The film director Marc Forster was officially presented with Swiss citizenship on Saturday at a ceremony in the village of Davos.

Forster was congratulated by Environment Minister Moritz Leuenberger – the first time a Swiss minister has attended such an event.

"We are mentally patting ourselves on the back, feeling that we are somehow partially responsible for such world wide successes as The Kite Runner, or Neverland," Leuenberger said in his speech.

Forster was born in Germany to a German father and Swiss mother, but grew up in Davos, which is still his legal place of residence. The village awarded him its honorary citizenship last November. The ceremonial presentation of this honour also took place on Saturday.

Forster moved to New York in 1990 to study film and went to Hollywood in 1995.

His first major breakthrough was with Monster's Ball, for which actress Halle Berry won an Oscar. His best known films are Finding Neverland and The Kite Runner.

He is currently working on the next Bond movie, Quantum of Solace.

He has maintained close ties with Switzerland and the Swiss have long tended to regard him as Swiss. He was chosen by Swiss television viewers as winner of the 2007 SwissAward in the show business category. In 2005 he was one of the personalities who took part in the Swiss Health Office's AIDS prevention campaign.

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