Rome Film Festival awards US teen drama Juno Marcus Aurelius prize

Oct 27, 2007, 17:39 GMT

Rome - US teen drama Juno by Montreal director Jason Reitman was awarded the Golden Marcus Aurelius prize at the RomaCinemaFest Saturday.

The film by the Canadian tells the story of Juno, 16, played by Ellen Page, who gets pregnant in Minnesota and has to deal with the challenges it presents her.

As the second Rome film festival drew to a close, the RomaCinemaFest jury awarded Rade Serbedzija best actor for his performance in the Canadian-Greek film Fugitive Pieces by Jeremy Podeswa.

Jiang Wenli scooped the award for best actress for her role in the Chinese film Li Chun (The Arrival of Spring) by Gu Changwei.

The jury awarded Iranian director Abolfazl Jalili a special prize for the film Hafez, the organizers said.

Ennio Morricone, conductor and Oscar-winning Italian film-score writer, entertained the audience ahead of the awards ceremony with an orchestra and choir.

There were 14 films competing for the Golden Marcus Aurelius awards at the 10-day festival which sees itself as a popular rather than specialist event.

A 50-member 'people's jury' selected this year's winners. Thirty of the jury are Italians, with the remaining 20 coming from 11 European countries.

The jury was headed by a professional, Bosnian director Danis Tanovic (No Man's Land), who served as its president.

Italian film critics had a mostly mixed response to the second annual RomaCinemaFest awards.