BERLIN — Israeli director Nadav Lapid’s “Synonyms,” a movie about a young Israeli man who uproots himself to France and is determined to put his homeland behind him, won the Berlin International Film Festival’s top Golden Bear award on Saturday. A jury headed by French actress Juliette Binoche chose the movie from a field of 16 competing at the first of the year’s major European film festivals. A festival statement on Monday said it wasn’t possible to present it “due to technical difficulties encountered during post-production.” It did not elaborate. Binoche said at Saturday’s ceremony that jury members “regret that we were not able to consider” the film. Locarno film festival chief Chatrian will become the festival’s artistic director and Rissenbeek, a German movie industry official, will be its managing director.

Source: National Post February 16, 2019 19:40 UTC