David Slade's Hard Candy picked up best film and script honors at Spain'sInternational Film Festival of Catalunya, better known as Sitges (Oct 9-17).
Brian Nelson wrote thescript for Hard Candy, a shockingtale of sexual politics and revenge about a thirtysomething fashionphotographer and a 14 year-old girl who meet online then arrange to meet inperson.
The jury was in sync withthe Sitges public, which voted the film winner of its audience award.
This year's festival was oneof the highest profile in recent memory, with guests ranging from Jodie Fosterand David Cronenberg to Viggo Mortensen and Quentin Tarantino.
The organization revealeddetails of next year's event, which will commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sitges screening ofDavid Lynch's Blue Velvet,including a retrospective of the director's films and exhibitions of hisartistic creations.
The jury of the maincompetition section, the Official Fantastic, gave Johnnie To a best directorprize for his Election, while LeeYeong-ae won best actress for Sympathy For Lady Vengeance and Lee Kang-sheng best actor for The WaywardCloud, a film which also took homethe jury's special award and a critic's prize.
Technical prizes were splitamong a handful of films,including Mirrormask (art direction and make-up FX), The Piano TunerOf Earthquakes (special effects), ABittersweet Life (originalsoundtrack) and Seven Swords(cinematography). Taiwan's Wi Ding Ho won best short for Respire.
US films also topped the NewVisions section, which gave its prize to Hal Hartley's The Girl From Monday and a special mention to Werner Herzog's USproduction Grizzly Man. HarryCleven's Trouble, aFrench-Belgian production, won Sitges' Silver Melies for best Europeanfantastic film.
Also over the weekend inSpain, the newly created International Historical Film Festival of La Laguna(FICHLA) gave out its top prizes to Hector Olivera's Ay Juancito (best feature film), Xiao Jiqang's ChinaMemories/Electric Shadows (forhistorical content), Tolga Ornek's Gelibolu/Gallipoli (best documentary) and Alejandra Islas' La BandaDel Automovil Gris (for historicalcontent in a documentary).
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