A couple-team of filmmakers and their leading actors returned to Hong Kong Monday morning with a crystal bear they got from the 60th Berlin Film Festival over the weekend.

Their low-budget film, Echoes of the Rainbow, which is said to cost about 12 million HK dollars (about 1.55 million U.S. dollars), won laughter and tears as well as the Crystal Bear award for Best Feature Film in the Generation category - the first time a Hong Kong film has won the prize.

Director Alex Law and his life partner Mabel Cheung, who became well-known in 1987 for their award-winning An Autumn's Tale featuring a love story of Chinese immigrants in New York city, told the press that the win in Berlin showed the importance of telling truly local stories.

Law noted that despite that the film is set in a dilapidated old street in Hong Kong so as to convey the real flavor of Hong Kong in the 1960s, the film has succeeded in striking a cord among Berlin audience.

"The first time the film was screened in Berlin, they gave it a six-minute standing ovation soon after the story ended that no one could even hear the theme song," Cheung added with pride.

A total of 14 films competed for the Crystal Bear award this year. The Generation section of Berlinale is designed for children and youth, aiming to increase cultural understanding through film among the younger generation.

Cheung, also the producer of the film, said due to limited funding, which the HKSAR government contributed a third of the total, publicity for the film was kept to a minimum.

Sandra Ng, who plays the leading role in the film as a cobbler' s wife and mother of two boys, believes the award will serve as an effective boost to the box office of the film, scheduled to debut in Hong Kong on March 11.