The awards of the Montreal World Film Festival, which ended on Monday, have been publicly announced. This year, the top prize - the Grand prix des Americas - was won by Yojiro Takita's "Okuribito." Based on a story by author Shinmon Aoki, the film stars Masahiro Motoki and Ryoko Hirosue in a tale about a man adjusting to his new job of preparing bodies for coffins.

The last Japanese movie to win the same award was Eiji Okuda's "A Long Walk" in 2006.

Japan was also represented in the Best Screenplay category, where director Ryoichi Kimizuka and Satoshi Suzuki won for co-writing "Daremo Mamotte Kurenai," though they shared the prize with the Spanish film "Bienvenido a Farewell-Gutmann." "Daremo Mamotte Kurenai," a socially-conscious police drama starring Koichi Sato and Mirai Shida, will be released in Japanese theaters this coming January.