Brazilian blood-soaked cop drama wins Golden Bear at 58th Berlinale

London, Feb 17 : The Elite Squad, a film about police brutality on the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, has won the Golden Bear prize for best picture at the 58th Berlin Film Festival.

The blood-soaked drama, directed by Jose Padilha, is based on actual accounts of violence and corruption among the Brazilian security forces.

Padilha accepted the statuette from this year's jury president, Greek-French director Costa-Gavras, reports BBC.

The jury's runner-up prize went to "Standard Operating Procedure," a penetrating look at the systematic abuse of Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by Oscar-winning director Errol Morris.

US filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson got the best director prize for "There Will Be Blood" in which British-born actor Daniel Day-Lewis gives a magnetic performance as a dictatorial oil prospector.

The best actor Silver Bear went to Iran's Reza Najie who starred in "The Song of Sparrows" as Karim, a father working as an ostrich farmer on the outskirts of Tehran who moves to the city when he loses his job.

British actress Sally Hawkins picked up the prize for her turn as an infectiously optimistic school teacher in Mike Leigh's upbeat "Happy-Go-Lucky."

The 11-day Berlinale screened nearly 400 pictures and attracted 20,000 accredited visitors from 125 countries.

Last year's Golden Bear was awarded to Tuya's Marriage, a Chinese drama about a herdswoman from Inner Mongolia.

ANI