Maltese-American director Alex Camilleri won the Best Screenplay Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for Żejtune.

The prize was awarded by a jury composed of film executive Amanda Trokan, Marrakech International Film Festival director Mélita Toscan du Plantier, and actor Benedict Wong.

"Not only did the writing manage to pull us into a world we, on the jury, hadn’t been before, but it supported the brilliant performances and their leads and allowed them to shine," remarked Mr Wong, who famously played Kublai Khan in Netflix’s Marco Polo series.

The Żejtune team said the award is a testament to the dedication of the many people who helped bring the story to the screen.

Żejtune revolves around a young Maltese woman (played by Michela Farrugia) who is set on leaving Malta until an encounter with an elderly għana singer (played by Nenu Borg) reawakens a love for her country.

It has been watched by around 9,000 cinema-goers across Malta and Gozo to date, making it one of the highest-grossing Maltese films in recent years.

It will be screened at several international festivals this summer, including the Festival du Film de Cabourg in France, Cinema Jove in Valencia, and the Mediterranean Film Festival in Split.