Teddy Award founded by Wieland Speck
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.