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Departures directed by Japanese Yojiro Takita took home the top prize at the concluded 32 nd Montreal Film Festival. The film won the Grand Prix des Ameriques.

‘Departures’ is a tear jerker about a cellist forced to take a job as an undertaker after his orchestra disbands.

The jury was headed by director Mark Rydell who gave the runner up prize The Special Grand Prix of the jury to The Necessities of Life. The film is a fiction debut from Montreal documentary director Benoit Pilon.

The film looks into the life of an Inuit man in the 1950s suffering from tuberculosis who is taken by the government from his home in the far North to a sanatorium in Qubec City.

Pilon’s film also won the public vote awards for most popular film at the festival and most popular Canadian film.

The film’s star Natar Ungalaaq who is best known for playing the lead role in Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner was one of the front runners for the acting prize. But the award finally went to Eri Caneta for the Mexican film Teo’s Voyage.

German actress Barbara Sukowa won the best actress for her role as a woman who falls in love with a sailor in the German film The Invention of Curried Sausage.

The director prizes went to Belgrade born director Goran Markovic for The Tour about couple of actors who go on tour during the war in Bosnia, the film also won the critics prize. Markovic won the Grand Prix des Ameriques for his 2002 pic, “The Cordon.”

Screenplay award was given to both Xavi Puebla and Jesus Gil for the Spanish picture Welcome to Farewell Gutmann and Riyoichi Kimizuka and Satoshi Suzuki for the Japanese film Nobody to Watch Over Me.

The artistic contribution award was giver to Daniel Alfredson’s Swedish Norwegian- Finnish co production called the Wolf. The innovation award went to Eitan Green’s Israeli film It all Begins at Sea.

The outside competition winners were also announced the Golden Zenith for first fiction feature was given to Arash T. Riahi’s Austrian French film For a Moment, Freedom.

While the Silver Zenith went to Christian Klandt’s German film Weltstadt and the Bronze was awarded to Turkish film Summer Book.

The public vote award went to Glauber Rocha Award for Latin American film was given to Eliseo Subiela Don’t Look Down. It is a documentary with a Argentinean French co production and the public voted Rajesh S Jala’s Children of the Pyre the Best Documentary.

The Ecumenical Prize was shared by Wolf and Teo’s Voyage. The life time achievement awards were given to veteran executive Alan Ladd Jr, actors Tony Curtis and the Reel Suave favorite Isabelle Huppert.