The Hong Kong International Film Festival (HKIFF) continued with its inaugural prize-giving ceremony last week, although SARS kept away overseas jurors and award winners.

Local replacements were found for absent jury members and HKIFF director Peter Tsi accepted awards on behalf of overseas directors.

The festival featured three new international competition sections this year in addition to the annual FIPRESCI Award for new Asian directors.

The "Firebird Awards for Young Cinema" are for first or second efforts from directors from anywhere in the world, while the "Asian DV Competition" is open to digital films from Asian directors. The "Humanitarian Awards for Documentaries" are for documentaries from all over the world with social and aesthetic significance.

Hukkle, by Hungarian director Gyorgy Palfi, scooped the Golden Firebird Award while the Silver Firebird went to Blind Shaft from mainland director Li Yang.

The jury also gave a Special Mention to two films - Hotel Hibiscus from Japan and Our Father from Chad-France.

In the Asian DV Competition, Doug Chan's Love Is Not A Sin picked up the Golden DV Award and the Silver DV Award went to Andrew Cheng's Welcome To Destination Shanghai.

The Humanitarian Award for Best Documentary went to Clown In Kabul by Italian directors Enzo Balestrieri and Stefano Moser.

The FIPRESCI award went to mainland feature Chicken Poets, directed by Meng Jinghui, while Thai film Mekhong Full Moon Party received a Special Mention.

The festival wraps on April 23 with screenings of mainland movie Cala, My Dog!, directed by Lu Xuechang, and Spike Jonze's Adaptation.