Which film won the Golden Lion award

A.� A comedy by the Indian director Mira Nair won the Golden Lion award for Best Film at the 58th Venice Film Festival. Miss Nair, 44, was the first woman and Indian to win the prestigious award.

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Q.� What was the film called

A.� Monsoon Wedding, which is about the members of an extended Punjabi family returning to Delhi for a spectacular arranged marriage, was filmed with hand-held cameras in only a month. When�she picked up the award, the director described the film as a love song to Delhi. Miss Nair has previously earned plaudits for her work, which includes the films Missippi Masala, Salaam Bombay, which was nominated for an Oscar�in 1988, and Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love. After winning the award, Miss Nair told the world's press: "I wanted to make something small, but�I am so very happy to say it has become big. If we win and we happen to be women, then it is wonderful."

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Q.� Who judged the awards

A.� The festival jury, which consisted of three film directors, two actresses, a producer and an author, had considered 41 films in�11 languages in this category. The head of the jury, the Italian director and actor Nanni Moretti, who won the Palme d'Or at Cannes this year for his film La Stanza del Figlio, described Miss Mair as a visionary.

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Q.� Who were the other winners at Venice

A.� �This year the 11-day festival, the world's oldest, had for the first time staged two competitions: the Venice 58, for international full-length films, and the New Cinema of the Present category, which focused on fringe productions. L'Emploi du Temps (The Use of Time), by the French director Laurent Cantet, the true story of a man who resorts to murder to keep up with the fictitious life has created for himself, won the New Cinema category. The French director and critic Eric Rohmer, 81, was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement. The Iranian director Babak Payami won the Golden Lion for Best Director of Secret Ballot. a comedy about a ballot box that falls from the sky on election day in Iran.

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By Katharine MacColl