London hands out the gongs

The recent London Film Festival's most prestigious prize, the Sutherland Trophy, was presented to Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud for Persepolis as "the most original and imaginative first feature film" shown at the festival.

(Persepolis will be screened at the Irish Film Institute, Dublin, on Tuesday, as part of the French Film Festival.) The international critics' award went to British director Joanna Hogg for her film Unrelated, set in Tuscany, and director Sarah Gavron took the UK Film Talent Award for her movie of Monica Ali's novel, Brick Lane, which opens here next Friday.

The Grierson award for best documentary went to The Mosquito Problem & Other Stories, Andrey Paunov's portrait of a Bulgarian town. The Satayjit Ray Award for the best first feature that "reflects the artistry, compassion and humanity of Ray's own work" was voted posthumously to Romanian director Cristian Nemescu, who died at the age of 27 in a car accident last autumn, for California Dreamin'.

Return of Donkey- Boy Korine

US writer-director Harmony Korine, a one-time enfant terrible, is now 34 and was at the London Film Festival with Mister Lonely, his quirky picture of social misfits turned celebrity impersonators. It stars Diego Luna as Michael Jackson, Samantha Morton as Marilyn Monroe, Denis Lavant as Charlie Chaplin, and James Fox as the Pope.

On stage in London, Korine explained the eight-year gap since he directed Julian Donkey-Boy. "I was a lifeguard for a few months," he said. "I got married. I got a lovely wife. I have a bunch of friends in Nashville. I listen to a lot of country music. I play basketball. I tried church, but that didn't work out. I tried temple, but that didn't work out. I swim every Wednesday. I read books." He offered advice to budding directors that they would not get in film school: "Get involved in some petty crimes, maybe rob a bank or two, and go to jail. Everything you can learn about life, you can learn as a criminal."

Sex on the brain

Provocative French director Catherine Breillat was looking frail but as feisty as ever when actress Roxane Mesquida helped her on stage in London before the festival screening of her stylish new movie, The Last Mistress/La Vielle Maîtresse. Last year Breillat suffered a cerebral haemorrhage that paralysed her left side, and she made her film, which she once planned to shoot in Ireland, in France.

Introducing The Last Mistress, Breillat recalled some negative reaction with she first came to the festival in 1988 with her sexually frank Virgin (36 Fillette). The new film, set in 19th-century Paris, is a costume drama, she pointed out, "although some times there are no costumes" - which is not at all unusual for a Breillat picture.

Run of the Country

The London Film Festival's surprise screening was of Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country for Old Men, which was not at all surprising given that the movie was conspicuously absent from the London programme, even though it has been building acclaim on the festival circuit since its premiere at Cannes. A hugely popular choice with the London audience, No Country is a gripping, drolly humorous modern western based on Cormac McCarthy's novel and starring Josh Brolin, Javier Bardem and Tommy Lee Jones. It opens here in January.

Best and worst on view in London

The most satisfying film new to me at London was Turkish director Ferzan Ozpetek's Saturno Contro, which is set in his adopted home of Rome and features a superb ensemble cast in its telling exploration of love, loss and betrayal among a closeknit group of friends.

The most disappointing new movie was Summer Rain/El Camino de los Inglese, directed by actor Antonio Banderas. Set in his native Malaga in the early 1970s, Summer Rain follows the sexual exploits of three young male friends, one of whom aspires to be a poet. The movie is laden with naive dialogue and pretentious symbolism, suggesting that Banderas, on his second film as director after the shrill Crazy in Alabama (1999), ought to stick to his day job.