The French/Spanish film The Spanish Apartment, (aka L'auberge Espagnole/ Europudding) directed by Cedric Klapisch and produced by Bruno Levy for Ce Qui Me Meut, won both the PRIX UIP award for Best European Film and the audience award for best feature at the 50th Sydney Film Festival, which closed on Friday.

The PRIX UIP carries a purse of Euros 15,000 and is open to European films screening in the festival's contemporary world cinema strand.

The other top five films screened at the State Theatre and voted for by festival audiences were, in order, director Chen Kaige's Together (China/South Korea), Marcelo Pineyro's Kamchatka (Argentina/Spain), the 1928 film Shiraz (India/UK/Germany), and Lone Sherfig's Wilbur Wants To Kill Himself (Denmark/UK).

Audiences at the festival's other venue, the Dendy Opera Quays, also voted for their favourites with Ken Loach's 1971 film Family Life leading the charge. Like three others in the top five, it was part of the festival's 50th anniversary retrospective. The exception was Dusan Milic's Jagoda In The Supermarket (Yugoslavia/Germany/Italy).

The audience award for best documentary screening at the State Theatre was given to Scott Millwood's Australian film Wildness, the story of two Australian wilderness photographers, but it was the audience's second preference, Lee Hirsch's Amandla! A Revolution In Four-Part Harmony from the US that collected the FIPRESCI (international film critics) award for best documentary. It examines the vital role played by music in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.