Ken Loach's Bread And Roses scooped the first ever UIP Award for best European film at this year's Rio International Film Festival. The award, voted for by the festival audience, is accompanied by a purse of Euros15,000.

A total of 99 European films competed for the prize. Runners-up included Lars von Trier's Dancer In The Dark, Etore Scola's La Cena, Patrice Leconte's La Veuve De Saint Pierre and Cedric Klapish's Peut-Etre.

UIP launched the award with the aim of increasing European films' exposure on other continents, and plans to extend the initiative to other events. "The award highlights a different type of product to a new audience, who we hope will be interested in seeing another European film," said UIP international acquisitions chief Marion Pilowsky.

Woody Allen's Celebrity grabbed the biggest audience at the Rio festival with 2,872 admissions followed by Stephen Frears' High Fidelity, Brazilian children's title Taina, Allen's Sweet And Lowdown and Neil LaBute's Nurse Betty. The 13-day festival drew a total audience of 135,000.