Berlin Film Festival names Polanski as best director

THE 60th Berlin Film Festival wrapped up yesterday after crowning Roman Polanski best director, although the filmmaker, who is under house arrest in Switzerland over a 1977 sex case, missed the premiere of his latest movie.

Polanski won the plaudit for his political thriller The Ghost Writer, while the jury awarded the festival’s top Golden Bear prize to a Turkish family drama Bal (Honey) starring a seven-year-old boy.

Polanski, 76, is fighting extradition to the US over the case in which he earlier admitted having sex with a 13-year-old girl.