Abu Dhabi - US film Disgrace, directed by Steve Jacobs, was awarded the prestigious Black Pearl award for best picture late Sunday at the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF).

Based on Nobel laureate JM Coetzee's award-winning novel and starring John Malkovich, the movie about post-apartheid South Africa won the first prize of 200,000 dollars.

"A total of 76 feature films and 34 shorts were submitted from film makers in 35 countries competing for the Black Pearl awards," MEIFF director Nashwa al-Roweini told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Uruguayan director Gonzalo Arijon's Stranded, featuring survivors of the 1972 plane crash in the Andes, won the award - and 150,000 dollars - for best documentary.

The Black Pearl special jury prize of 125,000 dollars went to Elisabeth Chai Vasarhelyi's Youssou N'Dour: I Bring What I Love. The film follows famous performer Youssou N'Dour as he creates his album, Egypt - a musical exploration of Islam.

Egyptian actress Ilham Shaheen won the best actress award, while Italian actor Luca Zingaretti was awarded 75,000 dollars for best actor.

Ridley Scott's Body of Lies was screened at the star-studded finale of the MEIFF, which was attended by British actor Joseph Fiennes and French actress Eva Green.

The MEIFF, which started October 10, also featured environmental films and a Palestinian retrospective by non-Arab directors.

The festival, organised by the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage, is one of the Gulf emirate's attempts to become an important player in the global film industry and to introduce film makers to the vast resources of the region. (dpa)