Io Capitano brought best director award to an Italian filmmaker Matteo Garron. Seydou Sarr won Best Young Actor award.

The awards were revealed during the Venice festival's closing ceremony Saturday.

The epic drama follows two naive 16-year-olds who leave Senegal for Europe, only to find themselves robbed, tortured and enslaved along the route, and ultimately aboard a dangerously rickety boat to Italy.

During the film screening last Wednesday, Garrone told reporters he wanted to break through Europeans' complacency about the migrants arriving by sea.

"For years we've seen boats arriving across the Mediterranean -- sometimes they are saved, sometimes not," he said.

"Over time, we've gotten used to thinking of these people as numbers and lost sight of the fact that behind the numbers there is a whole world of families, dreams, desires."

The director said he wanted to "put the camera on the other side -- in Africa, pointing towards Europe -- to tell their journey and live it with them".