Romanian director Adina Pintilie says her movie was intended to "invite you the viewer to dialogue" with its frank portrayals of sex, disability and inhibitions
"Touch Me Not", an experimental Romanian docudrama exploring sexual intimacy and the fears around it, won the Golden Bear top prize at the Berlin film festival Saturday in a strong year for female filmmakers and women's stories.
First-time director Adina Pintilie, 38, clutching the trophy after her surprise triumph, said the movie was intended to "invite you the viewer to dialogue" with its frank portrayals of sex, disability and inhibitions.
US filmmaker Wes Anderson clinched the best director Silver Bear prize for "Isle of Dogs", an animated allegory with political bite and an early favourite in the running among 19 contenders.
Actor Bill Murray, who voices one of the pack of pooches in Anderson's first animated feature since 2009's "Fantastic Mr Fox", picked up the award for Anderson.
"I never thought that I would go to work as a dog and come home with a bear," he quipped.
"Ich bin ein Berliner Hund (I am a Berlin dog)," he added, riffing on John F. Kennedy's famous speech.
The runner-up Grand Jury Prize went to Polish social satire "Mug" by Malgorzata Szumowska, the second winner among four women in competition.
The feature tells the story of a man who is shunned by his community when he has a face transplant after a horrific accident, in a plot examining tensions over identity and exclusion in eastern Europe.