Judges at the Berlin Film Festival announced Friday that the satirical movie "Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn" by Romanian director Radu Jude has been awarded this year's top prize, saying it has the "rare and essential quality of a lasting art work."
The film about a teacher facing scrutiny over a sex tape "captures on screen the very content and essence, the mind and body, the values and the raw flesh of our present moment in time," the Berlinale jury said as it awarded the film its Golden Bear.
The Silver Bear for best leading performance went to German actress Maren Eggert who plays a scientist exploring life and longing with a handsome humanoid robot in "I'm Your Man."
"Her presence made us curious. Her charm made us empathic. And her palette of performing qualities allowed us to feel, laugh and ask questions," the jury said in a statement.
It is the first time that the Berlin Film Festival has awarded a single award for best acting regardless of gender.
Denes Nagy of Hungary received the award for best director for his debut "Natural Light," following a Hungarian unit hunting partisans in the Soviet Union during World War II.
The jury said Nagy showed "masterful control of every aspect of the craft of filmmaking, a narration that transcends its historical context."
"A portrait of war in which the observant gaze of the director reminds us again of the need to choose between passivity and taking individual responsibility," the judges said.
The festival was staged online this year due to the pandemic, but a public event and a physical awards ceremony are planned for June.
South Korea fines Meta $15 million for illegally collecting information on Facebook users
South Korea's privacy watchdog on Tuesday fined social media company Meta 21.6 billion won ($15 million) for illegally collecting sensitive personal information from Facebook users, including data about their political views and sexual orientation, and sharing it with thousands of advertisers.
It was the latest in a series of penalties against Meta by South Korean authorities in recent years as they increase their scrutiny of how the company, which also owns Instagram and WhatsApp, handles private information.
Following a four-year investigation, South Korea's Personal Information Protection Commission concluded that Meta unlawfully collected sensitive information about around 980,000 Facebook users, including their religion, political views and whether they were in same-sex unions, from July 2018 to March 2022.
It said the company shared the data with around 4,000 advertisers.
South Korea's privacy law provides strict protection for information related to personal beliefs, political views and sexual behavior, and bars companies from processing or using such data without the specific consent of the person involved.
The commission said Meta amassed sensitive information by analyzing the pages the Facebook users liked or the advertisements they clicked on.
The company categorized ads to identify users interested in themes such as specific religions, same-sex and transgender issues, and issues related to North Korean escapees, said Lee Eun Jung, a director at the commission who led the investigation on Meta.
"While Meta collected this sensitive information and used it for individualized services, they made only vague mentions of this use in their data policy and did not obtain specific consent," Lee said.
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