The prominent red-carpet faces at this year’s Berlinale, as the festival is known, have included Renée Zellweger, a member of the jury (headed by the director Werner Herzog) that will give out prizes on Saturday; Leonardo DiCaprio, who was promoting his latest collaboration with Martin Scorsese, “Shutter Island”; and the Bollywood megastar Shah Rukh Khan, here for the premiere of “My Name Is Khan.”
But this year’s Berlinale, which ends on Sunday, has been as much about absent celebrities as present ones. Roman Polanski remained under house arrest in Switzerland as his latest movie, “The Ghost Writer,” had its premiere on Friday (to mixed reviews). The biggest story in the daily trade publications was about Lars von Trier, who does not have a film here but was briefly — and falsely — rumored to be collaborating with Mr. Scorsese and Robert De Niro on a “Taxi Driver” remake.
True to form, the loudest absence was orchestrated by the British street artist Banksy, who continued to develop the meta-narrative surrounding his directorial debut, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” that started at the recent Sundance festival. In Park City, Utah, last month anticipation for the documentary — a survey of the street-art scene that shifts its focus to the man supposedly making a movie about Banksy — was spiked with the appearance of Banksy-like graffiti around town. In Berlin the artist, whose identity remains a closely guarded secret (and a carefully cultivated mystery), raised eyebrows by scheduling a news conference.
