Orson Welles Awards at AFI Fest

Clint Eastwood and Bille August took top honors Thursday as winners of the Orson Welles Awards at the AFI Film Festival.

Eastwood won the best director, English language, award for “Bird,” and August received the best director, non-English-language, award for “Pelle the Conqueror.”

Other winners: Christine Edzard for “Little Dorrit/Nobody’s Fault” (best director, first film, English language); Claire Denis for “Chocolat” (best director, first film, non-English language); Philip Kaufman for “The Unbearable Lightness of Being” (best film maker, English language), and Pedro Almodovar for “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” (best film maker, non-English language).

Lifetime achievement awards went to Michelangelo Antonioni, Billy Wilder and Fred Zinnemann. A special posthumous film directing achievement award went to Hal Ashby. Freedom of expression awards went to Martin Scorsese for “The Last Temptation of Christ” and Cyrus Nowrasteh for “Veiled Threat,” which was pulled from the festival following publicity surrounding a bomb threat. A special award also went to Elliot Silverstein for his efforts to fight the colorization of films.