Michael Winterbottom's In This World was the surprise winner of the Berlinale Golden Bear, beating off competition from favourites The Hours and The 25th Hour.

Winterbottom's digitally-shot semi-documentary tale of an asylum seeker's journey from Afghanisatan to London also received the Peace Film Prize and the Prize of the Churches of the Ecumenical Jury.

Other popular choices were Spike Jonze (Adaptation) for the Jury Grand Prix, the ensemble female leads of Stephen Daldry's The Hours for the Best Actress Silver Bear and Sam Rockwell of George Clooney's Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind for the Best Actor Silver Bear, while the local German film community welcomed the recognition for Wolfgang Becker's Good Bye, Lenin! with the presentation of the Euros 25,000 Blue Angel award for best European film.

Speaking at the award ceremony on Saturday evening, Atom Egoyan, president of the International Jury, stressed that the jury had been a group of cinephiles who had worked very harmoniously together and described the ten days as "an incredible experience" where the jury had "very passionate discussions and came away excited about film, the state of film and where it can go."

"There was a consensus [among the jury] for every film," Egoyan added.

In accepting his award, Becker - whose film has opened very strongly in its first weekend in Germany - stated that "the German cinema had been brought back into the public consciousness" thanks to the Berlinale, while, in a poignant note, French director Patrice Chereau dedicated his Silver Bear for Best Director to the late Daniel Toscan du Plantier whose funeral had been held in Paris on Saturday morning.

The complete list of prize-winners at the 53rd Berlinale:

Prizes of the International Jury
Golden Berlin Bear - In This World by Michael Winterbottom
Jury Grand Prix, Silver Berlin Bear - Adaptation by Spike Jonze
Silver Berlin Bear for Best Director - Patrice Chereau (His Brother)
Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actress - female ensemble of Meryl Streep, Nocole Kidman, Julianne Moore (The Hours)
Silver Berlin Bear for Best Actor - Sam Rockwell (Confessions Of A Dangerous Mind)
Silver Berlin Bear for an individual artistic achievement - to screenwriter and director Li Yang for Blind Shaft (Mang Jing)
Silver Berlin Bear for Best Film Music - Majoly, Serge Fiori, Mamadou Diabate (Madame Brouette by Moussa Sene Absa)
AGICOA Award The Blue Angel for Best European Film, endowed with Euros 25,000 to the director Wolfgang Becker (Good Bye, Lenin!)
Alfred Bauer Prize, awarded in memory of the festival founder, for a work of particular innovation - Hero (Ying Xiong) by Zhang Yimou
Short Film Golden Berlin Bear - (A)Torsion by Stefan Arsenijevic
Short Film Jury Prize, Silver Berlin Bear - ex aequo to In Absentia by Lucia Cedron and The Tram No 9 by Stepan Koval
Prix UIP Berlin - (A)Torsion by Stefan Arsenijevic

Prize of the Churches of the Ecumenical Jury
Competition - In This World by Michael Winterbottom
Panorama, with a cash prize of Euros 2,500 - Broken Wings by Nir Bergman
Forum, with a cash prize of Euros 2,500 - Edi by Piotr Trzaskalski

FIPRESCI Prizes
Competition - Distant Lights (Lichter) by Hans-Christian Schmid
Panorama - Wolfsburg by Christian Petzold
Forum - Edi by Piotr Trzaskalski

Prize of the Guild of German Art House Cinemas
My Life Without Me by Isabel Coixet

Readers' Prize of the Berliner Morgenpost
The Hours by Stephen Daldry

C.I.C.A.E. Prize
Panorama prize - Broken Wings by Nir Bergman
Special Mention - Seville, South Side by Dominique Abel
Forum prize - Mango Yellow by Claudio Assis
Special Mention - Power Trip by Paul Devlin

LVT Manfred Salzgeber Prize, with a purse of Euro 25,000
Pure by Gillies MacKinnon

Panorama Short Film Award
Misdemeanour by Jonathan LeMond

New York Film Academy Scholarship
I Could Have Been Human by Garine Barbara Medajska
Special Mention - Underdog by Eran Merav

Panorama Audience Prize
Broken Wings by Nir Bergman

Prize of the Deutsches Kinderhilfswerk
Feature Film Grand Prix, with purse of Euros 7,500 - Wallah Be by Pia Bovin
Special Mention - Elina by Klaus Haro and The Boy Who Wanted To Be A Bear by Jannik Hastrup
Short Special Prize, with purse of Euros 2,500 - Pipsqueak Prince by Zoia Trofimova
Special Mention - Houdini's Hound by Sara Johnsen

Crystal Bear
Best Feature Film - Elina by Klaus Haro
Special Mention - Miss Entebbe by Omri Levy and Carol's Journey by Imanol Uribe
Best Short Film - Pipsqueak Prince by Zoia Trofimova
Special Mention - Birju by Heeraz Marfatia

Peace Film Prize, with purse of Euro 5,000
In This World by Michael Winterbottom

Teddy 2002, each with a purse of Euros 3,000
Best Feature Film - A Thousand Peace Clouds Encircle The Sky, Love, You Will Never Stop Being Love by Julian Hernandez
Best Documentary - Talk Straight - The World Of Rural Queers by Jochen Hick
Best Short - Precious Moments by Lars Krutzkoff and Jan Dalchow
Special Teddy 2003 - F.W. Murnau (1888-1931) In Memoriam

Readers' Prize of the Siegesaeule, with a purse of Euros 1,000
The Event by Thom Fitzgerald

Wolfgang Staudte Award 2002, with a purse of Euros 10,000
Forest by Benedek Fliegauf

Caligari Prize 2002, with a purse of Euros 4,000
Salt by Bradley Rust Gray

NETPAC (Network for the Promotion of Asian Cinema) Prize
The Blessing Bell by Sabu
Special Mention - Bird-Man Tale by Garin Nugroho

Don Quixote Prize of the International Federation of Film Societies
Edi by Piotr Trzaskalski