Stories which found light amid situations of incredible darkness captured both the documentary and jury prize in this year?s Bermuda International Film Festival (BIFF).

Bosnian director Srdjan Vuletic?s first film, ?Summer In the Golden Valley? was awarded the Jury Prize for Best Narrative Feature while ?Born Into Brothels?, directed by Americans Zana Briski and Ross Kauffman, took the best documentary prize.

The Bermuda Shorts Award for best short film went to ?Wasp? from UK director Andrea Arnold.

Narrative features jury members Willem Dafoe, Carlos Cuaron and Guillermo Arriaga had high praise for Mr. Vuletic?s film, which depicts the seamier side of Sarajevo as seen through the golden light of summer. The film combines drama with humour to capture the new Sarajevo with its odd combination of indolence, bravado, vice and hope, and with its coming of age in a time of great uncertainty.

?The film is very lyrical, but also very tough,? said actor Willem Dafoe, who served as the jury chair. ?It is poetic but not sentimental. Even though the genre is familiar to us, the story is told in a very fresh, character-driven way that undermines and toys with our expectations and normal patterns of empathy.?

Mr. Dafoe?s fellow jurors, Mexican screenwriters Carlos Cuaron and Guillermo Arriaga (?21 Grams?) agreed.

?Summer in the Golden Valley is elegant, tough, poetic ? and provides us with a fresh point of view,? said Mr. Cuaron, who penned the festival circuit smash hit ?Y Tu Mama Tambien?.

Meanwhile, ?Born into Brothels? blew away the competition in the documentary category and probably generated the most buzz at the festival of the competing films.

The film tells the story of the children of prostitutes living in the red light district of Calcutta, whose struggle to escape the fate of their mothers.

Director Zana Briski, a professional photographer, gave them lessons and cameras, igniting latent sparks of artistic genius that reside in these children who live in the most sordid and seemingly hopeless world. She also set up a charitable foundation, Kids With Cameras (www.kids-with-cameras.org) to empower children through photography, and to raise money for the building of a school for the children.

Documentary film jury members Patricia Flynn (BIFF 2003 doc winner for Discovering Dominga) and Mark Salisbury (Premiere magazine) greatly admire Born Into Brothels documentarians, Ms Briski and Mr. Kauffman.

?Born Into Brothels is a truly special film,? Mr. Salisbury said. ?Seeing the film is a life-changing experience. It has re-set my life?s barometer.

?The things I moan about now pale into insignificance. Zana is a truly astonishing woman for what she has achieved, and the difference she has made in the lives of these children with her foundation.?

?The film is a perfect example of socially committed filmmaking,? added Ms Flynn. ?The directors became very involved in the realities they were depicting, and the story is told from the point of view of the people in the film. You really feel that you are there with them, living their lives.?

Bermuda Shorts winner ?Wasp? chronicles the life of a young single mother who lives on a bleak public housing estate in England. A ray of light comes in the form of a date with an old admirer, who is unaware of her four kids. Without a babysitter she is forced to bring them with her but leaving them in the pub car park is a mistake.

?From the first frame, the performances were outstanding and the characters created had real dimension to them,? said shorts juror Shane Smith of the Canadian Film Centre.

?You really got a sense of the milieu they were living in, which was captured from the opening frame. The film has a real Ken Loach, Mike Leigh feel to it.?

His fellow juror, last year?s shorts? winner Helen Lee (Sophie) said that ?Wasp? was complex in its simplicity.

?I like the focus on seemingly small events,? she said. ?The people in the film lead a very dark life. To me, one of the hardest things is to find hope in that darkness and there were those moments throughout the film.?

An honourable mention in this category went to ?Dad?s Dead? from UK director Chris Shepherd.

Mr. Smith and Ms. Lee said he made a compelling story of friendship and denial, told through a series of ghostly reminiscences and visual flashbacks of a young man?s fragmented memories from his past.

?Dad?s Dead has incredible technique, style and power,? Mr. Smith said. ?It was a disturbing film, and will stay with me for a long time.?

Ms Lee said: ?The story has been told many times, but here it was told in a brilliant and unique way. It was so unapologetic, so shameless, about its darkness. That shamelessness, the lack of justification, make it a really brilliant film.?

Seventy-one films from 26 countries screened at BIFF, the festival?s largest ever line-up.

The festival?s final award for the film most praised over all by local audiences, the Audience Choice Award, was handed out Late last night at the festival?s wrap party at Hamilton Princess.

The award had not been presented by press time.