Young Macedonian director Teona S. Mitevska's debut feature HowI Killed A Saint (Kako Ubi Svetec) won the Euros 10,000 Crossing EuropeAward 2004 at the first edition of the Crossing Europe film festival in theAustrian city of Linz (May 4-9).

The International Jury, which included directors ZelimirZilnik, Sabine Derflinger and Cristi Puiu, selected Mitevska's film for her'straightforward cinematographic approach which manages to portray andconvey the general atmosphere of hysteria, nationalistic hatred and socialunease whilst at the same time focusing on an intimate human drama.'

The Euros 6,000 Local Artist Award went to MichaelSchwentner for her experimental video work Jet, with special mentionsbeing given to Rainer Gamsjaeger for Blowfeld and Regina Stefanschitzfor Nix G'scheits Drin.

Crossing Europe's festival director Christine Dollhofer andchief executive Wolfgang Steininger declared themselves very pleased with theresponse to this pilot event which had had an overall budget of only Euros 260,000.Around 5,500 people attended 130 screenings over the six days, with another3,000 attending the exhibition of Siegfried A. Fruhauf and the late-nightevents in the festival centre.