Ukraine festival honors duo

'Buddha,' 'Shultes' split prize at Molodist fest

By TOM BIRCHENOUGH

MOSCOW -- Ukraine's 38th Molodist Film Festival closed Sunday with its main prize, the Scythian Deer and $10,000, split between Iranian helmer Hana Makhmalbaf's Afghan-themed "Buddha Collapsed Out of Shame" and Russian crime drama "Shultes" by Bakur Bakuradze.

Jury, lead by thesp Armand Assante, gave the best feature film award and $2,500 to "Huddersfield" by Serbian helmer Ivan Zivkovic. Award for short went to "Rene" by Tobias Noelle. Best student film went to "Goleshovo" by Ilian Metev, a Bulgaria -U.K. co-production.

Yves Montand prize for actor, sponsored by the Embassy of France in Ukraine, was garnered by Zsolt Anger for his role in "The Investigator" from Hungary.

The Fipresci critics' nom went to "Versailles" by France's Pierre Schoeller.

In what is a pioneering move for fests in the region, the parallel Sunny Bunny competition for gay films, loosely modeled on Berlin's Teddy awards, went to Amy Redford's "The Guitar."

Held in Ukraine's capital, Kiev, Molodist also organized a talent workshop for young Ukrainian cinematographers and a pitching session.