Chinese film Tuya's Marriage (Tu Ya De Hun Shi) has won the Golden Bear at the 57th Berlin Film Festival.
The film, about a herdswoman who faces having to divorce her husband after he is injured, was chosen from a field of 22 competitors, including Steven Soderbergh's The Good German, Francois Ozon's Angel and Olivier Dahan's La Vie En Rose.
Accepting the award, director Wang Quan'an said he could not imagine a better gift for Chinese New Year.
Joseph Cedar won best director for his Middle East war drama Beaufort, which tracks the last few months before withdrawal of Israeli soldiers from a Lebananon outpost.
Argentinian Julio Chavez scooped the best actor gong for The Other (El Otro) - in which he plays a business man who takes on a stranger's identity in a bid to build a new life - while Nina Hoss won the best actress award for her role as an East German woman haunted by her past in Yella.