozove | Goran Paskaljević | Yugoslavia |
| Rhinegold | | Niklaus Schilling | West Germany |
| The Serpent's Egg | | Ingmar Bergman | USA, West Germany |
| The Chess Players | Shatranj Ke Khilari | Satyajit Ray | India |
| Death of a President | Śmierć prezydenta | Jerzy Kawalerowicz | Poland |
| The Far Road | 遠い一本の道 Toi ippon no michi | Sachiko Hidari | Japan |
| One Page of Love | Une page d'amour | Maurice Rabinowicz | Belgium, France |
| Une vieille soupière | | Michel Longuet | France |

## Out of competition

* Close Encounters of the Third Kind, directed by Steven Spielberg (USA)
* Il prefetto di ferro, directed by Pasquale Squitieri (Italy)
* Sextette, directed by Ken Hughes (USA)
* The Last Wave, directed by Peter Weir (Australia)

## Key

    $^†$ Winner of the main award for best film in its section The opening and closing films are screened during the opening and closing ceremonies respectively.

## Retrospective

The following films were shown in the retrospective dedicated to Marlene Dietrich (Part 2):

| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Country |
| - | - | - | - |
| Angel | | Ernst Lubitsch | USA |
| Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler | | Louis Clyde Stoumen | USA |
| Destry Rides Again | | George Marshall | USA |
| Desire | | Frank Borzage | USA |
| Leap Into Life | Der Sprung ins Leben | Johannes Guter | Germany |
| The Woman One Longs For | Die Frau, nach der man sich sehnt | Curtis Bernhardt | Germany |
| Kismet | | William Dieterle | USA |
| No Highway in the Sky | | Henry Koster | United Kingdom |
| Rancho Notorious | | Fritz Lang | USA |
| The Flame of New Orleans | | René Clair | USA |
| The Garden of Allah | | Richard Boleslawski | USA |
| Touch of Evil | | Orson Welles | USA |

## Awards

The following prizes were awarded by the Jury:

* Golden Bear:
   * What Max Said by Emilio Martínez Lázaro
   * Las truchas by José Luis García Sánchez
   * Ascensor by Tomás Muñoz (short film)
* Silver Bear – Special Jury Prize: A Queda by Ruy Guerra, Nelson Xavier
* Silver Bear for Best Director: Georgi Djulgerov for Avantazh
* Silver Bear for Best Actress: Gena Rowlands for Opening Night
* Silver Bear for Best Actor: Craig Russell for Outrageous!
* Silver Bear for an outstanding artistic contribution:
   * Śmierć prezydenta by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
   * El brigadista by Octavio Cortázar
* Special Recognition: Deutschland im Herbst
* FIPRESCI Award
   * My Father's Happy Years by Sándor Simó
