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Thousands of screaming fans greeted the director and stars of the Lord of the Rings at the European premiere of "The Return of the King", the final film in the epic trilogy.
Director Peter Jackson, who led the stars to the cinema in Berlin's Potsdamer Platz, breathed a sigh of relief that the marathon of putting the movies together had finally come to an end.
"I'm relieved it's over. Glad isn't the right word. I'm relieved we got to the end although there's a lot of sadness, a lot of farewells and saying goodbyes to the actors we've been working with," Jackson said.
"It's been seven years of hard work; I'm going to take one day at a time now," he said.
The epic almost three-and-a-half-hour film, which had its world premiere in New Zealand last week, has been tipped as a possible Oscar winner and is one of the most talked-about movies of the year.
When asked about his Oscar hopes, Jackson said: "That's for others, I'll just go along for the ride. It's a fantasy film and they have never done very well at the Oscars and I don't think that is likely to change."
Security was tight at the covered Sony Centre in historic eastern Berlin, where a giant ring hung from the ceiling. Flags and battle-style pennants lined a 150-metre red-carpeted corridor leading to the screening.
In nearby streets, hundreds of students gathered in the cold, windy evening, warming themselves with shouts and whistles of protest about planned cuts to university budgets and blocking peak-hour traffic.
Until now, only a privileged few had been able to see the movie, due for international public release on December 18, and were sworn to secrecy about details.
But by their accounts, it surpassed the first two films in the trilogy recreating JRR Tolkien's fantasy classic pitting good against evil.
© AAP
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