PARIS, Feb 5 — The Sisters Brothers was the big winner at the Paris foreign press film awards late yesterday, taking best film, best director, and best cinematography.

The Western starring Joaquin Phoenix and John C. Reilly had already pipped Alfonso Cuaron and Roma to best director at the Venice film festival last year.

It is the first film French director Jacques Audiard, best known for the Oscar-nominated A Prophet, has made in the US.

The other big winner was comedian Alex Lutz who won best actor and best music for Guy, his homage to the glories of French 1970s pop music in which he also stars.

Elodie Bouchez won best actress for Pupille (In Safe Hands), an adoption drama which has been one of the big French critical hits of the year, with Ophelie Bau winning best female newcomer for her performance in Mektoub My Love by Abdellatif Kechiche of Blue Is the Warmest Colour fame.

Best male newcomer was won by Felix Maritaud for his remarkable turn as a male prostitute in Sauvage. He had earlier won the rising star award at the Cannes film festival.

Samouni Road, a partly animated film about an Israeli atrocity in the Gaza Strip by Italian Stefano Savona, won best documentary. — AFP