'Good Bye, Lenin!' wins film award

BERLIN -- German hit "Good Bye, Lenin!" picked up the top honors Saturday at the annual European Film Awards ceremony, while the best director award went to Denmark's Lars von Trier for "Dogville," a dark drama starring Nicole Kidman.

Wolfgang Becker's "Good Bye, Lenin!" has become a box office sensation in its home country since its release in the spring. As well as the best film award, it got the best actor award, for Daniel Bruehl, and the best screenwriter award for Bernd Lichtenberg.

The movie follows a devoted communist who emerges from a coma months after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It swept the annual German Film Prize ceremony in June.

"I'm overjoyed," said Bruehl, a West German who plays the son of the movie's heroine as he tries to spare her the shock of communism's collapse by pretending nothing has changed. "This film was like a history lesson for me."

"Dogville," set in a small, fictitious town in the Rocky Mountains during the Depression, excited critics at the Cannes Film Festival in May but failed to land any prizes for "Breaking the Waves" director von Trier. In addition to Kidman, the film stars Lauren Bacall and Stellan Skarsgard.

At Saturday's ceremony, the European Film Academy's best actress award went to Charlotte Rampling for her role as an uptight British mystery writer in French director Francois Ozon's "Swimming Pool."

French director Claude Chabrol won this year's lifetime achievement award.

"It's a lot for me," Chabrol said. "I believe in European cinema. For the future of European cinema, we need international films."

Last year's best film prize went to Pedro Almodovar's "Talk to Her" at a ceremony held in Rome. The Spaniard also picked up the best director award.

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