'Magnolia' wins Berlin's Golden Bear prize
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"Magnolia", a contemporary morality play charting the lives of bored and unhappy Los Angeles families, won the Berlin Film Festival's prestigious Golden Bear award for best film last Sunday.
Chinese actress Gong Li, who chaired a nine-member jury of international cinema industry representatives, told reporters that US director Paul Thomas Anderson had won the Golden Bear with "Magnolia", which stars Tom Cruise and Julianne Moore.
The film is the 29-year-old Anderson's follow-up to his hugely popular "Boogie Nights" and some of its themes will be familiar to viewers of the first movie.
"I think my movie is a hopeful one," Anderson said at his film's Berlin screening. "To get that you have to show the darkness."
Waiting journalists gasped when German director Wim Wenders did not take the top prize. He had to settle for a less prestigious Silver Bear for directing "The Million Dollar Hotel" after being considered the strong favorite for the Golden Bear.
Silver Bear prizes for best actress went to Germany's Bibiana Beglau and Nadja Uhl for their roles in "Rita's Legends", a film by local favourite Volker Schloendorff about West German terrorists who went underground in communist East Germany during the 1970s.
Stars honored
US actor Denzel Washington won the Silver Bear for best actor for his powerful portrayal of boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter in Norman Jewison's anti-racist film, "The Hurricane". China's Zhang Yimou also won a Silver Bear for directing "The Road Home", a poetic fable about the process of change in China.
Jeanne Moreau, the French actress whose portrayals of femmes fatales scandalised 1950s audiences, was honoured during the festival for a lifetime of achievement in cinema.
Robert De Niro was honoured with a retrospective. "Magnolia" follows the desperate lives of Americans who lie, cheat and molest their children and spend long hours wallowing in self-pity.
The film was one of a number featured in the festival dealing with the darker side of the United States.
Cruise, who won a Golden Globe award for best supporting actor, plays a macho TV show presenter who teaches men how to pick up women.
Moore, who also starred in "Boogie Nights", plays the much younger wife of Cruise's father, whom she admits she married for his money.
The awards cap a 12-day festival which attracted Hollywood glamour and stars from international independent cinema to the German capital.
A total of 21 films from 16 countries were in competition for the Golden Bear.
The festival featured hundreds of films alongside the prize contenders and ranks just below Cannes and alongside Venice in prestige on the European film festival circuit.
