Lithuanian cinema was the big story of this year’s Locarno Film Fest awards ceremony, with two films from the Baltic nation taking some top prizes between them.

Toxic the debut from writer-director Saulė Bliuvaitė, won not only the Golden Leopard for Best Film from a jury chaired by Austrian director Jessica Hausner, but also the top prize in the separately juried First Feature Competition.

Drowning Dry

Bliuvaitė’s compatriot Laurynas Bareiša won Best Director in the International Competition for his sophomore feature Drowning Dry while the same film’s ensemble also took one of the jury’s gender-neutral acting prizes.