Chinese director Wong Kar-Wai’s film ’2046’ won best non-European film award at the 17th European Film Awards in Barcelona on Saturday.

This was a confidence boost for Kar-Wai after the film failed to score awards at the Cannes Film Festival or Chinese Oscars, and did not rank in Hong Kong’s top 10 box office hits for 2004.

German director Fatih Akin, scooped the Best Film prize for ’Head On’, a story of second-generation Turks in Germany, and their search for relief from the realities of life.

The best actor prize went to Javier Bardem in the Spanish film ’The Sea Inside’. Alejandro Amenabar won the best director prize for the same film.

British actress Imelda Staunton took home the best actress prize for her eponymous role in the Franco-British production ’Vera Drake’, the story of a secret abortionist.