Mexican Yulene Olaizola's first feature Intimacies of Shakespeare And Victor Hugo won the prize for best film in the international competition at the tenth Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema (BAFICI).

China's Night Train, directed by Diao Yinan, took the Special Jury Prize and the one for Best Actress (Liu Dan), while Taiwan's Lee Kang-sheng received the best actor award for Help Me Eros, which he also directed.

The prize for best director went to Lance Hammer for the Sundance hit Ballast, which also received Fipresci and Signis awards. Another US film-maker, John Gianvito, obtained a special mention from the official jury and also won the Human Rights competition for Profit Motive And The Whispering Wind.

Alejo Hoijman's documentary Unidad 25, about the daily life in the first evangelist prison in the world, won the official competition for local films and took a cash award of $30,000.

Mariano Llinas' acclaimed four-hour epic Historias Extraordinarias (Extraordinary Stories) received the Special Jury Prize sponsored by Kodak and local post-production house Cinecolor, and the audience award.

Gonzalo Castro took the best director award in local competition for his first feature Resfriada and Gaston Solnicki received a special mention for Suden, a documentary on music legend Mauricio Kagel.

More than 430 movies were shown and 140.000 tickets were sold at the 13-day festival, Argentina's biggest in terms of films and attendance.

Full list of BAFICI awards winners:

Best film: Intimacies Of Shakespeare And Victor Hugo, by Yulene Olaizola (Mexico)
Best director: Lance Hammer for Ballast (US)
Special Jury Price: Night Train, by Diao Yinan (China)
Best actress: Liu Dan for Night Train (China)
Best actor: Lee Kang-sheng for Help Me Eros (Taiwan)
Special mentions: Profit Motive And The Whispering Wind, by John Gianvito (US) and A Week Alone, by Celina Murga (Argentina).

Best film (Argentinian competition): Unidad 25, by Alejo Hoijman
Best director (Argentinian competition): Gonzalo Castro for Resfriada
Special Jury Prize (Argentinian competition): Extraordinary Stories, by Mariano Llinas
Special mention: Suden, by Gaston Solnicki

Audience award: Extraordinary Stories, by Mariano Llinas (Argentina)
Human Rights award: Profit Motive And The Whispering Wind, by John Gianvito (US)
Cinema of the Future award: Llavallol, by Grupo Tierra en Trance (Argentina).
Fipresci/Critics Award: Ballast, by Lance Hammer (US)
Signis Award: Ballast, by Lance Hammer (US)
ADF Award (best cinematography): Night Train (China)
Best short films: El Contrabajo, by Alejo Franzetti; Ahendu nde sapukai (Oigo tu grito), by Pablo Lama; and Fedra o la Desesperacion, by Gustavo Galuppo.

Buenos Aires Lab (BAL) cash and facilities awards for Latin American projects: Infancia Clandestina, by Benjamin Avila (Argentina); Sentados Frente al Fuego, by Alejandro Fernández Almendras (Chile), La Preceptora del Nacional, by Diego Lerman (Argentina); Eco del Humo, by Juan Alvarez Duran (Bolivia), El Pasante, by Clara Picasso (Argentina), El Verano de los Peces Voladores, by Marcela Said (Chile); La Hormiga Argentina, by Jose Luis Cancio (Argentina); Las Voces, by Francisco Pedemonte (Argentina); and El Ultimo Verano de La Boyita, by Julia Solomonoff (Argentina).

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