"WAY Out," a short movie by young Chinese director Chen Tao, won second prize in the short film category Saturday (May 26) at the 60th Cannes Film Festival in France.

Chen, 28, is a student at the Beijing Film Academy. His film tells the tale of a farmer who becomes a pickpocket on a journey from "good" to "bad." The short film category is designed to promote the emergence of the next generation of filmmakers.

Ahead of yesterday's award ceremony, a hard-hitting Romanian picture was tipped to walk away with the coveted Palme d'Or.

The movie which has moved many is "4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days," a tale set in a grey and uncaring Romania in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which underlines the lengths to which friends go to save each other.

Directed by Cristian Mungiu, it tells the story of student friends Otilia and Gabita who are ruthlessly exploited when one goes to have an illegal abortion.

As the movie marathon draws to a close, film critic and author Mark Cousins complained that the view of the world portrayed during the first half of Cannes was persistently dark but said the competition was lifted later by several "masterpieces" that showed great humanity.

He highlighted "Alexandra," by Russia's Alexander Sokurov, "The Edge of Heaven" by Turkish-German Fatih Akin and "The Mourning Forest" by Naomi Kawase of Japan.

"What was so moving is that they are about people's capability for generosity," he said, adding that "4 Months" also fell into the same category.

Editor: Wing