Polanski Named Best Director at Berlinale

Turkish film “Bal” wins Golden Bear for best picture

Roman Polanski was named Best Director at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival for his film “The Ghost Writer.” The Golden Bear Award for best picture went to “Bal (Honey),” a drama from Turkish direcror Semih Kaplanoglu.

Detained in Switzerland, Polanski did not attend the ceremony at the 2010 Berlinale, which has been taking place in Berlin for the past 10 days. His award was accepted by the film’s producer, Alain Sarde, who said that Polanski told him he wouldn’t have attended even if he had been permitted, “because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail.”

(His September arrest on 30-year-old U.S. charges came when he traveled to Switzerland to receive a lifetime achievement award from the Zurich Film Festival.)

The Romanian/Swedish co-production “Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle)” won an award for its cinematography and was named runner-up to “Bal” in the Golden Bear competition.

The awards jury was chaired by director Werner Herzog.

“The Milk of Sorrow,” the Peruvian film that is a current Oscar nominee in the Foreign-Language category, was the Golden Bear winner at last year’s Berlinale.

The list of winners:

Golden Bear: “Honey”

Grand Prix: “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle”

Best Director: Roman Polanski, “The Ghost Writer”

Best Actor: Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis, “How I Ended This Summer”

Best Actress: Shinobu Terajima, “Caterpillar”

Outstanding Artistic Achievement: “How I Ended This Summer”

Best Screenplay: Wang Quanan, “Apart Together”

Alfred Bauer Prize: “If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle”

Best First Feature: “Sebbe”

INDEPENDENT JURIES
Ecumenical Jury Prize (Competition): “Honey”

Ecumenical Jury Prize (Panorama): “Kawasaki’s Rose”

Ecumenical Jury Prize (Forum): “Aisheen (Still Alive in Gaza”

FIPRESCI Prize (Competition): “A Family”

FIPRESCI Prize (Panorama): “Parade”

FIPRESCI Prize (Forum): “Crab Trap”

Teddy Prize (Features): “The Kids Are All Right”

Teddy Prize (Documentary): “The Mouth of the Wolf”

Teddy Jury Award: “Open”

Prize of the Guild of German Art Cinemas: “Shahada”

CICAE Award (Panorama): “Kawasaki’s Rose”

CICAE Award (Forum): “Winter’s Bone”

NETPAC Prize: “Au Revoir, Taipei”

Label Europa Cinemas Award: “When We Leave”

Caligari Prize: “The Mouth of the Wolf”

Peace Film Award: “Son of Babylon”

Amnesty International Prize: “Son of Babylon” and “Waste Land”

Femina Film Prize: Reinhild Blaschke (production designer), “In the Shadows”

Audience Award: “Waste Land”
 

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