Joergen Flindt Pedersen's controversial documentary The Occupied (De Besatte) won the Grand Prix at the 18th edition of the Danish short and documentary film festival in Odense over the weekend.

The film follows five Palestinians for one year and at the same time describes how the Palestinians lost their country in 1948. The film has met with much criticism for its one-sided focus on the Palestinians, but it was this factor which was among the jury's reasons for awarding it the Grand Prix US$3,800 (DKR25.000) and a statue inspired by one of HC Andersen's fairy tales.

The International Grand Prix was awarded to Bjorne Larson and Alexander Skarsgaard's Swedish debut short To Kill A Child (Att Doda Ett Barn) based on a story by Stig Dagerman. It was also the winner of the critic's prize as best international film.

Among the national awards, editor turned filmmaker Morten Giese (Inheritance) picked up the best short fiction award for his Diver Boy, a drama starring Mads Mikkelsen (Open Hearts) as an alcoholic father on holiday with his son in Greece.

Norwegian-born Erlend E. Mo's documentary Welcome To Denmark (Velkommen til Danmark) was chosen as best documentary for its description of the fates of a number of fugitives in Denmark over three years.

Jytte Rex, who has won the best portrait film award a number of times, again scooped it for her experimental The River (Floden).

Named most imaginative and the most surprising foreign films were Virgil Widrich's Austrian Fast Film and Hans Petter Moland's Norwegian United We Stand, and the latter multiple award-winner also received the award from the youth jury as best international film. The youth jury chose Vibeke Muasya's Stoffer's Moment as best national film.