Almodóvar wins at Euro awards in Rome

Spanish filmmaker Pedro Almodovar and his Hable con Elle, a movie about a man's relationship with a comatose woman, won Best Director, Best Screenwriter, and Best Film awards Saturday at the European Film Academy's annual competition. Other competitors for top film included The Magdalene Sisters, about outcast young women forced to toil in laundries run by nuns, and Roman Polanski's The Pianist, a story about a Jewish virtuoso who survived the Holocaust. The cast of 8 Femmes--Catherine Deneuve, Isabelle Huppert, Emmanuelle Beart, Fanny Ardant, Virginia Ledoyen, Danielle Darrieux, Ludivine Sagnier, and Firmine Richard--together took the award for Best Actress. Chosen as Best Actor was Sergio Castellitto for roles in two films, Bella Martha and Marco Bellocchio's L'Ora di Religione, a popular Italian film.