Berlin (EFE).- The girl Sofía Otero has won the Silver Bear for the best performance at the Berlinale for the film “20,000 species of bees”, by Estíbaliz Urresola.
“Thank you to the jury for granting me this prize so -uh, I don’t believe it- so special for me”, said the young actress, a native of Basauiri (Bizkaia), who went on stage accompanied by the film’s director.
Silver Bear at the Berlinale
He also thanked the technical team, hairdressing, makeup, direction, production, and his family.
“To my parents, to my father, Fernando Otero, the best father in the entire world, to my mother, who loves her madly, to my brothers,” he said, adding grandfathers, grandmothers, uncles and aunts, which started the laughter of the public.
Eight-year-old Cocó (Sofía Otero), the protagonist of “20,000 species of bees”, does not fit the expectations of the rest and does not understand why. Everyone around her insists on calling him Aitor but she does not recognize herself in that name or in the eyes of others.
His mother Ane (Patricia López Arnaiz), plunged into a professional and sentimental crisis, will take advantage of the holidays to travel with her three children to the maternal home, where her mother Lita (Itziar Lazkano) and her aunt Lourdes (Ane Gabarain) live, closely linked to the breeding of bees and the production of honey.
Congratulations from Pedro Sanchez
The award was presented at the official awards gala of the international jury, chaired by the American actress Kristen Stewart.
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, congratulated the girl Sofía Otero this Saturday night.
Through the social network Twitter, Sánchez congratulated the actress and added: “talent and a great future in Spanish cinema”.
In addition to this great recognition, Estíbaliz Urresola’s film received the Gilde Award for Artistic and Theatrical Cinema, one of the awards given by the independent juries that follow the Berlinale, prior to the festival officials.
The production by Estíbaliz Urresola was distinguished for its innovative vision and its inspection of the interior of a family confronted with child transsexuality, highlighted the jury that represents the exhibitors of the Gilde cinema group.
Other recognitions
Urresola’s film also received the prize from the readers of the “Berliner Morgenpost” newspaper, who have valued the “authentic and strong message” that this production sends to society, through a girl who asks her mother to listen to her.
In the film, Sofía Otero plays a child who does not recognize himself by gender or by the name that has been given to him, Aitor, but rather feels the identity of Lucía being born within himself.
