The 24th Moscow International Film Festival once again boasted a host of international celebrities at its closing ceremony with Harvey Keitel, Holly Hunter, Jacqueline Bisset, Atom Egoyan and Bob Rafelson turning up as well as Vittorio Taviani who collected the main prize for the film Resurrection.

Based on a novel by Leo Tolstoy, Resurrection (pictured, right) was directed with his brother Paolo, who shares the festival's main prize, the Golden St George.

But the home-town team was the obvious favourite of the crowd who cheered as Alexander Rogozhkin's Kukushka (The Cuckoo) (pictured, left) won the top award for best direction as well as the best actor's award for Ville Haapasalo. The Cuckoo also won the international film critic's FIPRESCI award for its originality as well as the National Russian Cinema Club's award for best film. The grand jury special prize went to Iranian director Vahid Mousaian for Wishes Of The Land.

Japanese actress Mikako Ichikawa won the best actress award for her performance in The Blue Skies. Krzysztof Zanussi's The Supplement also received a special award from the FIPRESCI jury for its expression of moral truth.

Harvey Keitel was clearly overwhelmed as he came to the stage to collect the festival's prestigious Stanislavsky prize for outstanding lifetime work as an actor in films. He gave tribute to the enormous influence the Russian theatre director has had on generations of American actors.