Montreal: Trahir, a Romania/ France coproduction from director Radu Mihaileanu, beat out 19 other feature films to emerge as the 1993 winner of the Grand Prix des Ameriques, the top prize in official competition at the Montreal World Film Festival.

Awards ceremony

The Sept. 6 awards ceremony and a gala Place des Arts screening of Krzysztof Kieslowski’s Bleu closed this year’s festival, the 17th, considered by many as one of the best programs in recent years.

Trahir

The story of a prominent poet who leads the secret life of a state police informer, Trahir was praised by the WFF jury ‘for its powerful, meticulous and searingly honest portrait…and for its verbal and visual assurance…’ The film also picked up two other awards including the Prix de Montreal for best first-time feature.

The Air Canada Prize for most popular feature as voted by the public went to Margarethe von Trotta’s Italy/France/Germany coproduction Il Lungo Silenzio (The Long Silence).

This year’s wff’s Special Jury Prize went to Canadian expatriot Roger Spottiswoode for And the Band Played On (u.s.), a moving story about aids and the infighting among research scientists battling the disease.

Audience favorite

Paule Baillargeon’s Le Sexe des etoiles won the prize for best Canadian feature film as chosen by the festival public. The story of a teenage girl forced to cope with her transsexual father, the $2.7 million film was coproduced by Productions du Regard, Bloom Films and the National Film Board. C/FP Distribution is the Canadian distributor.

Other WFF ’93 awards went to: Claude Lelouch for Tout ca pour ca (France) and Juanma Bajo Ulloa for the Spanish feature film La Madre muerta (tied for best director); Kalifornia (u.s.) from director Dominic Sena (best artistic contribution); Carla Gravina in Il Lungo Silenzio (best actress); Denis Mercier in Le Sexe des etoiles and Johan Leysen in Trahir (tied for best actor); and Michael Jenkins’ The Heartbreak Kid (Australia) Richard Barrett and Jenkins (best screenplay).

Shorts

In the short film category, Carlos Sans’ Quien mal anda, mal acaba (Spain) won first prize.

The firpesci jury, made up of members of the international film press, gave its award to John Zhang’s Consuming Sun and Sena’s Kalifornia.

The Oecumenical Jury award went to von Trotta’s Il Lungo Silenzio.

According to WFF president Serge Losique, 240 films from 60 countries were screened at this year’s event.