A BALLARAT-born director has won a top prize at the Cannes Film Festival with a movie featuring a series of graphic sex scenes.
Michael Rowe, who now calls Mexico home, picked up the Camera d'Or for best first feature film.

Leap Year is a torrid drama about a journalist's string of anonymous sexual partners. The low-budget movie's extreme depiction of sex reportedly caused walk-outs when it screened in Cannes.

Rowe, 39, thanked the "Mexican nation" for helping create the story and characters, and dedicated the win to his daughter.

He studied archaeology at La Trobe Uni before moving to Mexico 16 years ago.

Hundreds of celebrity spotters lined the Cannes waterfront as the stars attended the gala ceremony.

Russell Crowe and Cate Blanchett showed up and the Aussie theme continued when the festival closed with The Tree, which is set in Australia and tells the story of a young girl convinced the spirit of her dead father lives on in a sprawling fig tree.

Cannes' top prize, the Palme d'Or, went to Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives, a surreal Thai tale of the afterlife.

Leap Year is the second year in a row an Australian film has won the Camera d'Or. Warwick Thornton took out the 2009 prize with Samson & Delilah.

Source: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/