MY NAME IS HUMAN BEING - Motto of the 2010 TEDDY AWARD |
Special TEDDY for Werner Schroeter | Homage to Rio Reiser

On February 19, 2010 it will again be time: Under the programme of the 60th Berlin International Film Festival, which runs from the 11th till the 21st of February 2010, the world's most important Queer Film Award will be presented in the scope of an "A" film festival (Berlin International Film Festival | Berlinale) in a Gala Event followed by an After Party. The German-French TV channel, Arte will pre-sent the Europe-wide broadcast of the 24th TEDDY AWARD Gala, for the fifth year in a row, on February 20, 2010. The RBB (Berlin-Brandenburg Broadcasting) will repeat the broadcast on February 21, 2010.

For the first time, the Gala and After Party will be a stone's throw away from Potsdamer Platz in the STATION BERLIN -- the former Package-Post Train Station at Berlin Gleisdreieck.

The SPECIAL TEDDY 2010 goes to filmmaker WERNER SCHROETER, the radical experimentalist and great maverick of New German Film. Since the mid-sixties, Schroeter has worked and defended his unique position in the international film landscape. He is to be counted among the likes of Fassbinder, Herzog or Wenders as one of the most important players in the emerging Young German Cinema. A cosmopolitan without a fixed residence, Schroeter recently shot in Mexico, France, Lebanon, Czech Republic, Austria, the USA and Italy. At the same time he is beginning to intensify his work to stage theatre and Opera productions with international success. His work so far encompasses around 20 feature films and just as many short and mid-length films and more than 70 opera and theatre productions. The French newspaper Libération wrote about him, "Schroeter is the Cocteau of our times. Cinema from Werner Schroeter is pure magic, it creates a new world, a new time, and lets nothing happen that is not stylistic and beautiful."

The 24th TEDDY AWARD pays special HOMAGE to RIO REISER, the singer, composer, songwriter and actor who died in 1996, for what would be his 60th year. Rio Reiser was the first German singer to publicly announce his homosexuality. Together with his band, Ton Steine Scherben, he created not only the soundtrack for the 68-Generation but also the soundtrack for the beginning of the German gay movement when he, along with theatre groups Brühwarm and Transplantis as well as Ton Steine Scherben, produced and brought the first gay musicals to the stage in the 1970s. in 1977 Rio Reiser was awarded the Deutscher Filmpreis (German Film Award) for his first film roll in "Johnny West".

Herbert Groenemeyer said about Rio Reiser, "He is the only German singer that I admired, his passionate lust for commotion, for diva-dom, for kitsch and for anarchistic patriotism. He wrote the most beautiful German fight songs and love songs. He was a romantic and he sung, pulling everything out of the German language that is possible to get out of it."

On the occasion of the homage to Rio Reiser, the band TON STEINE SCHERBEN will be on stage with all the original members for the first since the death of their frontman. Furthermore, the motto of the 24th TEDDY AWARD comes from a song from Rio Reiser and the Ton Steine Scherben: MY NAME IS HUMAN BEING.

The patron of the event is the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit. UNAIDS, the Joint United Nations Program, is also once again the institutional partner of the TEDDY AWARD.

The TEDDY AWARD is presented in following categories: Best Feature Film, Best Documentary, Best Short film, as well as the Special Teddy for artistic life's work given to an outstanding personality. In the list of former award winners extents from international directors such as Pedro Almodóvar, Gus Van Sant and Derek Jarman, to international screen stars like Helmut Berger, Joe Dallesandro, John Hurt and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton.

The TEDDY AWARD is a socially engaged and political accolade that goes to films and people who communicate queer themes on a wide social level and thereby contribute to more tolerance, acceptance, solidarity and equality in society.


24th TEDDY AWARD 2010
19.02.2010 in Station Berlin
Luckenwalderstr. 4 – 6, 10963 Berlin

Entry at 19.30h
Award Ceremony at 21.00h
Party & Midnight Special at 23.00h

Connection with metro U1 and U2 to station U-Bahnhof Gleisdreieck Sufficient parking in the parking garage at Gleisdreieck/Potsdamer Platz