Sally Hawkins wins best actress at Berlin Film Festival

The English film director Mike Leigh, one of the favourites to win the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday for his comedy Happy-Go-Lucky, lost out to Jose Padilha and his controversial movie about police violence in Rio de Janeiro, The Elite Squad. But Sally Hawkins (above) won the best actress award for her role as a spunky north London primary school teacher in the Leigh film.

Both Happy-Go-Lucky itself and Hawkins had received raves during the festival. Nigel Andrews, film critic of the Financial Times wrote: "Everyone has loved Happy-Go-Lucky. After Vera Drake it seems a mind-bogglingly good-natured movie... Lead actress Hawkins comes on like a tipsy hurricane, clothed in what seem multi-coloured rag-bag remnants picked up by a tornado and wrapped around her. She is the consummation of the toujours gai Leigh heroines that began, for most of us, with the title hostess of Abigail's Party."

The prize is expected to give a career boost to 31-year-old Hawkins, who until now has been best known for her TV performances in the lesbian drama Tipping the Velvet, ITV's Persuasion and several episodes of the comedy Little Britain. In May, she will be seen in the new Woody Allen film, Cassandra's Dream.

The Golden Bear would have been a spectacular achievement for Leigh on the eve of his 65th birthday this Wednesday: he would been the only living director to bag the European film festival hat-trick, having previously won the Palme d'Or at Cannes and the Golden Lion at Venice with earlier films. In the event, he also saw the Silver Bear award for best director go to the American Paul Thomas Anderson for There Will Be Blood.

Berlin's best actor award went not to Daniel Day-Lewis as expected for his performance in There Will Be Blood but to the Iranian Reza Naji for The Song of Sparrows.