26/05/2002 - Good news for Kaurismaki and Suleiman. Visibility for Women's and 3rd World Cinema

Aki Kaurismäki´s The Man without a Past won this year´s Ecumenical Prize presented by a jury of film experts and Catholic and Protestant journalists, presided over by Romanian TV producer/director, Anca Berlogea.
Marco Bellocchio´s My Mother´s Smile and Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne´s Le Fils - The Son both got Special Mentions. All three films were screened in the official competition at Cannes 55.
A jury of young people aged between 18 and 25 awarded Delphine Gleize´s Carnages - selected for Un Certain Regard - won the best French Youth Award while Britain´s Lynne Ramsay won the Best International Youth Award for Morvern Callar which was screened in Directors´ Fortnight.
Elia Suleiman´s Divine Intervention won the prestigious Fipresci Award (Fédération internationale de la presse cinématographique ) for «his sensitive, innovative and humorous look at a complex situation» .The Fipresci jury also awarded a prize to Hermakono - Waiting for Happiness by Mauritian film director Abderrahmane Sissako and Bangladesh´s Tareque Masud´s Matir Moina - The Clay Bird .
Iran´s Bahman Ghobadi won the sixth François-Chalais Award for his feature entitled Les Chants du pays de ma mère. The film was screened in Un Certain Regard.