Giuseppe Zito, who recently completed the M.F.A. program in Film Production at Loyola Marymount University, was among the winners in the ninth annual Angelus Awards Student Film Festival, honoring student films of superior quality that reflect the complexity of the human condition with compassion, respect and creativity.

Winners and other honorees received more than $30,000 in prizes during the Screening and Awards Ceremony Oct. 23 at the Directors Guild of America, Hollywood. Actor Edward Herrmann emceed the event.

Zito won the $2,500 Fujifilm Audience Impact Award for his thesis film "Melanzane E Cioccolato." In this hilarious live action short set in Italy, housewife Agata must begin a new life after discovering her husband's infidelity, but she finds that the right recipe is unpredictable.

A native of Rome, Italy, Zito has been a member of the Society of Jesus for 10 years and was pursuing ordination as a Jesuit priest. He received a B.A. in Philosophy and an M.A. in Communication Studies from the Gregorian University of Rome, and hopes, he said, to have a chance of making feature-length movies that "entertain and inspire."

Victoria Gamburg of San Francisco State University won the $10,000 Patrick Peyton Excellence in Filmmaking Award for her live action film "Twilight," and won the inaugural $1,500 Act One Screenplay prize for excellence in the craft of writing, chosen from the finalists' scripts.

Set in contemporary St. Petersburg, Russia, against a backdrop of perpetual Northern twilight, a woman searches for her missing daughter. After three years of dealing with an uncaring post-Soviet bureaucracy, she is faced with a potentially life-altering decision. "Twilight" embraces the question: How does one affirm life while living under the specter of unutterable loss?

Other winners were Joyce Draganosky, Columbia University, for "Extreme Mom"; Graham Tallman, American Film Institute, "Codename: Simon"; Hilla H. Medalia, Southern Illinois University, "Daughters Of Abraham"; and Sejong Park, Australian Film, Television & Radio School, "Birthday Boy."