Polanski award favorite at Berlin Film Festival
Source: Agencies |
February 20, 2010, Saturday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
Fittingly for a festival where low-budget movies jostle with big Hollywood names, three small eastern European entries and Roman Polanski's picture starring Ewan McGregor are favorites for the main prize in Berlin.
The 60th Berlin Film Festival closes today with an awards ceremony where the Golden Bear for best picture is announced.
The gala event brings the curtain down on the 10-day cinema showcase where Leonardo DiCaprio, Renee Zellweger, Martin Scorsese and Ben Stiller have walked the red carpet.
Guessing the winner from 20 competition films is notoriously difficult, but critics are expecting the closing ceremony to have a distinctly east European flavor.
Polish-French director Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland and so could not attend the world premiere of "The Ghost Writer," won Berlin's top award in 1966 with "Cul-de-Sac," and would be a popular choice 44 years on.
His thriller centers on an ex-British prime minister whose support for United States military policy sees him accused of war crimes.
Polanski, 76, is fighting extradition to the US where he is wanted for having under-age sex in a case that goes back more than 30 years.
Narrowly ahead of him in an informal poll of critics are "How I Ended This Summer" from Russia's Alexei Popogrebsky and "If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle" from Romanian director Florin Serban.
Serban's sparse, gritty drama is about a young man's desperate bid to escape jail and protect his brother.
Popogrebsky's psychological drama is set in a remote meteorological station in the desolate Russian Arctic Circle.
Rounding off the eastern European challenge is "On the Path," directed by Bosnia's Jasmila Zbanic who won the Golden Bear with her debut feature "Grbavica" in 2006.
Other competition entries that enjoyed some good reviews were China's "Apart Together," tough family drama "Submarino" from Denmark, "Honey" from Turkey's Semih Kaplanoglu and the relentlessly downbeat "Caterpillar," a Japanese anti-war movie.
The 60th Berlin Film Festival closes today with an awards ceremony where the Golden Bear for best picture is announced.
The gala event brings the curtain down on the 10-day cinema showcase where Leonardo DiCaprio, Renee Zellweger, Martin Scorsese and Ben Stiller have walked the red carpet.
Guessing the winner from 20 competition films is notoriously difficult, but critics are expecting the closing ceremony to have a distinctly east European flavor.
Polish-French director Polanski, who is under house arrest in Switzerland and so could not attend the world premiere of "The Ghost Writer," won Berlin's top award in 1966 with "Cul-de-Sac," and would be a popular choice 44 years on.
His thriller centers on an ex-British prime minister whose support for United States military policy sees him accused of war crimes.
Polanski, 76, is fighting extradition to the US where he is wanted for having under-age sex in a case that goes back more than 30 years.
Narrowly ahead of him in an informal poll of critics are "How I Ended This Summer" from Russia's Alexei Popogrebsky and "If I Want To Whistle, I Whistle" from Romanian director Florin Serban.
Serban's sparse, gritty drama is about a young man's desperate bid to escape jail and protect his brother.
Popogrebsky's psychological drama is set in a remote meteorological station in the desolate Russian Arctic Circle.
Rounding off the eastern European challenge is "On the Path," directed by Bosnia's Jasmila Zbanic who won the Golden Bear with her debut feature "Grbavica" in 2006.
Other competition entries that enjoyed some good reviews were China's "Apart Together," tough family drama "Submarino" from Denmark, "Honey" from Turkey's Semih Kaplanoglu and the relentlessly downbeat "Caterpillar," a Japanese anti-war movie.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
