The winners of the 51st Berlinale were announced early Sunday afternoon in Berlin. The buzz film of the festival, Italian for Beginners (the first Dogme film directed by a woman picked), up a Silver Bear Jury Prize for its director Lone Scherfig. Earlier in the week, the film received a "pre-prize" when it was bought by Miramax. The big winner, however, was Intimacy, Patrice Chereau's explicit look at two strangers who become entangled in an illicit love affair. In addition to winning the Golden Bear, its star Kerry Fox picked up a Silver Bear for Best Actress.

Berlin Film Market Closes

Although firm deals have not yet been announced, some of the titles that are definitely being bought by major American, European and Asian buyers include Competition entries Italian For Beginners (Denmark), Beijing Bicycle (China), Le Fate Ignoranti (Italy), Felix And Lola (France), The Tailor of Panama (US) and You're The One (Spain).

Berlin Enters Home Stretch ?

For 40 minutes, Kirk Douglas held the press spellbound as he fielded questions about a career which stretches well over 80 movies. He even found time to praise his new daughter-in-law Catherine Zeta-Jones ("a wonderful girl, not only beautiful but a family girl") and to explain why he changed his name all those years ago. Whether playing washed-up journalists, boxers, gladiators or Hollywood producers, Douglas' best known movie characters possess a ferocious inner drive, a quality the star himself still has in spades.

Day 8: The Festival Begins to Wind Down

Director Naoto Takenaka and actress Yuki Amami received a warm welcome at the Berlinale for the film Rendan - A Quartet for Two, Takenaka's fourth outing as a director. It begins as a depiction of a stubborn, capricious marital conflict enhanced by surreal scenes. Stars Takenaka and Amami (the latter also starring in Harada's Inugami, screened in competition), could be seen signing autographs in the hall of the Delphi. Meanwhile world festival orgainzers showed their appreciation to Erika and Ulrich Gregor, directors of this Berlinale specition section, the International Forum of Young Cinema.

The Canadian Ambassador to Germany threw a grand style post-screening party of the German/Canada co-production Eisenstein from first time feature filmmaker Renny Bartlett. The film received extraordinary response as a rapt audience embraced the story of the legendary Sergei Eisenstein with thunderous applause and a pointed Q&A. He fully confessed to taking liberties with Eisenstein's biography in order that he may create more a sense of the artist than a documentation of the man. Not all in the audience agreed with his choice, but none could fault their deeply felt connection to one of Russia's greatest all-time filmmakers.

French cinema may be facing tough times at home - local films dropped to less than 30% of the box office in 2000 - but at an international level it is a growing force with three films in competition. Following Fat Girl by Catherine Breillat is Felix & Lola, starring the extraordinary Charlotte Gainsbourg and directed by Patrice Leconte. Leconte succeeds where Beineix failed as she grants Gainsbourg a full rope to wrap around her prey (played well by Philippe Torreton). The third title is Intimacy, Patrice Chereau's first English-language film, which has its official screening Wednesday.

Initial reports of lackluster reviews for Italian for Beginners were proven wrong as a secret audience vote was leaked tonight at the Shooting Stars reception. Apparently, audiences have so far overwhelmingly voted the film the festival favorite. Additionally, industry insiders are calling the film the best of the fest. Berlin papers are saying a star is born about Italian For Beginners Director Lone Scherfig, and actress Ann Eleonora Jorgensen, who herself is one of the Shooting Stars nominees, mentioned she has heard the film is in the forerunning of the competition. In Denmark, admissions to this film are approaching 500,000 and remembering back, it was Soren Kragh-Jacobsen's Dogma contribution Mifune that won a Silver Bear and launched a bidding war among buyers. And now it seems that Miramax is eyeing Italian for Beginners.

The crowds finally arrived today, packing every screening to capacity and swamping the press offices, press conferences and theater lobbies. The morning started off well with a huge crowd for The Tailor of Panama from director John Boorman, co-written and executive produced by John Le Carre (from one of his novels), and starring Geoffrey Rush and Pierce Brosnan (the only one not to show for the screening) ... one of the most popular screenings, not surprisingly, was Hannibal, Ridley Scott's sequel to The Silence of the Lambs.

Fest-goers Cool to Potsdamer

Although no figures have yet been released, both the screening rooms and the streets of Potsdamer Platz themselves continue to have a slightly deserted feel leading some festival attendees to wonder when and if the crowds will arrive. Festival programmers coming off of Rotterdam are feeling ahead of the game as they have already seen a number of festival films before arriving, and can be seen taking more meetings than movies. As for the fans, their numbers decreased as temperatures dropped considerably although they all came out from behind closed doors to get a glimpse of Monica Bellucci making her red carpet entrance for the official screening of Malena.

It was Steven Soderbergh who got grilled by the press today (probably more so since Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones did not show up in Berlin) delving into his latest film Traffic in the competition spotlight today. "I think that reality is more amazing than fiction. Actually, almost all of the Mexico stories were pulled from newspaper headlines. Either the characters or the situations were based on real instances."

From the airport to the hotels to the Berlinale Palast, the city of Berlin was invaded by festival-goers. While the ticket and press accreditation counters were swarmed, TV crews and photographers were already staking their territory in anticipation of the red carpet arrivals at the official opening.

On the festival circuit since 1951, Berlin is known for bucking the trends and setting its own. Unlike most European festivals, which bemoan le Blockbuster (Cannes comes to mind), Berlin embraces Hollywood but maintains an international esprit. Last year its top honor, the Golden Bear, went to Magnolia by Paul Thomas Anderson, while the Silver Bear went to The Road Home by Zhang Yimou. These screened alongside studio productions such as American Psycho, The Beach, and The Talented Mr. Ripley (all in European premieres). During the two weeks of the festival, Potsdamer Platz transforms itself into a hotbed of cinema activity. The festival features a competition section and several sidebars, including The Forum, The Panorama, Retrospectives, Kinderfilmfest (a children's film festival), and a New German Films section.

For the past 22 years, Moritz de Hadeln has been the director of the Berlin International Film Festival, a position he took over from its now deceased founder Alfred Bauer. In the early 80's, in spite of the ongoing "Cold War" situation in divided Berlin, Moritz de Hadeln managed to bring East and the West together at the festival. As the Berlin Wall fell and German unity was restored, de Hadeln was quick in seizing the opportunity to make the festival one of the most prestigious meeting places of the newly born German capital.

Partner