Berlin: Hollywood heavyweights Kate Winslet, Steve Martin, Jude Law and Clive Owen will headline the next Berlin Film Festival with a clutch of new pictures, organisers said today.

Winslet is expected at the February event to promote "The Reader", an erotic drama in which she plays a former Nazi concentration camp guard running from her past in postwar Germany.

The film, an adaptation of German writer Bernhard Schlink's bestseller, has already been nominated for next month's Golden Globe awards but will be screened out of competition for the Berlin festival's Golden and Silver Bear prizes.

Martin will bring the second Pink Panther remake featuring the silver-haired comedian as the hapless Inspector Clouseau. "Pink Panther II" will also appear out of competition.

"Rage", a black comedy about a New York fashion house by British director Sally Potter ("Orlando"), will vie for the Golden Bear with a powerhouse cast including Law, Judi Dench, Dianne Wiest and Steve Buscemi.

Swedish film-maker Lukas Moodysson, best known for his drama about forced prostitution "Lilya 4-ever", will unveil "Mammoth" starring Mexican heart-throb Gael Garcia Bernal and Michelle Williams as a New York power couple facing a family crisis.

Rebecca Miller, daughter of the late US playwright Arthur Miller and wife of Daniel Day-Lewis, will premiere "The Private Lives of Pippa Lee" based on her debut novel.

Source : PTI