FACTBOX: Favorites for prizes at Berlin Film Festival
BERLIN (Reuters) - The Berlin Film Festival ends on Saturday with an awards ceremony where the Golden Bear for best movie, as well as prizes for best actor, actress and director, will be handed out.
Following are the films seen by critics as most likely to land the big prizes.
- THERE WILL BE BLOOD - Daniel Day-Lewis stars as a greedy and determined oil prospector in early 20th Century America in the Hollywood epic that has eight Oscar nominations.
- HAPPY-GO-LUCKY - Mike Leigh's tale of the infectiously optimistic Londoner Poppy brought laughter and cheers to Berlin and lead actress Sally Hawkins was widely praised.
- STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURE - Errol Morris presents a sober examination of the abuse of Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraib jail by U.S. soldiers.
- I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG - Kristin Scott Thomas stars in an emotionally-charged story of two sisters who reunite after 15 years and struggle to come to terms with a tragedy in the past.
- LAKE TAHOE - Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke brings a simple and understated study of teenaged grief set in sun-baked suburban landscapes.
- THE ELITE SQUAD - Already a hit in Brazil, the film about a crack squad of policemen fighting drug warlords sharply divided critics in Berlin. Several saw it as a piece of right-wing propaganda, while others praised its realistic portrayal of violence and corruption.
- QUIET CHAOS - Nanni Moretti plays a grieving television executive in a film based on the novel by Sandro Veronesi.
- KABEI - OUR MOTHER - Veteran Japanese director Yoji Yamada tells the story of a woman whose husband is arrested for "thought crimes" and must look after her two daughters through increasing hardships of World War Two Tokyo.
- CHERRY BLOSSOMS - HANAMI - A love story from Germany about a man who goes to Japan in search of his wife's lost dreams.
- IN LOVE WE TRUST - A divorced couple in Beijing decide to take drastic action to try to save their daughter who is suffering from a potentially fatal disease.
- ELEGY - Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley play student and teacher respectively in a story of sexual obsession, jealousy and growing old.
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