The Dutch film "Can Go through Skin" won the prestigious "Breaking Waves" award and a 10,000-euros prize for Best Film at the 17th Titanic International Film Festival in Budapest on Saturday.

Esther Rots' 2009 film tells the story of the claustrophobia and struggle of a young woman who tries to deal with the trauma of being attacked in her Amsterdam flat.

Awarding the prize, jury member Nick James, the editor of leading British film magazine "Sight & Sound", said the jury considered Rots' film a daring work from a first-time director. James said the director deserved praise for tackling risky subject matter as well as for the aesthetic nature of the film.

U.S. director Wes Anderson's 2009 film "Fantastic Mr. Fox" won the audience prize.

Over the past 17 years, the Titanic Festival has become integrated in the regional and international film festival circuit and its prizes are considered influential for independent films.

The winning film was one of the nine films competing for the main festival award, the fifth year in which the prize has been awarded. Chinese director Lu Chuan's 2009 film "City of Life and Death" also took part in the main competition. Along with war and conflict, China was one of the two main themes at this year's event.

A special section, called "Year of the Tiger" contained a selection of Chinese mainland and Taiwan films, including "Cow", "The Equation of Love and Death", "Memory of Love", "Parking", "Wheat", and "Yang Yang".

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