Chinese director and screenwriter Wang Xiaoshuai has picked up his second Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival, winning the best screenplay prize for In Love We Trust on February 16, 2008.

Wang's film had been competing for the top Golden Bear award at the 58th Berlinale, but that went to Brazilian director Jose Padilha's Tropa de Elite (The Elite Squad), a story of police corruption and gang violence in the Brazilian slums.

In Love We Trust lead actress Liu Weiwei missed out on the best actress prize, which was picked up by Sally Hawkins for her performance in Mike Leigh's Happy-Go-lucky.

Wang thanked the jury saying the award would help "all of us who try to make independent film in China."

In Love We Trust, a story of love, loyalty, and responsibility among China's new middle class, tells how a middle-aged divorced couple, both remarried, try to save their young daughter, who suffers from leukemia, by having another child to act as a bone marrow donor.

It was the only film from the Chinese mainland competing this year in Berlin, where last year's top Golden Bear award was won by the Chinese film, Tuya's Marriage.

Wang, who is better known outside China, won the Grand Jury Silver Bear Award at the 2001 Berlin Film Festival for his film, Beijing Bicycle. He won the Special Jury Prize for Shanghai Dreams at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival.

In Love We Trust is expected to open in Chinese cinemas in the spring, but the exact date has yet to be set.

Wang said he would value the response and comments of Chinese audiences and hoped they would like the film.

Shanghai Dreams made more than five million yuan ($685,000) at the box office China in 2005, which was considered reasonably successful for a small-budget independent movie.

(Xinhua News Agency February 17, 2008)