Roundup: Turkish filmmaker top winner at Berlin film fest

Turkish film director Semih Kaplanoglu holds the Golden Bear award for Best Film he received for the film "Bal" (Honey) during the awards ceremony of the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 20, 2010. [Xinhua] More Photos: "Bal - Honey" wins Golden Bear award at Berlinale International Film Festival

BERLIN, Feb. 20  -- The 60th annual Berlin Film Festival, or the Berlinale, awarded its top Golden Bear for Best Film prize to Turkish film "Bal" (Honey) on Saturday.

The Turkish film, the final part of a trilogy after "Egg" and "Milk," tells the story of a young boy in Anatolia, who runs off to search for his missing father who has gone to relocate his beehives in a far away forest.

"In the name of Turkish Films, this (Golden Bear) is a very meaningful prize. It's a help to making better films," director Semih Kaplanoglu told a press conference after the awarding gala.

Turkish film director Semih Kaplanoglu (R) receives the Golden Bear award for Best Film for the film "Bal" (Honey) during the awards ceremony of the 60th Berlinale International Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, Feb. 20, 2010. (Xinhua/Luo Huanhuan)

Chinese director Wang Quan'an, who won the Golden Bear in 2007 for "Tuya's Marriage," was awarded along with his co-author Na Jin, the Silver Bear for Best Screenplay for "Tuan Yuan" (Apart Together).

"Tuan Yuan" follows the tale of a young soldier who is forced to separate from his love and flee for Taiwan from Shanghai in 1949. After many decades he returns home to find his former love married to another man.

"This year's 60th Berlinale is the coldest weather I've experienced, but the cinema was the warmest for me," Wang said while receiving the award.

Roman Polanski's absence did not seem to tarnish his chances, as he received the Silver Bear for Best Director for his political thriller "The Ghostwriter."

In the film, Ewen Mcgregor plays a ghostwriter who discovers a number of political secrets while writing the personal memoirs of a former British prime minister.

Since the director, a resident Pole born in France, is still under house arrest at his Swiss chalet for alleged raping of a teenage girl three decades ago, long-time collaborator and producer Alain Sarde spoke to the press on Saturday evening.

"It's a very difficult situation for him and due to difficult circumstances he cannot be here. This is, however, an award to honor his work, his film and his career," Sarde said.

The runner up to the Golden Bear went to Floran Serban, who won the Grand Prix Jury Silver Bear for his Romanian drama, "If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle."

The film takes place in a juvenile jail and centers around a young man, whose anxiety that his mother will flee the country when he is released, forces him to take drastic measures.

Serban's film also won the Alfred Bauer Prize for new perspectives in the art of film.

Alexi Popogrebsky's Russian film, "How I Ended the Summer" took home two prizes. The cinematographer, Pavel Kostomarov, won the Silver Bear for Outstanding Achievement in Camera and the two main leads, Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis, jointly won a Silver Bear for Best Actor.

"How I Ended the Summer" is an emotional story of two meteorologists living remotely on an island in the Antarctic. When life-changing news comes in over the radio, the young graduate student, Pavel, struggles to deal with the reality of telling the truth.

The seven jurors, headed by renowned German director Werner Herzog, made their decision after screening the 20 international films that entered this year's competition.

Throughout the 10-day festival, over 400 films were screened to more than 300,000 people.