It’s difficult to imagine many other directors winning a major film festival prize while they’re awaiting extradition on statutory rape charges, but whether it was to show their support or because he really did make a great movie (which most reviewers seem to suggest he didn’t, just a pretty good one), Roman Polanski won Best Director at the Berlin Film Festival over the weekend for The Ghost Writer. Of course, he couldn’t attend himself, and so his SIlver Bear was picked up by the movie’s producers.
However the Big Prize, the Golden Bear, was handed to Semih Kaplanogu’s Turkish-German movie, Honey (Bal), about a boy who goes in search of his missing beekeeper father. The film was particularly praised for drawing attention to enviromental issues.
However it’s the prize for Polanski that’s drawing the most attention. It’s being seen in most quarters as the festival jury (which included Werner Herzog and Renne Zellweger) showing solidarity for the filmmaker, and helping to rehabilitate his image, at least as an artist.