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Icelandic director Bendikt Erlingsson’s Of Horses And Men won the Golden Iris Award, the top prize at the 12th Brussels Film Festival.Scroll down for full list of winners

Of Horses And Men won €10,000 ($13,600) and beat out 11 other competitors at the festival, which ran from June 6-14.

The drama about the deep relationships between members of a small Icelandic community and their horses debuted in Iceland last August and has toured the festival circuit ever since, beginning with the San Sebastian Film Festival in September. It was released in the UK last weekend.

Other notable winners included Swedish director Anna Odell’s The Reunion, which won the White Iris Award for best first film, as well as €2,500 ($3,400).

Odell’s feature about her imagined high school reunion picked up two other prizes at the festival, the Fedex Cinephile Award and the Rtbf TV Prize of Best Film.

Another film that scooped multiple awards was Farewell To The...

The recently wrapped Brussels Film Festival in Belgium has announced its jury award winners, headlined by Icelandic film "Of Horses and Men" taking home Best Film. The jury that selected the winning features was made up of industry stars with actors Hande Kodja, Anita Kravos, Olivier Rabourdin, Fabrizio Rongione and singer/songwriter Raphaël. Directed by Benedikt Erlingsson, "Of Horses and Men" tells six interwoven fables about rural life in Iceland. It was submitted for Foreign Language Oscar consideration, but was unselected.  Other awards distributed included the Best First Feature title, which went to Swede Anna Odell for "The Reunion," an imagined autobiography focusing on what could have happened if fine-artist Odell had gone to her class reunion, which she was not invited to in real life. The 13th Brussels Film Festival will take place from the 5th to the 13th of June 2015 in Flagey. Check out the full slate of awards.

Hande Kodja stars as Celine, a beautiful blond that we first meet giving a ticket taker on the train attitude. Shortly thereafter she spots a cute guy, a pretentious writer no less, with whom she has a one sided conversation before engaging in sex and then leaving him behind. She arrives at her destination, re-acquaints herself with the surroundings and rekindles an old romance with Luc who she hasn't seen in seven years. Just as she's settling into the summer, Celine is joined by an unexpected guest. Jamie (Shane Lynch), an exchange student who is spending the summer studying in France, arrives a few weeks early to find her way around before her semester begins. Queue the drama. [Continued ...]...

After its world premier at the Vancouver International Film Festival last week, director Wei Ling Chang's first feature film The Unlikely Girl is set to have a Us premier at the Woodstock Film Festival in Woodstock, NY.Shot entirely on location in France, the film is a tricky, taut and subtly sexy thriller - think (a refreshingly far less clichéd) Wild Things by way of Swimming Pool. The film stars Hande Kodja and Pierre Boulanger, and marks the feature film debut of Shane Lynch (90210), the daughter of actress Kelly Lynch. Check out this exclusive clip of The Unlikely Girl. This suspenseful film noir(ish) will be having its final screening at Viff on October 11, and can be seen at the Woodstock Film Fest on October 12 and...

With the Venice, Telluride and Toronto trifecta of film festivals over, but New York and London gearing up, fall is the time when the very best cinema has to offer gets rolled out. But among all the buzzworthy titles reaching for Oscar gold, there are plenty more films just looking to find an audience. And while they may not boast big names and budgets, they may offer up something unexpected for the adventurous viewer, and one movie hoping to make a splash is Wei Ling Chang's debut feature "The Unlikely Girl." The film stars Hande Kodja, Pierre Boulanger and Shane Lynch, and follows an American exchange student spending the summer in France who becomes embroiled in a romantic triangle. This exclusive first clip from the movie gives a hint at the suspense and sexual tension that seems to be boiling beneath the surface. Here's the official synopsis: The sexy...

Locarno International Film Festival

LOCARNO, Switzerland -- Yes, it's that famous whale-hunter but French director Philippe Ramos uses "Moby Dick" for only the last fifth of his film "Captain Ahab", choosing to an invent a back-story that's more Mark Twain than Herman Melville. There's much to like in the sweeping tale of how a resourceful orphan grew up to become the fearless harpoonist and seeker of the great white whale. Virgil Leclaire has terrific screen presence as the young Ahab and, being new, his tale is more engrossing than the familiar story of the fated captain.

Flawed only by some anachronistically modern songs on the soundtrack, the film's well-drawn period atmosphere and gripping tale should see it sail into rewarding boxoffice territory around the world. It screened in Competition at Locarno.

Told as a fable, the yarn follows young Ahab after his mother's death and his temporary adoption by her pious sister Rose (Mona Heftre). But then his absentee father (Jean-Francois Stevenin) takes him away to live in a log cabin in the woods where they encounter a free-spirited nymph named Louise (Hande Kodja). Ahab is as enamored of Louise as his father but she dallies with a wandering rascal named Will Adams (Bernard Blancan) and soon their idyll is ended. The boy is returned to his aunt, but before she leaves, Louise gives him a locket with her name engraved inside and that becomes his talisman.

When his aunt gets married to a dandy who likes to use his cane on the lad, Ahab runs away and has a series of huckleberry adventures before he grows up to become an obsessed sea captain.

Ramos has a good sense of what is fun in a boy's adventure and whether or not his Ahab would have turned into the man in Melville's tale is another question. Much of the appealing whimsy disappears when the stern features of Denis Lavant show up as the adult Ahab.

His love affair with the widow Anna (Dominique Blanc) is handled well and so are the seagoing trials of the Pequod with the reliable Starbuck (Jacques Bonnaffe) at the tormented captain's side. But it's the wide-eyed wonder of the young Ahab and his captivating Louise that linger when the movie is done.

CAPTAIN AHAB

Sesame Films

Credits:

Writer/director/editor: Philippe Ramos

Executive producer: Florence Borelly

Director of photography: Laurent Desmet

Production designers: Ramos, Christophe Sartori, Erika von Weissenberg

Music: Pierre-Stephane Meuge, Olivier Bombarda, Tonio Matias

Co-producer: Olivier Guerpillon

Costume designer: Marie-Laure Pinsard

Cast:

Captain Ahab: Denis Lavant

Young Ahab: Virgil Leclaire

Ahab's father: Jean-Francois Stevenin

Louise: Hande Kodja

Rose: Mona Heftre

Mulligan: Carlo Brandt

Anna: Dominique Blanc

Starbuck: Jacques Bonnaffe

Minister: Jean-Paul Bonnaire

Will Adams: Bernard Blancan

Henry: Philippe Katerine

Jim Larsson: Pierre Pellet

King of England: Jean-Christophe Bouvet

Dr. Hogganbeck: Lou Castel

Running time -- 97 minutes

No MPAA rating...