Nelly Quettier (LMA, France) received the KUNSTPREIS BERLIN – FILM UND MEDIENKUNST award on March 18, 2023.

The Kunstpreis Berlin (City of Berlin Art Prize) was created in 1948 to mark the centenary of the March 1848 revolution and reward artistic achievements or works in the visual arts, architecture, music, literature and the performing arts. Since 1984, cinema and media (radio, television…) are also rewarded.

It is in this category (Kunstpreis Film und Medienkunst) that our colleague Nelly Quettier (LMA, France) received the award on March 18. This is the first time that a film editor is awarded.

The jury, composed of Bettina Böhler (editor), Zsuzsanna Kiràly (producer) and Christian Petzold (filmmaker) praised her work with these words: “(…) She builds bridges between conflicting worlds and sorts out complex constellations of characters with empathy and sensitivity. The cuts she makes do not need to be invisible – in fact, they can be abrupt. They break up the syntax of film language, lodging an appeal against the mainstream for always attempting to tie everything up in a neat little package. They are not scared of walking on the edge. And yet, these cuts are mindful of the limits of what can, in fact, be shown (for instance, in the cannibalism scenes in the film Trouble Every Day) and give poetry an indomitable logic: Holy Motors ends with the conversation between drowsy limousines – and thanks to Quettier’s art, we believe every word.”

The grand prize this year was awarded to filmmaker Joachim Trier. The Kunstpreis awarded in other disciplines: Petrit Halilaj (visual arts), Xu Tiantian (architecture), Joanna Bailie (music), Barbi Marković (literature) and Marcel Kohler (performing arts).

Find LMA’s interviews (in French) with Nelly Quettier for Annette (Leos Carax, 2021) on this page and for Lazzaro felice (Alice Rochwacher, 2018) in Les Monteurs s’affichent – Les Actes du festival 2020.