Blood-soaked Brazilian drama “The Elite Squad,” directed by Jose Padilha, won the Golden Bear award for the best movie at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival to the surprise of some critics who questioned the jury’s methods.

The movie, which is already a hit in Brazil, portrays corruption, violence and murder within a crack squad of Rio policemen battling armed drug dealers in the city slums.

“This is a prize for Brazilian film, not just for me. This is a recognition I did not expect. It is an incentive to make new, critical films that are very important for our country,” Padilha said after last night’s award ceremony quoted by the Washington Post.
He also said he had been concerned at some of the criticism, which said the film was glorifying police brutality in Rio de Janeiro’s slums, but insisted it was misplaced.

“Perhaps they just didn’t grasp what it was bout, which is a shame. The film aims to explain how the state turns policemen either into corrupt people…or worst of all violent people. The huge majority of Brazilians understand that. I don’t think it’s mysterious,” Padiha told reporters, according to the Post.

The winner was selected from 21 films by a six-member international jury led by movie director Constantin Costa-Gavras.
“There Will Be Blood,” expected to take the top prize won two Silver Bears: best director for Anderson and best sound for “Blood” composer Jonny Greenwood’s experimental electronic soundtrack. The movie has won many prizes and is already nominated in eight categories at the Oscars, which are being held on 24 February.

The Silver Bear runner-up award went to Errol Morris’s “Standard Operating Procedure,” a documentary examining story behind the photos of U.S. torture at Abu Ghraib.

"As the movie points out ... the people who are actually convicted and in prison over Abu Ghraib are not the only people involved in this," said Morris, quoted by Reuters.

Chinese filmmaker Wang Xiaoshuai won the award for the best screenplay for “In Love We Trust,” a melodramatic story of a middle-aged divorced couple trying to save the life of their young daughter, suffering from a rare blood disease.

The best actor award went to Iran’s Reza Najie in “The Song of Sparrows,” a film which tells the story of a man whose rural idyll is threatened by material temptations thrown in his path in the big city.

The best actress award went to Britain’s Sally Hawkins, as the critics had predicted, for her portrayal of the infectiously optimistic school teacher Poppy in “Happy-Go-Lucky.”

“My legs have gone; I'm on the edge of tears as you can hear. Ultimately, I want to thank an exceptional human being who is (director) Mike Leigh. This is for Mike,” said the 31-year-old Hawkins, who also appeared in Leigh’s abortion drama “Vera Drake.”

Other films honored at Berlin included Martin Scorsese’s “Shine a Light,” a concert film of the Rolling Stones whose all four members opened the festival on the red carpet and Madonna’s much anticipated directorial debut “Filth & Wisdom,” which disappointed several critics, who said it was as poor as her worst performances in front of the camera.

The Alfred Bauer Prize, named after the Berlinale's founding director and which honors a movie that is cinematically innovative, went to “Lake Tahoe,” a Mexican film by Fernando Eimbcke about a 16-year-old boy who escapes his home in the family car.

Berlin's Best First film prize went to Japanese director Kumasaka Izuru for "Asyl -- Park and Love Hotel"