The Reader
So it may have been a rocky start at the Berlin Film Festival for the pictures who were screened during the opening days but it would seem that things may just be warming up.
Earlier in the week Kate Winslet brought her Holocaust drama to The Reader to Berlin, although it is not in the competition category.
The film follows a fifteen year old boy who becomes involved in an affair with a woman twice his age, only for her to disappear. Eight years later Michael, now a law student, meets Hanna under very different circumstances.
Despite mixed reviews in America and some controversy surrounding the sex scenes the film has been nominated for five Oscars, including Best Actress for Kate Winslet.
But the audience and critics in Berlin welcomed the movie and The Reader is just one of several pictures that look at the Second World War.
The Reader may not have been in the competition category but Stephen Frears' new movie Cheri certainly was as the film received it's world premiere.
Starring Michelle Pfeiffer and British actor Rupert Friend the film is based on the 1920 novel by Colette and is a love story set on Paris in the early twentieth century.
Cheri is the first film for Frears since The Queen and is a reunion for the director, Pfeiffer and screenwriter Christopher Hampton, after they all worked on Dangerous Liaisons.
Also getting it's world premiere this week is Demi Moore's new film Happy Tears, as the actress leaves behind the big Hollywood productions for a smaller project.
She stars as a woman struggling to care for her senile father as well as trying to provide for her family.
Parker Posey also stars in the film as her spoilt sister who is reluctant to leave her comfortable life to help care for her father.
Many of The Private Lives of Pippa Lee's impressive cast, including Keanu Reeves, Robin Wright Penn and Blake Lively were all on the red carpet for the screening of their film.
The film follows the husband of a dutiful 50-year-old woman falls for a younger woman, she begins to explore her buried sensuality and begins to have a very quiet nervous breakdown.
The new movie from Days of Glory director Rachid Bouchareb has also proved a hit at the festival. London River, the low budget film about the aftermath of the London bombings which follows two people as they try to locate their children, is currently the frontrunner to scoop the Golden Bear gong at the weekend.
The Golden Bear will be awarded on 14th February.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
Tagged in Berlin Film Festival