Prizes were widely spread on the closing night of the Puchon International Fantastic Film Festival (PiFan). The big winner on the night was Harry Sinclair's New Zealand film The Price Of Milk which scooped the Best of Puchon award.

The international jury gave a special prize to Wisit Sasanitieng's Thai film The Tears Of The Black Tiger (Fah Talai Jone) while the Citizens' Choice audience award went to Germany's Three Chinamen With A Double Bass (Drei Chinesen Mit Der Contrabass).

The awards brought to a close the nine day event (12-20 July) which was attended by some 40,000 spectators and presented 140 films from 35 countries. The selection was notable for the breadth of exposure it gave to the fantasy genre - the three top awards all went to films far removed from the horror and gore end of the market - while some of the most challenging subjects got a new section of their own, entitled The Forbidden Zone.

The programme also boasted an outstanding section of all nighters with films including Battle Royale, Visitor Q, Sorum and Common Wealth keeping spectators in their seats until 6:00am. International guests included Bertrand Tavernier, Jean-Pierre Jeunet, Yasuo Furuhata, Lloyd Kaufman and Lynne Stopkewich.

PiFan 2001 Award Winners

Feature Films:

Best of Puchon
The Price Of Milk dir: Harry Sinclair, New Zealand

Best Director
Hideyuki Hirayama, Japan, for Turn

Best Actor
Boris Aljinovic, Germany, in Three Chinamen With A Double Bass

Best Actress
Kang Hae-Jung, Korea, in The Butterfly

Citizens' Choice (Audience Award)
Three Chinamen With A Double Bass, dir: Klaus Kraemer, Germany

Jury's Choice
The Tears Of The Black Tiger, dir: Wisit Sasanitieng, Thailand

Short Films:

Grand Prize
The Tale Of The Rat That Wrote, dir: Billy O'Brien, Ireland

Kodak Award - Jury's Choice
Copy Shop , dir: Virgil Widrich, Austria

Citizens' Choice (Audience Award)
Rejected, dir: Don Hertzfeld, US