Afterbeing named Best Director at this year's German Film Promotion Awards (ScreenDaily, July 1 2005), Byambasuren Davaa has now seen her latest feature TheCave Of The Yellow Dog chosen by festival goers at the Munich Film Festivalfor the Bayern 3 Audience Award.

AlthoughMunich is not a competitive festival, the nine-day event provided the fittingbackdrop for a number of prize-giving ceremonies.

While theGerman Federal Film Board's Short Tiger Awards went to US-born JonathanGreenfield's Chaim and Sonja Heiss' Christina Ohne Kaufmann,Kilian von Keyserlingk's Marco Und Der Wolf won 13th Street's ShockingShorts Award.

Furthermore,the Bernhard Wicki Prize to encouage social commitment in filmmaking andbridge-building went to Marc Rothemund's Silver Bear-winning Sophie Scholl -The Final Days; and veteran German actor Mario Adorf was feted by the localindustry with the awarding of the CineMerit Award for his life's work.

The OneFuture Prize jury chose Andrei Kravchuk's An Italian (Italianetz) forits main prize and also gave a Special Mention to the documentary Re-InventingThe Taliban by Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy and Ed Robbins.

Inaddition, the children cinema-goers attending this year's Kinderfilmfest choseBrazilian Mauro Lima's Taina 2 - A Aventura Continua for the JetixAward.

Meanwhile, festival director Andreas Stroehl told ScreenDaily.comthat due to the FIFA World Cup being held in Germany next year from thebeginning of June to early July, the Munich Film Festival will move from itstraditional end of June dates for the first time in its 23-year history. The2006 dates are July 15-22.