Director Maïwenn’s Cannes Jury Prize winner Polisse may have missed out on the top prizes at the French Césars last month but consolation came from an expected quarter over the weekend.

Inmates at the Fleury-Mérogis Prison – Europe’s largest jail on the outskirts of southern Paris – voted Polisse, best film in the third edition of their annual festival, Fleury Fait Son Cinéma.

Other pictures in the festival line-up included Omar Killed Me (Omar m’a tuer) and Guilty (Présumécoupable).

“This is better than Cannes, or the Césars,” Maïwenn said at the awards ceremony.

She revealed inspiration for Polisse had come from visits to Fleury in 2009 to see then partner, rapper Joey Starr, who was serving time on charges of “intentional violence” after a dispute outside a nightclub.

Starr went on to play a tough-talking, big-hearted officer in the resulting feature about a child protection police unit in Paris.