Winners announced at Zagreb Film Festival

A terrifying portrait of evil has won the top award at the 9th Zagreb Film Festival.

Michael, which is the debut film of Austrian director Markus Schleinzer, won over the jury at the annual Zagreb event.

We struggled to find a winner in this selection in which a number of films were very strong and affecting, the jury revealed.

Michael is a difficult and deeply disturbing film about a human being that no one can like, a paedophile whose apparently banal life is described with chilling irony yet without any superficial dramatic emphasis.

The jury concluded that the Austrian film was a perfectly realised and profoundly terrifying portrait of evil.

Polish film-maker Michal Marczak won the award for best documentary with At the Edge of Russia, a work that was shot in the wilderness and full of humour of emotion.

Guest of honour at the festival this year was acclaimed American director David Cronenberg.