MUMBAI: The 2012 Santa Barbara International Film Festival ended recently with Zam Salim‘s directorial debut Up There annexing the top prize.

The film that received the Panavision Spirit Award for Independent Cinema, is all about the deceased Martin, who‘s stuck in a dead-end afterlife job but dreams of ascending "up there" -- a hope that‘s dashed when he loses a soul and must figure out how to recover the new arrival.

The award included a Panavision camera package worth $60,000.

The Audience Choice Award, sponsored by the SB Independent, was lapped up by director Ken Scott’s Starbuck. The film is about a former sperm donor who discovers that he‘s the father of 533 children, 142 of whom have filed a class action lawsuit to determine the identity of their biological father, known only by the pseudonym Starbuck.

The best Documentary Film Award went to Walter Matteson’s Pretty Old that follows four women aged 67 to 94, competing in the 30th year Anniversary of the Ms. Senior Sweetheart Beauty Pageant.

A special jury prize for Artistic Distinction was given to Barrymore directed by Erik Canuel and starring Christopher Plummer. The Best International Film Award went to Free Men that is all about an Algerian Muslim immigrant who joins the French Resistance to save Algerian Jews.

The jury included actor/comedian Dave Koechner; actor/director Brad Hall; actor/writer W. Earl Brown; actor Anthony Zerbe and his wife Arnette Zerbe; SBIFF originator Phyllis de Picciotto; director Glenn Jordan; actor Tim Matheson; online awards columnist Kris Tapley and writer/ director Perry Lang.