The festival featured a focus on Hungarian film, with a retrospective of five of veteran Hungarian director Istvan Szabo's films screening in a special side-bar, and Peter Basco's Virtually A Virgin produced by Gabor Kalomista's Megafilm (www.megafilm.hu) screening in the main competition.

Also screening in the main competition was the Bulgarian film Zift, directed by Javor Gardev, which won the prize for best director, and the Spanish-Polish co-production Awakening From A Dream directed by Freddy Mas Franqueza.

Russia is increasingly becoming a market for central European films; Kalomista recently sold his Hungarian language comedy Just Sex and Nothing Else, directed by Krisztina Goda, to Russia where it was released theatrically.

Eva Vezer, head of the Hungarian Filmunio (www.filmunio.hu) who was at the festival to represent Hungarian titles, stressed that participation in MIFF was increasingly important for Hungarian producers who see Russia as a new market for their films.

For a complete list of MIFF winners see www.moscowfilmfestival.ru.