Jafar Panahi's Taxi drives off with Golden Bear

Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling take acting prizes in Berlin.

by Amber Wilkinson

Jafar Pahani's Taxi wins Golden Bear
Jafar Pahani's Taxi wins Golden Bear

Jafar Panahi's Tehran Taxi has won the Berlin Film Festival's Golden Bear.

The director shot the film - which sees him interview people in a cab - in secret as he is currently banned from making movies by the Iranian government. It also won the FIPRESCI competition jury critics prize.

It was a good night for British stars after Andrew Haigh's tale of cracks in a marriage, 45 Years, saw co-stars Tom Courtenay and Charlotte Rampling win the best actor and actress Silver Bears.

The Silver Bear Grand Jury prize was awarded to Pablo Larraín for his Catholic church critique, The Club, while the best director Silver bear was shared by Romanian director Radu Jude for his black and white historic road trip Aferim! and Malgorzata Szumowska's father and daughter drama Body. Perhaps surprisingly, it was a documentary - Patricio Guzmán's The Pearl Button (El Botón De Nacár) that won the Silver Bear for best screenplay.

The Silver Bear Alfred Bauer Prize for a feature film that "opens new perspectives" went to Jayro Bustamante's directorial debut Volcano (Ixcanul).

The Silver Bear for outstanding artistic contribution, went to Sturla Brandth Grøvlen for the camerawork in Victoria and Evgeniy Privin and Sergey Mikhalchuk for the camerawork in Under Electric Clouds (Pod electricheskimi oblakami).

The international jury was headed by director and screenwriter Darren Aronofsky, with members Bong Joon-Ho, Martha De Laurentiis, Claudia Llosa, Matthew Weiner, Daniel Bruhl and Audrey Tautou.

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