Kazakhstan director Sergei Dvortsevoy's debut drama Tulpan continued its run of worldwide accolades by winning the best feature film award at the second Asia Pacific Screen Awards (APSA) onQueensland'sGold Coast in Australia.

Producer Karl Baumgartner, representing the big team of producers on the film, accepted the award.

The film tells the charming and funny story of a young nomadic shepherd hoping to marry and get a herd of animals of his own.

It has already won the Un Certain Regard Prize at Cannes, the Golden Puffin award for discovery of the year at the Reykjavik Film Festival, and best film awards at the Zurich, Tokyo and London international film festivals.

Cannes competitor Waltz With Bashir won the award for best animated feature; like Tulpan and many of the winners, it is a co-production. The Australian family drama The Black Balloon topped the children's category, Korean film 63 Years On won best feature-length documentary, and jury prizes went to The Red Awn from China and The Prisoner from India. Nuri Bilge Ceylan was named best director for Three Monkeys

The APSAs are endorsed by the International Federation of Film Producers Associations (FIAPF) and UNESCO. FIAPF president Andres Vincente Gomez travelled from Spain to announce that Yash Chopra, founder of Yashraj Films in India, was the winner of the FIAPF Award for outstanding achievement in film in the Asia-Pacific region.

The UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film - one of the key tenets of the APSAs - went to the documentary feature film Tinar, produced and directed by Mahdi Moniri. The jury noted that the film was a rich evocation of rural life in the mountainous regions of Iran.

'The Asia-Pacific region is the emerging giant of cinema, and the quality and depth of story-telling amazed not only our jury this year but is certain to attract more audience at the global level,' said APSA chair Des Power in a statement released just before the ceremony.

'There is a growing fascination and respect for films from this diverse region. It is a tribute to the filmmakers that they now have a globally recognised award and the broadcast reach of CNN International to promote their work.'

More than 700 film players from the Asia-Pacific region, Europe and the US attended the ceremony. Many are staying on to for the three-day conference of the Screen Producers Association of Australia, which starts tomorrow. The jury was headed by Australian director and Academy Award nominee Bruce Beresford.

The full list of awards is as follows:

Best Feature

Tulpan (Kazakhstan/Russia/ Switzerland/Poland/Germany). Producers: Valerie Fischer, Gulnara Sarsenova, Sergey Selyanov, Henryk Romanowski, Sergey Melkumov, Bulat Galimgereyev, Elena Yatsura, Thanassis Karathanos, Raimond Goebel.

Best Animated Feature

Waltz With Bashir (Israel/France/Germany). Producers: Yael Nahlieli, Ari Folman, Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul.

Best Documentary Feature

63 Years On (Korea). Producers: Kim Dong-won, Lee SeungGu.

Best Children's Feature

The Black Balloon (Australia). Producer: Tristram Miall, Co-producers: Elissa Down, Sally Ayre-Smith, Jimmy The Exploder, Mark Turnbull.

Achievement in Directing

Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Three Monkeys (Turkey/France/Italy).

Best Screenplay

Suha Arraf, Eran Riklis, for Lemon Tree (Israel/France/Germany).

Achievement in Cinematography

Korean Lee Mogae for The Good, The Bad, The Weird (Korea).

Best Actress

Hiam Abbass for Lemon Tree (Israel/France/Germany) Best Actor Reza Naji for The Song Of Sparrows (Iran).

FIAPF Award for outstanding achievement in film in the Asia-Pacific region.

Yash Chopra

UNESCO Award for outstanding contribution to the promotion and preservation of cultural diversity through film

Tinar (Iran), produced and directed by Mahdi Moniri.

Jury Grand Prize

The Red Awn (People's Republic of China), directed by Cai Shangjun; The Prisoner (India), produced and directed by Pryas Gupta.

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