On Saturday 26 the awards for the 57th edition of the San Sebastian International Film Festival were presented. Chinese blockbuster City of Life and Death by director Lu Chuan won the Golden Shell for Best Film and Spanish filmmaker Javier Rebollo obtained the Silver Shell for Best Director for his work on La Mujer sin Piano.

The awards, as usual, aroused controversy amongst the critics, especially in the case of the Best Actor prize, awarded to Pablo Pineda, a first-time actor who has Down’s syndrome. What’s more, his colleague from the film Yo, Tambien , Lola Dueñas, came away with the Best Actress prize.

The Secret of Her Eyes , by Juan Jose Campanella, was one of the big favourites but surprisingly failed to be rewarded by the jury, presided over by French director Laurent Cantet, author of the Cannes Golden Palm winner The Class. The audience, on the other hand, went for Precious , by Lee Daniels, which was competing in the Zabaltegui Pearls section, which is exactly what happened at the Sundance festival where this film won the Audience Award too.

The complete list of prize-winners is as follows:

- Golden Shell for Best Film: City of Life and Death by Lu Chuan (China)

- Silver Shell for Best Director: Javier Rebollo for La Mujer sin Piano (Spain)

- Silver Shell for Best Actress: Spaniard Lola Dueña for Yo, Tambien (Spain)

- Silver Shell for Best Actor: Pablo Pineda for Yo, Tambien (Spain)

- Special Jury Prize: The Refuge by François Ozon (France)

- Jury Prize for Best Screenplay: Blessed by Ana Kokkinos (Australia)

- Jury Prize for Best Cinematography: Cao Yu for City of Life and Death (China)

- Donostia Award: Ian McKellen (Great Britain)

- Horizontes Award: Gigante by Adrian Biniez (Uruguay)

- Films in Progress Award: La Vida Util by Federico Veiroj (Uruguay)

- Premio de la Juventud: Min dit / The Children of Diyarbakir by Miraz Bezar (Turkey-Germany)

- Public Choice Award: Precious by Lee Daniels (United States)