Elaville Ja Kuolleille's Finnish family drama For The Living And The Dead won the best narrative feature award at the Ninth Annual RiverRun International Film Festival, which came to a close at the weekend. The jury also presented the best actor award to Hannu-Pekka Bjorkman for his portrayal as a grieving father.

The best documentary feature prize went to Jennifer Baichwal's Canadian entry Manufactured Landscapes. Baichwal also picked up best documentary director honours for her account of photographer Edward Burtynsky's work in chronicling the new Chinese industrial landscape.

Best director honours went to Mark Dornford-May for his South Africa-set reinterpretation of the New Testament Son Of Man. The film won best cinematography for a narrative feature award and a special jury prize for original creative vision.

Malgorzata Buczkowska won the best actress award for her portrayal of Aga in the Polish drama Ode To Joy. Best screenplay went to Corneliu Porumboiu's Romanian black comedy 12:08 East Of Bucharest, while the prize for best cinematography for a documentary feature went to Sean Fine for War/Dance.

A special jury prize for production design went to the US-Indian drama Vanaja, while Cuban documentary Havana - The New Art Of Making Ruins was awarded a special jury prize.

Audiences voted Hal Hartley's spy caper Fay Grim starring Parker Posey the best narrative feature, and gave the documentary award to Richard Berge, Bonni Cohen, and Nicole Newnham's The Rape Of Europa, which recounts how the Nazis looted billions of dollars worth of art from European collections.

Short film jury award winners included Zam Salim's UK title Laid Off for best narrative, Alex Weil's US entry One Rat Short for animation, and Ruby Yang's US-China film The Blood Of Yingzhou District for documentary

The festival ran from Apr 18-23 and screened 34 features and 61 shorts from 25 countries. Ticket sales jumped 24% against 2006 to $51,854 and there was a 34% climb in submissions this year to 1090.

'This was most illustrious year so far in terms of the films we had to offer,' RiverRun executive director Andrew Rodgers said. 'Our programme spanned such a vast landscape of cultures and interests that there really was something for everyone.'

For more details visit the official website at www.riverrunfilm.com.

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