Spanish film-maker Isaki Lacuesta’s Los pasos dobles beat the much-fancied Japanese film Kiseki to the top prize at the 59th San Sebastian International Film Festival.

The jury, chaired by Oscar-winning American actress Frances McDormand (Fargo), named Greek-born Filippos Tsitos as best director for his thriller Adikos kosmos (Unfair World).

The special jury prize went to French actress and director Julie Delpy for her film Le Skylab, a tribute to her late mother.

The award of the top prize to Los pasos dobles (The Double Steps) was greeted with surprise. The film had divided critics and Kiseki (I Wish), directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda, had been tipped as favourite to win. The film focuses on the tsunami that hit Japan in March. In the end, the Japanese film had to settle for the prize for best screenplay.

Los pasos dobles takes its inspiration from the biography of French artist and author François Augieras (1925-1971) who painted the walls of a military bunker in the desert and let it sink into the sand.

Ms Delpy’s film Le Skylab, a tribute to her late mother, is a humorous family chronicle set against the backdrop of her grandmother’s birthday in 1979, and got one of the warmest receptions of the festival at its screenings. The autobiographical screenplay focuses on the divergent political beliefs in the family and the first loves of some younger members of the family. Adikos kosmos (Unfair World) is the story of a policeman who helps delinquents until the day he finds himself implicated in a murder case and starts to question his ideas of justice.