Cristian Mungiu's 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, a harrowing Romanian film about back-alley abortion and despair in the communist era, won the Cannes Film Festival's top award, the Palme d'Or.

A low-budget film with only an $800,000 production cost, the film is 39-year-old Mungiu's second feature. "I hope this Palme d'Or will be good news to small film-makers from small countries," Mungiu said, accepting his prize on Sunday night's award ceremony. Variety proclaimed 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days a revelation, stating: "a stunning achievement, helmed with a purity and honesty that captures not just the illegal abortion story at its core but the constant, unremarked negotiations necessary for survival in the final days of the Soviet bloc."

Naomi Kawas's The Mourning Forest, a Japanese film about people haunted by deep personal loss, was awarded the Grand Prix, the second highest prize awarded at Cannes. Third place, the Jury Prize, was shared by Persepolis, an autobiographical animation about grim life under the ayatollahs in Iran by French-Iranian debut director Marjane Satrapi, and Silent Light, a Mexican movie about love, death and faith, by Carlos Reygadas. A special "60th Festival" award was given to Gus Van Sant for Paranoid Park.

The Complete List of Winners:

Palme d'Or: 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, directed by Cristian Mungiu
Grand Prix (runner-up): The Mourning Forest (Mogari No Mori), directed by Naomi Kawase
Prix de la Mise en Scene (Best Director): Julian Schnabel for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Le Scaphandre et Le Papillon)
Prix du 60th Anniversaire: Gus Van Sant, director of Paranoid Park
Prix du Scenario (Best Screenplay Award): Fatih Akin for The Edge of Heaven (Auf Der Anderen Siete)
Camera d'Or (For best first feature): Meduzot (Jellyfish), directed by Etgar Keret and Shira Geffen
Camera d'Or Special Mention: Control, directed by Anton Corbijn
Prix du Jury (Jury Prize) (tie): Persepolis, directed by Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud; and Silent Light, directed by Carlos Reygadas
Prix d'interpretation feminine (Best Actress): Jeon Do-yeon for Secret Sunshine directed by Lee Chang-dong
Prix d'interpretation masculine (Best Actor): Constantine Lavronenko for Izgnanie, directed by Andrei Zviaguintsev
Palme d'Or (short film): Ver Llover, directed by Elisa Miller
Special Mention (short): Run, directed by Mark Albiston
Special Mention (short): Ah Ma, directed by Anthony Chen