French director Christopher Ruggia's drama The Devils (Les Diables) was named Best Film by the international jury at this year's Mannheim-Heidelberg International Film Festival.

Announcing its decision, the jury of Danish actress Trine Dyrholm, French sales agent Margarita Seguy (F For Film), Korean sales agent Karen Moon (CJ Entertainment), Finnish Film Foundation's Jaana Puskala, and LA-based producer Thomas Mai, declared that The Devils "touched us, provoked us, shocked us, frightened us in an extraordinarily powerful way. A film that will stay with us for a long time."

Meanwhile, it gave the Rainer Werner Fassbinder Prize to the Norwegian omnibus film Utopia - Nobody Is Perfect In The Perfect Country (Folk Flest Bor I Kina) "for dealing with politics in an unconventional way, 9 short stories portray the political directions, not only in Norway but around the world."

The International Jury also presented a Special Award to Iranian filmmaker Nasser Refaie's The Exam (Emtehan) and made Special Mentions of Kai Lehtinen's Umur (Finland), Geoffrey Enthoven's Children Of Love (Les Enfants De L'Amour, Belgium) and Luis Ortega's Black Box (Caja Negra, Argentina).

This year's Audience Award was won ex aequo by Dariusz Steiness' Charlie Butterly (Denmark) and Steve Jacob's The Spanish Woman (La Spagnola, Australia), while the FIPRESCI critics jury awarded its main prize to Utopia - Nobody Is Perfect In The Perfect Country and made a special mention of "a promising debut" by young Polish director Andrzej Jakimowski's Squint Your Eyes (Zmruz Oczy).

In addition, the Rotterdam Tiger Award winner Sleeping Rough (Tussenland) by the Netherlands' Eugenie Jansen received the Ecumenical Jury's Prize, and a jury of three cinema-owners recommended The Devils, The Spanish Woman and Utopia - Nobody Is Perfect In The Perfect Country for distribution in Germany.