Teddy Award

The Teddy Award is an international film award for films with LGBT topics, presented by an independent jury as an official award of the Berlin International Film Festival (the Berlinale). For the most part, the jury consists of organisers of gay and lesbian film festivals, who view films screened in all sections of the Berlinale; films do not have to have been part of the festival's official competition stream to be eligible for Teddy awards. Subsequently, a list of films meeting criteria for LGBT content is selected by the jury, and a 3,000-Euro Teddy is awarded to a feature film, a short film and a documentary.

At the 66th Berlin International Film Festival in 2016, a dedicated "Teddy30" lineup of classic LGBT-related films was screened as a full program of the festival to celebrate the award's 30th anniversary.

History


In 1987 German filmmakers Wieland Speck and Manfred Salzgeber formed a jury called the International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival Association (IGLFFA) to create an award for LGBT films. It was originally named the Teddy Bear Award, in accordance with the Berlinale's main awards being named as the Golden and Silver Bear; the name was later shortened to Teddy Award, although the statuette presented to winners is still shaped like a teddy bear.

The first Teddy Award was given to Pedro Almodóvar for his film La ley del deseo, which featured Antonio Banderas.

The awards were originally founded in a gay bookshop in West Berlin, they were named after the cuddly toys which were sent as prizes to the winners. They were then upgraded to metal trophies but are still thought to be a deliberate parody of the main Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear trophy.

1990 was the first bigger festival in the LGBT centrum SchwuZ in Berlin with around 400 guests. The evening was organized from BeV StroganoV and workers of the bookstore Eisenherz in Berlin. In 1992 the award was officially made part of the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1997 TEDDY e.V., a non-profit organisation was founded, which lobbied the award.

Winners


The Teddy Award is divided into three primary categories: Best Feature Film, Short Film, and Documentary Film. The jury picks three nominations within each category and ultimately selects one as the winner. As of 2012, the cash prize for the winners in these categories has been valued at a maximum of €3,000. The prize is intended to support various aspects of the winning films, such as financing film copies, subtitling, or advertising materials. In 2007, the jury decided not to grant an award in the Short Film category because the submitted films lacked adequate LGBT content. The Documentary and Essay Film categories were introduced in 1988 and were combined in several ceremonies between 2009 and 2020.

One other film is singled out for a Jury Award. A Special Award is commonly, but not always, given to one or more individuals for a distinguished achievement in LGBT cinema, such as a lifetime career achievement as a director or performer or for a person's role in a project of significance to the history of LGBT cinema.

The German LGBT magazine Siegessäule formerly sponsored an award that was given to a film selected by a panel of the magazine's readers. This was discontinued after 2012, but was reinstituted in 2016 under the new sponsorship of the magazine Männer; in 2017, the award was named the Harvey in honour of Harvey Milk.

Other categories include the Activist Award (2020), Social Spots (2007), David Kato Vision & Voice Award (2014–2015), and Newcomer Award (2018).