Berlin rolls out red carpet for film festival

Stars including Kate Winslet, the star of "The Titanic", pop singer Ricky Martin and British actor Peter Ustinov were due in Berlin on Tuesday to receive German TV awards.

Winslet, who is expected to bring her three-month-old daughter Mia, will also be promoting her latest film, Philip Kaufman’s "Quills", a potential Oscar contender built around the French writer the Marquis de Sade.

"Hannibal", sequel to "Silence of the Lambs", will also be shown at the festival with lead actor Anthony Hopkins due in Berlin with the movie’s director, Ridley Scott, to promote his role as the smooth-talking psychopath.

Sean Connery will be pushing his "Finding Forrester," the story of a reclusive writer who mentors a tough inner-city boy.

But fellow James Bond portrayer Pierce Brosnan had to pull out of the Berlinale at the last minute because his wife is due to give birth.

Brosnan had been due in Berlin for the world premiere of his latest movie, "Tailor of Panama," adopted from the novel by famed spy writer John Le Carre.

Le Carre has said he will come to the festival in the city that inspired so many of his Cold War thrillers.

"Finding Forrester" and "Tailor of Panama" are among 24 films competing for the festival’s top "Golden Bear" prize for best movie, awarded on the closing day on February 18 along with the "Silver Bear" award for best actor.

Veteran US actor Kirk Douglas, 84, has played cowboys, gangsters and Roman slaves in a career spanning 55 years, will receive a "Golden Bear" for lifetime achievement. The festival will show 23 of his more than 80 films.

"That means more than a prize from your own country. It is a very high honour," Douglas told Germany’s Die Welt daily.

"It means something because I have filmed three movies in Germany and Berlin is a symbol for successes and failures in the world," said Douglas, the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia.

Co-stars Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp are due in town for the screening of the comic fable "Chocolat", for which Swedish director Lasse Hallstrom hopes to scoop an Oscar.

Other Golden Bear competitors include Mike Nichols’ adaptation of the Broadway show "Wit", Steven Soderbergh’s "Traffic," about the drug war in the United States — another contender for the Academy Awards next month — and Spike Lee’s racially charged media satire "Bamboozled".

The festival will also showcase a raft of international films. Asia is particularly well represented with Golden Bear contenders including China’s "The Bicycle", South Korean box office hit "Joint Security Area" and Taiwan’s "Betelnut Beauty".

The festival opens with "Enemy at the Gates" — an $80million German-American co-production starring Jude Law, Ed Harris and Joseph Fiennes about the epic 1942 battle for Stalingrad, a major turning point in World War Two.