# 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 What Max Said 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".

## Juries

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

### Main Competition

* Patricia Highsmith, American writer - Jury President
* Sergio Leone, Italian filmmaker and producer
* Theodoros Angelopoulos, Greek filmmaker and producer
* Jacques Rozier, French filmmaker
* Konrad Wolf, East-German filmmaker
* Frieda Grafe, West-German essayist and film critic
* Antonio Eceiza, Spanish filmmaker
* Ana Carolina Teixeira Soares, Brazilian filmmaker
* Larisa Shepitko, Soviet filmmaker

## Official Sections
### Main Competition

The following films were in competition for the Golden Bear award:
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country |
| Advantage | Авантаж | Georgi Djulgerov | Bulgaria |
| A Night Full of Rain | La fine del mondo nel nostro solito letto in una notte piena di pioggia | Lina Wertmüller | Italy, United States |
| Ascensor | Ascensor | Tomás Muñoz | Spain |
| The Brothers Lionheart | Bröderna Lejonhjärta | Olle Hellbom | Sweden |
| The Chess Players | Shatranj Ke Khilari | Satyajit Ray | India |
| Co jsme udělali slepicím | Co jsme udělali slepicím | Josef Hekrdle and Vladimír Jiránek | Czechoslovakia |
| The Contraption | The Contraption | James Dearden | United Kingdom |
| Death of a President | Śmierć prezydenta | Jerzy Kawalerowicz | Poland |
| The Dog Who Loved Trains | Pas koji je voleo vozove | Goran Paskaljević | Yugoslavia |
| The Fall | A Queda | Ruy Guerra and Nelson Xavier | Brazil |
| The Far Road | 遠い一本の道 | Sachiko Hidari | Japan |
| Flaming Hearts | Flammende Herzen | Walter Bockmayer and Rolf Bührmann | West Germany |
| 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 |
| Jörg Ratgeb – Painter | Jörg Ratgeb – Maler | Bernhard Stephan | East Germany |
| Lemon Popsicle | אסקימו לימון | Boaz Davidson | Israel |
| Lone Wolf | Бирю́к | Roman Balayan | Soviet Union |
| Moritz, Dear Moritz | Moritz, lieber Moritz | Hark Bohm | West Germany |
| My Father's Happy Years | Apám néhány boldog éve | Sándor Simó | Hungary |
| One Page of Love | Une page d'amour | Maurice Rabinowicz | Belgium, France |
| Opening Night | Opening Night | John Cassavetes | United States |
| Outrageous! | Outrageous! | Richard Benner | Canada |
| Paper Flowers | Flores de papel | Gabriel Retes | Mexico |
| Rhinegold | Rheingold | Niklaus Schilling | West Germany |
| The Serpent's Egg | The Serpent's Egg | Ingmar Bergman | United States, West Germany |
| The Teacher | El brigadista | Octavio Cortázar | Cuba |
| Trout | Las truchas | José Luis García Sánchez | Spain |
| Une vieille soupière | Une vieille soupière | Michel Longuet | France |
| What Max Said | La palabras de Max | Emilio Martínez-Lázaro | Spain |

### Out of competition

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

### Retrospective

The following films were shown in the retrospective dedicated to Marlene Dietrich (Part 2):
| English title | Original title | Director(s) | Production Country |
| Angel | Angel | Ernst Lubitsch | United States |
| Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler | Black Fox: The Rise and Fall of Adolf Hitler | Louis Clyde Stoumen | United States |
| Desire | Desire | Frank Borzage | United States |
| Destry Rides Again | Destry Rides Again | George Marshall | United States |
| The Flame of New Orleans | The Flame of New Orleans | René Clair | United States |
| The Garden of Allah | The Garden of Allah | Richard Boleslawski | United States |
| Kismet | Kismet | William Dieterle | United States |
| 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 |
| No Highway in the Sky | No Highway in the Sky | Henry Koster | United Kingdom |
| Rancho Notorious | Rancho Notorious | Fritz Lang | United States |
| Touch of Evil | Touch of Evil | Orson Welles | United States |

## Official 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 Advantage
* 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:
** Death of a President by Jerzy Kawalerowicz
** The Teacher by Octavio Cortázar
* Special Recognition: Germany in Autumn

## Independent Awards
### FIPRESCI Award

* My Father's Happy Years by Sándor Simó