Over 1600 guests packed the Berlinale Palast on Potsdamer Platz for awards ceremony. Werner Herzog was president of the jury. Twenty years after the collapse of the Berlin Wall the 60th anniversary of the Berlinale marked a triumphal return for filmmakers from the CEE to the event that was originally founded as a showcase form films from the region. Fest director Dieter Kosslick announced that the fest had set a new record selling 300 000 tickets.
Roman Polanski's absence hung over the festival and his producer Alain Sarde remarked at the closing ceremony that he had spoken to Polanski before the event. The director had told him that even if he had been allowed to come be wouldn't have attended because the last time he went to a festival he ended up in jail.
Other prizes won by CEE filmmakers include the Ecumenical Jury Prize and the C.I.C.A.E. Prize in The Panorama category for Czech director Jan Hrebjk for his Kawasaki's Rose
60th Berlinale 2010 Prize Winners
International Jury Awards
Golden Bear
Bal (Honey) directed by Semih Kaplanoglu (Turkey/Germany)
Silver Bear - The Jury Grand Prize
Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), directed by Florin Serban (Romania/Sweden)
Silver Bear - Best Director
Roman Polanski for The Ghost Writer (France/Germany/Great Britain)
Silver Bear - Best Actress
Shinobu Terajima in Caterpillar (Japan)
Silver Bear - Best Actor
Grigori Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis in Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer) (Russia)
Silver Bear - Best Screenplay
Tuan Yuan (Apart Together), written by Wang Quan'an and Na Jin (China)
Silver Bear - Artistic Contribution:
Kak Ya Provel Etim Letom (How I Ended This Summer), cinematography by Pavel Kostomarov (Russia)
Alfred Bauer Prize
Eu Cand Vreau Sa Fluier, Fluier (If I Want to Whistle, I Whistle), directed by Florin Serban (Romania/Sweden)
Best First Feature Award
Sebbe directed by Babak Najafi (Sweden)
Panorama Audience Award 2009
Waste Land directed by Lucy Walker, Joao Jardim & Karen Harley
Ecumenical Jury Prize
Competition Bal (Honey) directed by Semih Kaplanoglu
Panorama Kawasakiho ruze (Kawasaki's Rose) directed by Jan Hrebejk
Forum: Aisheen ([Still Alive in Gaza) directed by Nicolas Wadimoff
FIPRESCI Prizes:
Competition En Familie (A Family) directed by Pernille Fischer Christensen
Panorama: Parade directed by Isao Yukisada
Forum: El vuelco del cangrejo (Crab Trap) directed by Oscar Ruiz Navia
Label Europa Cinemas
Die Fremde (When We Leave) directed by Feo Aladag
Prizes of the Berlin Talent Campus
Berlin Today Award: Bryn Chainey (Australia) for Jonah and the Vicarious Nature of Homesickness
Score Competition Camilo Sanabria (Colombia)