Golden Bear for the Best Film – Tropa de elite | The Elite Squad by José Padilha
Both Day-Lewis and Sally Hawkins, who played the irrepressible Poppy, have been named as possibly going home with the festival's top acting awards.
But film festival juries are notoriously difficult to predict with Greek-born director Constantin Costa-Gavras and his team having to select from more than 20 movies included in the Berlinale's main competition.
Japanese director Yoji Yamada's anti-war story Kabei – Our Mother as well as police political thriller Elite Squad (Tropa Squad) from Jose Padilha, which has been a box-office hit in his native Brazil, have also been lined up by reviewers to possibly grab one of the Berlin bears.
Italian director Antonello Grimald's Quiet Chaos (Caos Calmo), which portrays a man's struggle to come to grips with the sudden death of his wife, has also emerged as a favourite for one of the festival's major prizes.
American independent movie maker Lance Hammer's Ballast, a family social drama set in the Mississippi Delta – with a cast that has never acted before – has also won praise from critics in Berlin after winning a series of awards at the Sundance Film Festival.
Ballast was Californian-born Hammer's first feature film.
Other movies that won fans at the festival have been German director Doris Doerrie's Cherry Blossoms – Hanami (Kirschbluetten – Hanami), South Korean director Hong Sangsoo's Night and Day (Bam Gua Nat) and young Mexican director Fernando Eimbcke's Lake Tahoe.
Despite some criticism that it failed to shed any new light on the shocking events surrounding the Abu Ghraib prison, Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Errol Morris' Standard Operating Procedure, a detailed examination of the scandal at the Iraqi jail, has also proven popular with many film reviewers at the Berlinale.
But one of the tough tasks facing the jury will be selecting the winners of the festival's acting awards as a big field of candidates has emerged.
In addition to Day-Lewis and Hawkins, those winning acclaim in Berlin were Penelope Cruz and Ben Kingsley in Elegy about an ageing professor's obsession with a young, self-confident woman student and Tilda Swinton who plays an alcoholic in Julia, although the film itself was badly received by reviewers.
Reza Najie's performance as a stressed-out father trying to keep his family financially afloat in Iranian director Majid Majidi's light poignant comedy The Song of Sparrows (Avaze Gonjeshk-Ha) is likely to have made him a leading contender as well for a best acting award in Berlin
