Danish drama The Hunt took home the Leeds International Film Festival Audience Award at the close of the annual event.

The film, directed by Thomas Vinterberg, beat animated feature Ernest and Celestine and Japan’s Wolf Children to the hotly contested award.

The Leeds jury also named the winners of the Méliès d’Argent prizes, which honours fantasy films in the UK and is awarded on behalf of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation.

Among the top titles were Boris Rodriguez’s Eddie the Sleepwalking Cannibal (Denmark/Canada), which took Best European Fantasy Feature Film, and The Fright, from Spanish director J.J. Marcos, which was named Best European Fantasy Short Film.

Both will now compete for the Méliès d’Or at the 2013 Sitges International Festival of Fantastic Film in Spain.

The jury said of Cannibal: “The movie is well-paced with great characterisation and a climax that will give even the most hardened horror fan that sense of sentimental satisfaction that is so often missed.”

Directors Joseph Pelling and Becky Sloan also took home the top prize in the British Short Film Competition for Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared while the French My Sweetheart (Mon Amoureux) won the Louis le Prince International Short Film Competition.

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