Immigrant drama wins at Deauville

Thomas McCarthy's film examines the US immigration system

Immigration drama The Visitor has won the main prize at the Deauville Festival of American Film in France.

Writer-director Thomas McCarthy said that he believed in "the power of art to effect change".

The film tells the story of a professor who discovers that two illegal immigrants have moved into his home.

The annual festival, held in the Normandy coastal town of Deauville, included appearances by Kevin Spacey and Samuel L Jackson.

The runner-up prize was awarded by the jury to Lance Hammer's film Ballast, about the effects of the suicides of two neighbours in the Mississippi delta.

Damian Harris's paedophile drama, Gardens of the Night, won the international critics' prize.

Another of Harris's films, Appaloosa, had its premiere at the festival, attracting star actors Viggo Mortensen and Ed Harris to the event.