| FNE in Berlin: CEE Filmmakers Triumph at 60th Berlinale |
| 22 February 2010 | By Anna Franklin |
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BERLIN: The 60th Berlinale was dominated by filmmakers and films from central and Eastern Europe this year who swept most prizes in the top categories.
Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu received the top prize the Golden Bear for Honey the third film in his trilogy Egg, Milk and Honey. The Silver Bear for the Grand Jury Prize as well as the prestigious Alfred Bauer Prize went to the Romanian entry If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle directed by Florian Serban (See FNE profile) while Silver Bear for Best Director when to the Polish born director Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer. Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis shared the Best Actor Prize for their roles in in Alexey Popogrebsky's How I Ended This Summer (Russia) which also won the Best Cinematography for its DoP Pavel Kostomarov. Over 1600 guests packed the Berlinale Palast on Potsdamer Platz for awards ceremony. Werner Herzog was president of the jury. Twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall the 60th anniversary of the Berlinale marked a triumphal return for filmmakers from the CEE to the event that was originally founded as a showcase form films from the region. Fest director Dieter Kosslick announced that the fest had set a new record selling 300 000 tickets. Roman Polanski's absence hung over the festival and his producer Alain Sarde remarked at the closing ceremony that he had spoken to Polanski before the event. The director had told him that even if he had been allowed to come be wouldn't have attended because the last time he went to a festival he ended up in jail. Other prizes won by CEE filmmakers include the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the C.I.C.A.E. Prize in The Panorama category for Czech director Jan Hrebjk for his Kawasaki's Rose 60th Berlinale 2010 Prize Winners International Jury Awards Golden Bear Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prize Silver Bear - Best Director Silver Bear - Best Actress Silver Bear - Best Actor Silver Bear - Best Screenplay Silver Bear - Artistic Contribution: Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer), cinematography by Pavel Kostomarov (Russia) Alfred Bauer Prize Best First Feature Award Panorama Audience Award 2009 Ecumenical Jury Prize FIPRESCI Prizes: Competition En Familie (A Family) directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen Label Europa Cinemas Prizes of the Berlin Talent Campus |
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