Berlin film festival: Wes Anderson named best director for Isle of Dogs
Written by News on 26/02/2018
Director Wes Anderson has won the best director prize at the Berlin film festival for his new animated movie Isle of Dogs.
The event closed on Saturday night with a nod to European cinema, as Adine Pintilie’s experimental Touch Me Not – the story of a woman who cannot bear human contact – picked up the coveted Golden Bear for best film.
But it was Anderson’s tale of a little Japanese boy’s quest to find his dog which won over the hearts of the jury, with the US director being named the best in his field and taking home the Silver Bear.
The movie, shot entirely in stop-motion animation, features an all-star cast of voices including the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Bill Murray, Jeff Goldblum, Bryan Cranston and Oscar nominees Frances McDormand and Greta Gerwig.
Murray took to the stage in the German capital to accept the award on behalf of his director, and said he “never thought that I would go to work as a dog and come home with a bear”.
Anderson, who could not be present for the closing ceremony, spoke of the film as an inspiration from old Japanese masters.
“In this one, there are two directors who are our inspirations: Kurosawa and Miyazaki,” Anderson said earlier in the festival.
“The detail and also the silences. With Miyazaki, you get nature and you get moments of peace, a kind of rhythm that is not in the American animation tradition so much. That inspired us quite a lot.
“There were times that I worked with Alexandre Desplat on the score and we found many places where we really had to pull back from what were doing musically because the movie wanted to be quiet. I think it comes from Miyazaki.”
Pintillie, the Romanian director who took home best film, said she was “not expecting it”.
“We would like that the dialogue Touch Me Not proposes opens to the world, so we invite you, the viewer, to dialogue,” she said.
The best actor award went to Anthony Bajon for his role in French director Cedric Khan’s The Prayer and the best actress prize to Ana Brun for her part in Marcelo Martinessi’s The Heiresses.
Isle of Dogs opens in UK cinemas on 30 March.
(c) Sky News 2018: Berlin film festival: Wes Anderson named best director for Isle of Dogs
