Germany's foreign-language Oscar contender secures best actress and best director wins at regional film honors.


Germany's Oscar contender In The Fade added to its awards momentum with a pair of wins at the Bavarian Film Awards Friday night, with Fatih Akin taking the prize for best director and star Diane Kruger winning best actress honors.


These are the first major German honors for the film, which has already won the Golden Globe and Critics' Choice awards for best foreign-language feature. Kruger won best actress honors in Cannes for her performance in the revenge thriller as a German woman whose son, and ethnically Kurdish husband, are killed in a neo-Nazi terrorist attack.


Already on the long list for the foreign-language Oscars, In The Fade is widely expected to be nominated for an Academy Award on Tuesday and is considered a front-runner in the category.


The best film honor at the Bavarian awards were split between two productions: Rupert Everett's Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince, produced by Philipp Kreuzer und Jorg Schulze of Germany's maze pictures, and the German crime comedy Griessnockerlaffare, from Kerstin Schmidbauer of Constantin Film.