British actress Kate Winslet has won a Bambi award for best international actress for her role in the German-made Oscar-winning film "The Reader." Christoph Walz, an Austrian who co-starred in Quentin Tarantino's "Inglourious Basterds," won best international actor.

"The Reader" is based on a novel by German author Bernhard Schlink published in 1995. The film examines the years following and the memory of the Holocaust.

"Ever since we made 'The Reader' I'm always trying to find ways to come back to Germany - it was special," said Winslet, whom the jury honored as "an actress who doesn't just slip into her roles but rather puts herself into the soul of her roles."

The Bambi awards are the German equivalent of the Emmy awards, honoring achievement in film, television, music and sports, among other fields. This year's ceremony was held in the eastern German city of Potsdam.

Awards this year also went to fashion designer Wolfgang Joop, Columbian songstress Shakira and Uli Hoeness, the general manager of German football giants Bayern Munich.

Former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who led the country during the process of reunification of East and West Germany, was honored with a Millennium Bambi. This prize ceremony comes just weeks after the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.

"We have peace, and one cannot expect anything more. I am particularly grateful for this, and thank all those who helped in achieving it," the 79-year-old Kohl said in a video message.

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Editor: Mark Hallam