FLASH: BERLIN'S GOLDEN BEAR TO THE ELITE SQUAD, SILVER TO MORRIS DOC S.O.P.
A scene from the Brazilian film The Elite Squad
The 58th annual Berlin Film Festival has awarded its highest honor, the Golden Bear for Best Film, to Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad), a Brazilian film about police corruption and gang violence in the South American country that will be distributed stateside by The Weinstein Company. (Some may recall that the film became a huge underground hit on the streets of Rio de Janeiro after police tried to keep it out of theaters.) The legendary filmmaker Constantin Costa-Gavras presided over this year's Jury and presented the honor to the film's distinguished director Jose Padhila (Bus 174).
The presumptive favorite going into voting was the American film There Will Be Blood, director Paul Thomas Anderson's critically-acclaimed film about a megalomaniac oilman at the turn-of-the-century. It ended up receiving two Silver Bears—Best Director (to Anderson) and Best Sound (to composer Johnny Greenwood).
S.O.P.: Standard Operating Procedure, the much-anticipated Abu Ghraib film by Oscar winner Errol Morris that became the first documentary to screen in competition in Berlin, received the Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear.
For a list of all 22 films that were in competition, click here. For a list of the winners, click here.
I am very glad for Paul T Anderson and Jonny Greenwood's wins as well, very much deserved.
I wish I could have gone to the Berlin Film Festival, it always seems so amazing. One day, one day I will become the festival hopping film-lover I desire to be.....:) (Comment this)
(Comment this)