The Argentine filmmaker Manuel Abramovich (Light Years, Soldado) has won the Silver Bear for Short Film Jury Prize for his documentary film Blue Boy at the 69th edition of the Berlinale.
In Blue Boy, named after a bar in Berlin, seven Romanian male-to-male sex workers in Berlin have their portraits taken as they listen and react to recordings of their own experiences. By turning the process of exploitation into a spectacle, the camera becomes a client highlighting the inevitable performativity of such power relations.
Filmmaker and cinematographer Abramovich was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1987. His short film La Reina /The Queen screened at over 150 festivals worldwide winning 50 awards and his debut feature film, Solar, premiered at the Festival Internacional de Cine Independiente in Buenos Aires; in 2017, Soldado screened in Generation at the Berlinale.
