Other winners included Tehroun, Norteado and Border.

Georgian director George Ovashvili’s The Other Bank won the Regard d’Or (Golden Gaze) and Audience Award at the 24th Fribourg International Film Festival in Switzerland.The film, also a Berlinale selection, is about a 12-year-old boy who survives a civil war and moves to Georgia.

For the Golden Gaze (worth about $28,000 in cash prize money), the jury was comprised of Hanna Schygulla, Rakhshan Bani Etemad, Michel Ciment, Patrick Ferla and Igor Minaiev. The jury said The Other Bank was honored “for the poetry and the humanity of the gaze he casts upon a child and the discovery of life in times of war.” They gave a special mention to Brillante Mendoza’s Lola.

The Talent Tape Award went to Iranian director Nader T. Homayoun for Tehroun.

Fribourg’s Special Jury Award went to Rigoberto Perezcano’s Norteado (Mexico) and the FIPRESCI prize went to Harutyun Khachatryan’s Border (Sahman).

This year’s festival saw more than 30,000 admissions during its eight-day run. Fribourg’s 25th anniversary festival is scheduled for March 19-26, 2011.

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