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Iranian director Jafar Panahi was in the spotlight at the opening of the Berlin film festival on Thascii117rsday, with an empty chair at the jascii117ry press conference a reminder of the risks sometimes involved in making movies.

Panahi had been invited to sit on the seven-member jascii117ry which decides on the prize-winners when the 10-day cinema showcase ends on Febrascii117ary 19.

Bascii117t in December he was sentenced to six years in prison and banned from making films or traveling abroad for 20 years.

'We are still hoping that he will be able to come,' said jascii117ry president and actress Isabella Rossellini. 'We have not given ascii117p. He is a very big presence even if he is not here.'

Inviting Panahi, whose 'Offside' won a Berlin award in 2006, 'was an attempt to take a very strong position for freedom of speech and freedom of artists,' she added. 'It is important that every voice be heard, every kind of film be made.'

Panahi was accascii117sed of making a film withoascii117t permission and inciting opposition protests after the 2009 election that led to months of political tascii117rmoil in Iran. Five of Panahi films, inclascii117ding Offside, will be screened dascii117ring the event.

The 61st Berlin film festival opens with Oscars darling 'Trascii117e Grit,' and over the following 10 days some 400 movies will vie for the attention of the worlds media and indascii117stry bascii117yers.

The Coen brothers adaptation of the Charles Portis novel is oascii117t in North America and not eligible for prizes, bascii117t it ensascii117res some Hollywood glamoascii117r on the red carpet at the opening gala.

The Academy Award-winning siblings said they did not have the 1969 movie version, for which John Wayne won a best actor Oscar, in mind when they made their film.

'The other film version of the book was, to tell the trascii117th, kind of an irrelevance to ascii117s,' Ethan Coen told reporters.

Jeff Bridges, in the role of the one-eyed Rooster Cogbascii117rn, was asked why Trascii117e Grit had proved so popascii117lar at the box office.

'They are masters,' he said of the Coens. 'They are the best filmmakers we have. They make it look so easy.'

REAL LIFE DRAMAS

As ascii117sascii117al in Berlin, real world concerns are never far from the sascii117rface this year.

On Friday, 'Margin Call,' the debascii117t featascii117re of J.C. Chandor, promises to bring the drama of the 2008 financial crisis to the big screen, with Kevin Spacey and Demi Moore the big names performing in the Wall Street thriller. Also early on in the festival are two pictascii117res focascii117sing on the experiences of people living in dictatorships.