The prize - the Golden Benjamin - comes with a EUR 5,000 purse.
Bosnian director Jasmila Zbanic's film Grbavica: The Land of My Dreams was awarded the FIPRESCI award from the International Federation of Film Critics. The award was presented at a Hungarian film festival for the first time. Grbavica also won the award from the National Student Jury.
The international jury, which included Academy Award winning Hungarian cinematographer-director Vilmos Zsigmond, gave a special mention to Árpád Bogdán's film Happy New Life for its unique images.
The festival, held between September 30 and October 7, featured more than 100 films from 14 countries. In the competition were 37 feature films made last year by first-time directors.
In addition to Bogdán's Happy New Life, Hungary nominated Gyula Nemes's My One and Onlies and Tibor Szemző's A Guest of Life - Alexander Csoma de Körös for the competition.
The eight-day programme was held at the Apolló and Uránia cinemas.
Lajos Koltai's new film Evening, Ferenc Török's Overnight, and György Szomjas's The Sun Street Boys were shown outside the competition. In addition, a selection of last year's films from the participating countries was shown on DVD in the Művészetek Háza screening room.
The Hungarian film premieres were followed by question and answer sessions giving audiences the chance to meet Lajos Koltai, Vilmos Zsigmond, Elemér Ragályi and Ferenc Grunwalsky as part of the The Hungarian Masters of the Moving Image series.
For children, the festival's organisers set up a big screen in the city's central Jókai Square and showed animated features and shorts.
The festival, which had a budget of HUF 70 million, also offered an opportunity to directors, scriptwriters, producers and documentary filmmakers to meet and exchange ideas.
Source: Hungarian New Agency (MTI)
