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Australian director wins Camera d’Or

By Emma Brown

Leap Year by Australian director Michael Rowe has won the Caméra d'Or (debut film) at the 2010 Cannes film festival.

The film is a torrid tale shot and produced in Mexico, set in one room, with only three speaking parts.

Leap Year was among 24 first films competing for the Caméra d'Or award for best first feature movie. It received mixed response from critics at the festival, partly due to its sexual content.

"I want to thank the Mexican nation that created this story," Rowe said on receiving the prize, according to a Reuters news report.

It is the second consecutive year that an Australian has won the award after Warwick Thornton took home the prize for indigenous drama Samson & Delilah in 2009.

Rowe went to went to LaTrobe University and has written several plays and lives in the Mexican capital.