Croatia'sIva Kapetanovic haswon top honours at the 15th Annual Hartley-Merrill International ScreenwritingPrize for her harrowing war drama Do Angels Cry.

England'sDavid Grieg was runner-up with his Scotland-set thriller The Darkest Hour and third prize went toMexico's Mauro Altschuler for Julia, about a world of children without adults.

All threewere presented with their awards by outgoing MPAA president Jack Valenti inCannes earlier this week (17).

'Thescreenplay is the heart of a film,' RKO Pictures chairman Ted Hartleysaid in a statement. 'Good films rarely if ever come from poor scripts.By supporting screenwriters from all over the world, we feel proud to havecontributed to the goal of advancing high quality films.'

Hartley was attending a winners reception at Plage des Palmeswith his wife and RKO vice-chairman Dina Merrill and Hartley-MerrillScreenwriting Prize executive director Debbie Vandermeulen.

Hartley and Merrill endowed the award in 1989 to support anetwork of international writers, critics and film-makers.