New Silver Shell for the Best Actress, Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, is seen before receiving the Award, at the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival, in San Sebastian, northern Spain, on Sept 24. The festival is one of the most prestigious and internationally recognised in Spain and Latin America. (AP) LOS ANGELES, Sept 25, (RTRS): In a prize ceremony with a marked Asian accent? 'I Am Not Madame Bovary', from vet Chinese director Feng Xiaogang, ('The Banquet', 'Assembly', 'Aftershock'), won the top Golden Seashell Saturday night at the 64th San Sebastian Film Festival, an edition marked by across-the-board growth- in star presence, prizes, industry programs and news.

Chinese megastar Fan Bingbing, who plays a woman cafe proprietor who takes on the Chinese legal system, scored best actress for 'I Am Not Madame Bovary.'

The latest tale of dysfunctional romance from the prolific Hong Sang-soo, sometimes dubbed a Korean Woody Allen, 'Yourself and Yours', won him the best director plaudit for a romantic comedy about a painter suffering from near delirious jealousy sparked by his girlfriend.

Prompting the biggest applause of the night, Eduard Fernandez, commonly regarded as one of the finest Spanish actors of his generation, took best actor for his performance in Alberto Rodriguez's 'Smoke & Mirrors', where he plays Francisco Paesa, a real-life ETA arms-dealer, gigolo, thief and double-crossing Spanish secret agent.

Two first features - of seven titles in competition this year's San Sebastian which placed new talent centerstage - Emiliano Torres' 'The Winter', and Swede Johannes Nyholm's 'The Giant' shared San Sebastian's Special Jury Prize. An Argentine Western set in a snowbound Patagonia, 'The Winter' also scooped best cinematography for Ramiro Civita. 'The Giant' turns on a 30-severely deformed man suffering from autism who plays petanque in a desperate attempt to be reunited with his mother.

Greek Sofia Exarchou's 'Park', about teens who hang out in Athens' run-down Olympic Village, abandoned to their fate, like the installations, snagged San Sebastian's coveted New Directors Award, which carried a EUR35,000 ($39,000) cash prize.

Custody

A San Sebastian 2015 Films in Progress player, Chilean Pepa San Martin's debut 'Rara' won a hard-fought Horizontes Award. Centering on a Chilean judge who loses custody of her children due to her sexual orientation, 'Rara' already won a Berlinale Generation Kplus International Jury Grand Prix in February.

A further Horizontes Latinos player, Rotterdam Tiger winner 'Alba', from Ecuador's Ana Cristina Barragan, took a special mention in the Horizontes Latinos section for her tender father-daughter reconciliation drama.

'Bar Bahar' ('In Between'), Maysaloun Hammond's female friendship dramedy, turning on three modern Palestine-Israeli women sharing a flat in central Tel Aviv, won TVE's Another Look Award.

''In Between'' tries to spotlight a new generation in Palestine Israel and the Arab world too. We are sick of dictatorships giving us rules', director At the beginning of Arab spring, when I started writing, you could feel the wind of change', Hamoud said on stage in one of the longest acceptance speeches on Saturday night, adding that change has not been complete. 'We must free our minds. Promote anonymity and freedom for women', she added.

Swiss Claude Barras' animated feature 'My Life as a Courgette' added to its top Golden Crystal at France's Annecy Animation Fest this June, scooping Best European Film in the DSS 2016 European Capital of Culture 2016 Audience Award category. Ken Loach's 'I, Daniel Blake' continued its remarkable festival career, taking the major prize in the same category, having won Cannes' Palme d'Or.

Marking the biggest star presence in years, Sigourney Weaver and Ethan Hawke received career achievement Donostia Awards at San Sebastian; Gael Garcia Bernal collected fest's new Jaeger-LeCoultre Latin Cinema Award. Also on hand: Javier Bardem, Richard Gere, Ewan McGregor, Jennifer Connelly and Hugh Grant.

San Sebastian added three other new prizes, one at Zabaltegi-Tabakalera, two more in its Europe-Latin America Co-Production Forum. The biggest industry presentation was made by Telefonica's pay TV unit, Movistar Plus, presenting the writer-directors behind its first six original TV series. The 64th edition also saw a surge in deals on Basque film projects, as the festival's local Basque industry attracts international interest from sales agents and co-producers alike. That adds more industry heft to an event which is already established a key bridge between Europe and Latin America.