Film Fest: The Winners Are . . .

For many of the young and aspiring filmmakers attending this year's Hamptons International Film Festival, winning a prize at the awards gala Sunday night wasn't as important as the opportunity they had to have their work seen by audiences. Still, it is awfully nice to win.

"When we got into this festival we felt we had already won," said Maureen Foley, the director of "Home Before Dark," which shared the festival's highest honor, the Golden Starfish Award, with another American independent film, "Destination Unknown," directed by Nestor Miranda.

"I really did not expect this tonight," said a surprised Mr. Miranda, whose film made its world premiere at the Hamptons Festival. "I didn't dress up or anything."

Jury Prizes

This was the second year in a row that the Golden Starfish jury could not settle on one of the 10 films vying for the award, which this year brought a prize of cash, supplies, and services worth more than $180,000.

This year's jury featured Anouk Aimee, the actress, Doro Bachrach, a producer, and A.M. Homes, an author, as well as Jay Chandrasekhar ("Puddle Cruiser") and Matt Mahurin ("Mugshot"), last year's co-winners. Ms. Foley and Mr. Miranda can be expected to return to East Hampton next October, as the festival announced its intention this year to bring back winners as jurors.

Michael Almereyda's 23-minute film, "Rocking Horse Winner," was the same jury's favorite in the short film competition.

Hard Choices

"Off the Menu: The Last Days of Chasen's," directed by Robert Pulcini and Shari Springer Berman, was honored as the best documentary by a jury that featured R.J. Cutler ("The War Room" and "Perfect Candidate"), Bill Greaves ("Ida B. Wells: A Passion for Justice"), Ian Bernie (director of the film department at the Los Angeles County Museum), Renee Tajima-Pena ("My Country," "Who Killed Vincent Chin"), and Robert Hawk, a veteran film programmer.

Presenting the award were Ben Stone of Eastman Kodak, which added to the trophy a $2,500 prize, and Mr. Greaves, who credited the film's makers with catching "this event at a very, very crucial moment." Mr. Greaves also announced a special citation for another documentary the jury also admired, Michele Ohayon's "Colors Straight Up," which had already won the audience award for best documentary.

"These films each had redeeming qualities. . . . We had to make hard decisions," Mr. Greaves said.

A more substantial sum - $10,000 to be exact - went along with the new Lifetime Television for Women "Vision Award" to James Rosenow, the director of "Crossing Fields," which enjoyed its world premiere at the festival. The award - meant to recognize the film that best illustrates issues of concern to women - was presented by Doug McCormick, the president of Lifetime, a new sponsor of the Hamptons Festival, and Daphne Zuniga, who is known to audiences from TV's "Melrose Place" and who was in "Stand-Ins" in this year's festival.

Best Score

"I can't wait till the day that material is written [for] and given to women as equally as men," said Ms. Zuniga, one of the few more recognizable celebrities spotted around the Film Festival.

Mr. Rosenow thanked above all his mother, who attended the festival to see her son succeed despite terminal cancer. When the chatter that had been heard coming from the back of the tent all evening continued during his remarks, the emotional director snapped at the rude part of the audience, to the applause of the rest of the audience.

"You have to understand that filmmaking is a three-year process. . . . Please give us the respect to be quiet long enough to hear what we have to say."

Presented for the first time this year was an award in recognition of the best original score. The award is underwritten by Judah Klausner, a Sagaponack resident, and was presented by him and Hal McKusick, the jazz musician who lives in Sag Harbor. The director of the French film "Port Djema," Eric Heumann, was not present to accept his award.

The Golden Starfish and short film jury also gave a citation for best acting to Julie Kessler of Upstate.

Audience Winners

Elizabeth Schub, the director of "Cuba 15," didn't even know she was eligible for a prize until her film was announced the audience short film pick.

Two foreign films tied as the audience winners for best feature film: "Il Ciclone" ("The Cyclone") by Leonardo Pieraccioni and "El Amor Perjudica Seriamente La Salud" ("Love Can Seriously Damage Your Health"), directed by Manuel G¢mez Pereira.

"Thank you so much to the audience, because this prize is the best that can be given to a director," Mr. Gomez Pereira said through a translator.

As announced earlier, Amy Talkington, a graduate student at Columbia University, was given the special RKO award for the best-told story in a student film. Her "Number One Fan" was one of 10 student films chosen for inclusion in the festival; each filmmaker received $2,500.