Nandita Das' directorial debut Firaaq and Deepa Mehta's Heaven on Earth have been awarded at the Dubai International Film Festival (DIFF).

The awards to the two films were announced in the Asia-Africa Competitions category, coinciding with the close of the DIFF.

Sreekar Prasad won the Best Editor award for Firaaq directed by Nandita Das while the Best Screenplay award went to Deepa Mehta for Heaven On Earth. "This year our jury members were hard at work trying to evaluate the merits of truly excellent films. We are extremely proud of the films that we have screened, and choosing between them was very difficult," DIFF's Artistic Director, Masoud Amralla al Ali, said.

"However, we are pleased with the results, and hope to see these filmmakers back at DIFF in following years with new projects."

A total of 47,500 movie-goers streamed into DIFF's screenings as of Wednesday, representing a significant increase in festival attendance over 2007.

"We are thrilled by high participation from the public and industry members alike, which means that there is a strong enthusiasm in Dubai for our mandate to showcase quality cinema," DIFF's Managing Director, Shivani Pandya said.

"We are looking forward already to the 2009 festival, and another five years with our warm, supportive and informed Dubai audiences."

The awards announced on Thursday were aimed at recognising the best films in the festival. They were expanded this year to include a new AsiaAfrica segment, which embraces films from emerging markets. Some of the entries were submitted from Afghanistan, Turkey, Cameroon and Kazakhstan.