ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) -- The Istanbul Film Festival honored filmmaker Nanni Moretti on Saturday, presenting the Italian actor-director with a special award a year after he won top prize at Cannes Film Festival for the family drama "The Son's Room."

Also presented an honorary award was Stephen Frears -- the British director of "Dangerous Liaisons," "The Grifters," and "High Fidelity."

The festival's top prize for a new film, the Golden Tulip, went to "Magonia" by the Dutch Director Ineke Smits in which unattainable dreams and longings are explored as a father tells his son three stories of a faraway land.

A film which was banned from cinemas and the festival, "Big Man, Small Love," that questions Turkey's harsh restrictions on use of the Kurdish language probably attracted more attention than any other during the festival.

The Culture Ministry banned the work, which was partly sponsored by the ministry, from cinemas in early March after police denounced it as "separatist" propaganda. Police also objected to a scene showing a bloody police raid on a Kurdish house.

The movie includes bits of dialogue in Kurdish with Turkish subtitles. Use of Kurdish is banned in formal settings, education and broadcasting in Turkey, amid government fears that granting broader cultural rights to the country's estimated 12 million Kurds could divide the country along ethnic lines.

"When a movie plays, excitement, emotions and naturally freedom come out of the screen," Moretti said through an interpreter. "That's why no movie should be banned and censored."

In what would be a major break with its ban on Kurdish language television, Turkey is now considering broadcasting Kurdish-language news and music on state-run TV.

A special jury award went to "Letter to America," by the Bulgarian director Iglika Triffonova. The movie tells Ivan's struggle to find the complete words of a half-forgotten folk song to sing in a video letter for a friend who is in a coma.

Moretti's "The Son's Room" is the tragic tale of a psychoanalyst whose happy family life is shattered when his teen-age son dies in a diving accident. He was previously best known for 1994's "Dear Diary."

Meanwhile, Georgian filmmaker Otar Ioseliani of "Farewell, Home Sweet Home," "Chasing Butterflies," and "And Then There Was Light," was presented a lifetime achievement award.