The week-long Shanghai International Film Festival did not end quite as smoothly as organizers would have hoped last night as the winner of its top prize was a no show.

Though the incident reflected the annual carnival's limited influence, the foreign filmmakers, many of whom were visiting China for the first time, said the festival was likely to grow.

The jury for the festival's top award - the Golden Goblet Award - gave its Best Picture prize to the Japanese movie "The Village Album" despite the absence of its director Mitsuhiro Mihara.

Among the 17 movies from 16 countries scrambling for the award, the winner "was a great piece of art with remarkable simplicity," said the jury.

Its leading actor, Ken Kaito, was also given the Best Actor prize.

The low-budget production tells the story of a Tokyo-based photographer who takes snapshots of his village on the orders of his father only to discover a kinship to a disappearing lifestyle.

Its 41-year-old director Mihara won the Grand Prix at the eighth Eokuoka Asia Festival for "The Wind Kingdom" in 1992, and Itami City Script Competition Grand Prix for "Vitamin of Midsummer" in 1993.

His absence was compensated for in part by the appearance of industry veterans including American actor Morgan Freeman, German New Waves director Volker Schlondorff, who is best known for his production "The Tin Drum" in 1979, and Hong Kong actress Karen Wenwei Mo at the closing ceremony.

The seven-member jury was made up of celebrities including German director Marc Rothemund, winner of Best Director for "Sophie Scholl: The Final Days" at the 55th Berlin International Film Festival earlier this year, and Chinese-American actress Lisa Lu, who starred in "The Last Emperor" and "The Joy Luck Club."

Chinese director Wu Tianming was handed the panel's presidency. Wu's "Old Well" won Best Picture, Best Actor and Grand Prix awards at the second Tokyo International Film Festival in 1987.

The jury gave the Best Director prize to Dane Rumle Hammerich for his portrait of Hans Christian Andersen as a young man in "The Young Andersen," and the Best Actress prize to Chinese actress Zhao Wei for her performance in "A Time to Love," a Romeo-and-Juliet tale set in 1960s China.

The Best Screenwriting prize was awarded to Chinese veteran director/screenwriter Huang Jianxin, who was also given a special "Jury Panel's Prize" for his movie "Gimme Kudos."

The New Zealand movie "My Father's Den" won Best Cinematography and the Vietnamese film "A Time Far Past" took out Best Music.

Launched in 1993, the Shanghai International Movie Festival and its Golden Goblet Award have been "accumulating influence," said the festival's Executive Secretary General Chen Xiaomeng.

Source: China Daily