Both pics tell somber stories. "A Long Walk" chronicles how the retired principal of a girl's high school who has lost his wife to alcohol abuse finds friendship with a 5-year-old girl. "The Greatest Love of All" is about a lonely Brazilian astrophysicist living in the U.S. who discovers he has a fatal brain tumor and returns to his homeland for one last visit.

These pics matched the dark tone of many of the films in competition.

The jury grand prize, considered the festival's runner-up nod, went to Chinese filmmaker Yang Yazhou's "Snow in the Wind," about the wife of a movie projectionist who has to take over the business when her husband has an accident. The Chinese pic also netted Ni Ping the actress award.

Director award went to Norwegian helmer Hans Peter Moland for "Comrade Pedersen," a story of radical leftist politics and a torrid love affair in 1968 Norway.

Award for artistic contribution was given to seasoned Quebecois director of photography Guy Dufaux for his camerawork on Dai Sijie's French/Canadian co-production "The Chinese Botanist's Daughters."

That pic also won two public-vote awards, including most popular film at the festival. Ironically, given that the pic is the story of a Chinese woman directed and co-written by a Chinese-born France-based filmmaker, the public voted to give the film the award as most popular Canadian film at the festival. (It is co-produced by Roger Frappier and Luc Vandal of Montreal-based Max Films.)

The actor prize was nabbed by Filip Peeters for his starring perf in Frank Van Mechelen's Belgian/Spanish co-production "Hell in Tangier."

Edin Hadzimahovic won for screenplay for the German/Slovenian pic "Warchild," about a woman's search for her daughter who went missing during the war in Bosnia. The Innovation Award went to Puerto Rican pic "Ruido" from helmer Cesar Rodriguez.

Competition jury was headed by actress Kathy Bates and included Quebec helmer Marc-Andre Forcier, French screenwriter Guillaume Laurant, Romanian helmer Dan Pita, Danish producer Vibeke Windelov and Quebec film fan Michel Gagnon.

The 30th-anni edition of the Montreal fest was, in many ways, a strange birthday bash. Event received almost no government funding for the second consecutive year, and much of the chatter at the fest was about just how maverick fest prexy Serge Losique was able to keep the event afloat without public coin.

The Canuck funding agencies remain at war with Losique, and they have pulled their cash in an attempt to put his festival out of business. So far it hasn't worked, but it is unclear if he can mount the event next year if the agencies don't pony up some money.

Though the festival does not report attendance figures, audiences have clearly dipped over the past few years and ticket sales appeared to be less than boffo again this year. Attendance did pick up over the past few days, but one of the key problems remains that its auds skew older and older each year, and so far the fest has had little success pulling in younger moviegoers.

Critics judged the competition to be, like the past few years, fairly uneven and lacking any breakout pics. The fest's continued focus on cinema's old guard has resulted in the showcasing of some tired, stilted work: Goutam Ghose's "The Journey," Diegues' co-Grand Prix winner "The Greatest Love of All" and Mohsen Makmalbaf's "Scream of the Ants" were generally perceived to be lesser efforts. Modest nuggets could be found in the competition, including Philippe Lioret's "Don't Worry, I'm Fine," "A Long Walk" and "Warchild."

Sidebar competish section of first films yielded a strong crop of interesting work, including "Pao's Story" from Vietnam, France's "Fragments of Antonin," Chile-Argentina co-prod "Fugue," Brazilian entry "I Remember" and "How Much Further" from Ecuador.

There were three prizes given in the First Fiction Features competition:

Andres Leon Becker and Javier Solar's Mexican pic "More Than Anything in the World" won the Golden Zenith for first feature, Tania Hermida's Ecuadoran pic "How Much Further?" took the Silver Zenith in the same competition and Marwan Hamed's Egyptian pic "The Yacoubian Building" -- a fave of critics -- won the Bronze Zenith.

The public-vote Glauber Rochar Award for Latin American film was given to Francisco Lombardi's Peruvian pic "Black Butterfly"; the public chose French helmer Jean-Luc Raynaud's "The Art of Aging" as best doc.

Grand Prix co-winner "A Long Walk" also garnered the Fipresci Intl. Film Critics Prize and the Ecumenical Prize.

During the fest, lifetime achievement awards were handed out to thesps Bruno Ganz, Remy Girard and Bulle Ogier, all of whom were on hand for tributes.

(Eddie Cockrell in Montreal contributed to this report.)