The Seventh Malaga Film Festival's top award has gone to Hector, with AdrianaOzores also taking Best Actress for her part in the Gracia Querejeta-directedmovie about a young boy who has to choose between living with his aunt or hisfather in Mexico after his mother dies.

The Jury Prize went to the Zavier Bermudez-directed Leon And Olvido (Leon Y Olvido) about twins, onewith Down's Syndrome.

Pablo Carbonell won Best Actor for Tuna And Chocolate (Atun YChocolate), which he also directed, while Body Confusion (Fuera DelCuerpo) took Best Screenplay and the English-language Julian Sands-starrer Romasanta,The Werewolf Hunt (Romasanta, La Caza De La Bestia) won BestCinematography for Javier Salmones.

With 16 films in competition including another largely English-languagepicture, Whore (Yo, Puta) with Darryl Hannah andDenise Richards making its debut, Malaga's seventh edition played host to 24world premieres and went out strongly with the out-of-competition screening of TheWhore And the Whale (La Puta Y La Ballena), a Spanish-Argentineco-production marking Luis Puenzo's (The Official Version, Old Gringo) first film in 11years.

The Zonazine sidebar's top prize went to Spanish-French co-production Janis& John (Janis y John), a comedy directed by Samuel Benchetrit and starringSergi Lopez, the late Marie Trintignant (Benchetrit was her former partner) andChristopher Lambert, with special mention to A+ (Amas), by XavierRibera.

Elsewhere, the actress Geraldine Chaplin, director Fernando Trueba, anddistributor Enrique Gonzalez Macho received festival tributes.

At the parallel three-day Malaga Market Screenings, 30 world premieresplayed out to 75 buyers from 20 countries, a 5 percent increase over last year,according to organisers. A total of 42 films unspooled over three screens, with15 cabins showing the 150 titles available to buyers from Argentina to the US.

Strong interest was registered in The Whore And The Whale andalso the festival's Grand Prize-winning Hector.

The separate documentary market, Mercadoc, also reported a largeincrease over 2003, with 485 documentaries from 45 countries participating,over last year's 397 from 31 countries.

Designed as a showcase for Spanish and Hispano-American documentaryfilm-making, Mercadoc also provides a forum for projects seeking funding, andthis year 36 projects were presented to the 386 registered delegates.

The Malaga Film Festival awarded its Best Documentary prize to OPrisoneiro Da Grade De Ferro, from Brazil's Paulo Sacramento, a documentaryset in Sao Paulo's notorious Carandiru prison that was also the eponymoussubject of Hector Babenco's latest film as a director.