The Propositionby Australian director John Hillcoat, has won the Mary-Jean Mitchell Green Award for Best Narrative Feature at the ninth Bermuda International Film Festival.

King Leopold's Ghost, by director Pippa Scott of the United States, was named Best Documentary Feature while Avatar by director Lluis Quilez of Spain won the M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award.

Mr. Hillcoat wins a $5,000 cash prize, while Mr. Quilez wins $3000.

The festival's Audience Choice Award was won by the festival's closing night film, Kinky Boots, by British director Julian Jarrold. .The narrative features jury gave Special Jury Awards for Cinematography to Alain Duplantier (The Ring Finger) and Martin Stepanek (Shark in the Head), and Special Jury Awards for Outstanding Performances to Ray Winstone and Emily Watson (The Proposition), Oldrich Kaiser (Shark in the Head) and Olga Kurylenko (The Ring Finger).

Rare Bird, by Bermudian director Lucinda Spurling, earned a Special Jury Mention in the Best Documentary category.

Narrative features jury members Peter Riegert (Traffic, Local Hero), Laura Harring (Mulholland Drive) and Robert Koehler (film critic, Daily Variety) had high praise for Mr. Hillcoat's film, a visually stunning tale of loyalty, revenge and the quest for justice set against the harsh and unforgiving landscape of the 1880s Australian Outback.

"We were impressed with the provocative portrait of 'the proposition' of whether the human race can overcome its base need for violence," says Jury Chair Mr. Riegert. "All the elements ? cinematography, writing, acting and direction ? made this a compelling and horrific look at that question."

Ms Harring said the film's "stillness and pacing made me feel that I was transported to the past."

"John Hillcoat's filmmaking had a strong visceral quality that expressed the battle between civilisation and savagery in the settling of Australia," Mr. Koehler says. "The film has an elegant narrative structure and that, combined with its visceral quality, made it a complete experience. It is a classical western."

Documentary feature jurors Roger Durling (director, Santa Barbara Film Festival) and Emmanuel Itier (journalist for Book LA, Buzzine, Allocine) gave the nod to King Leopold's Ghost. Based on the book of the same name, the film brings to life a brutal chapter in the history of Congo.

"We were impressed by the arc of the story, by how much research was behind the material ? and how powerful the film is," Mr. Durling says. "You walk out of the film with the wind knocked out of you."

"The movie is about one people, one planet, and that fits my philosophy of thinking and living," Mr. Itier says.

Rare Bird tells the true story of the Cahow, a seabird species native to Bermuda that was believed to be extinct as of 1620 only to be rediscovered 325 years later.

"It is a pure feel-good movie," Mr. Itier says. "It made me feel alive, it made me want to fly. That movie made me want to be a bird." "The subject matter didn't particularly interest me ? but the film grabbed me," Mr. Durling says. "I had no idea I would be so entertained. It was very unpredictable. Both of the winning documentary films are highly accomplished pieces of work."

M3 Wireless Bermuda Shorts Award jurors Lia Rinaldo (director, Atlantic Film Festival) and Elmore Warren (Owner/Producer, Fresh Creations Ltd.) chose Avatar, which is about a couple at the end of their love story.

"The film is well-executed, both technically and creatively," Ms Rinaldo says. "It used very little dialogue, but was very expressive and communicated its message very effectively."

"Avatar kept me from beginning to end, it really made me think," Mr. Warren says.

BIFF has been selected as a qualifying festival for the Short Film Oscar? by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This means that Avatar will automatically qualify for Oscar? consideration, provided the film meets the Academy's other qualifying criteria.

Seventy-four films from 34 countries screened at BIFF 2006.