German drama Four Minutes, directed by Chris Kraus,won the Jin Jue best film award at the 9th Shanghai International Film Festival(SIFF) on Sunday night, while Chinese director Qi Jian's The Forest Ranger was awarded the Jury Grand Prix.

The nine-day festival had astar-studded closing night with Ed Norton, Catherine Deneuve and Spanishactress Carmen Maura appearing on the red carpet. However most of the awardwinners were absent from the closing ceremony.

French director FabienneGodet's Burnt Out won both the bestdirector award and best actor for Olivier Gourmet's performance. Best actresswent to Els Dottermans for the Belgian film LoveBelongs To Everyone.

A total of 17 films competedfor the Jin Jue Awards. Luc Besson headed the nine-strong jury which alsoincluded Duncan Kenworthy, Gabriele Salvatores and Chinese director FengXiaogang.

Best film at the Asian NewTalent awards, held on Saturday night, went to Living In Fear from Vietnam's Bui Thac Chuyen. Tibetan Chinese filmmaker WanmaCaidan was awarded best director for TheSilent Holy Stones while rural satire TroubleMakers, from China's Cao Baoping, took home both the Jury Prize and University Students'Favorite Film prize.

Although the festival isattracting stars and striving to improve the quality of its programming,delegates complained that it was disorganised. Also, screenings of the localfilms, including the award winners, were poorly attended.

However, the festival isincreasingly being used as a platform to launch films into the China market. It hosted the premiere of Chinese directorNing Hao's Crazy Stone, produced by Hong Kong's Focus Films, which Warner China Film HG Corporation is releasing onmore than 300 screens on June 30.

Warner China Film also helda press conference for Zhang Guoli's The601st Phone Call, a co-production with Shanghai Film Group, which isscheduled for local release on August 10. Another Warner China Filmco-production, John Curran's The PaintedVeil, starring Ed Norton and Naomi Watts, will be released day-and-datewith the global release in November.

Meanwhile, Focus Films alsointroduced its Focus: First Cuts series of HD films to the mainland China market during the festival. In addition to Crazy Stone, another of the six films, Taiwanesedirector Robin Lee's The Shoe Fairy, isscheduled for release through Beijing PolyBona in August.