**Roman Polanski has won the Silver Bear for best director at the Berlin Film Festival for his new political thriller, The Ghost Writer.**Polanski could not accept the award as he is under house arrest and fighting extradition to the US over a conviction for having sex with a minor in 1977.
His producer, Robert Benmussa, said he would be “very happy” with the honour.
Switzerland has said it will not decide whether to extradite Polanski until an appeal over his US trial is resolved.
Last month, a judge in Los Angeles ruled that the director had to attend court in the US if he wanted to resolve the case.
He left the US in 1978 before sentencing and has never returned.
Premiere
This latest twist in the complicated legal saga surrounding Polanski came a week before The Ghost Writer premiered at Berlin.
“When I was lamenting with [Polanski] that he cannot be with us, he said to me, ‘even if I could, I wouldn’t because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail’”
Robert Benmussa
Producer, The Ghost Writer
Based on Robert Harris’s novel The Ghost, it is about a writer hired to complete the memoirs of a former British prime minister.
Accepting the best director prize on Saturday, Benmussa said: “I am sure Roman will be very happy.”
“However, when I was lamenting with him that he cannot be with us, he said to me, ‘even if I could, I wouldn’t because the last time I went to a festival to get a prize, I ended up in jail.’”
He was referring to Polanski’s detention by Swiss authorities in September when he travelled to Zurich to receive a prize.