Peter Sollet's Long Way Home, which has been renamed Raising Victor Vargas for its North American release via Samuel Goldwyn Films and Fireworks Pictures' joint distribution venture IDP, has won the grand jury prize in the competition section of the Deauville Festival Of American Film which finished yesterday (Sunday).

The film, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival, is also playing in Toronto this week and was selected by a jury headed by former Canal Plus boss Pierre Lescure.

It beat out a host of acclaimed US indies to the prize including L.I.E., The Good Girl, Blue Car, Secretary and The Safety Of Objects. Wild Bunch is handling international sales on Long Way Home aka Raising Victor Vargas which stars Victor Rasuk as a wannabe teenage Romeo in a Lower East Side Latino neighbourhood one summer.

Meanwhile, the jury of the competitive American independent film section, chaired by former Canal Plus head Pierre Lescure, awarded its special prize to Mark Romanek's One Hour Photo, in a tie with Michael Cuesta's Long Island Expressway (L.I.E).

Sundance and Locarno title One Hour Photo was indeed the big winner of the event, snatching two other prizes, including the audience-awarded Journal du Dimanche and Premiere Magazine nods.

This year's Ralph Lauren award for best actor or actress went to Patricia Clarkson for her role in Rose Troche's The Safety Of Objects. The suburban drama, which co-stars Glen Close and premiered last year in Toronto, also won the International Critics' award.