ROME (AFP) ― The sixth Rome Film Festival, marred by protests over cuts in arts funding and struggles to attract big stars, ended Friday with the top prize going to Sebastian Borensztein’s “A Chinese Tale”.

The film stars Ricardo Durin as a lonely hardware store owner whose life is upturned by the appearance of a young Chinese man.

France’s Guillaume Canet won the festival’s best actor prize for his performance, widely applauded in the Italian press, in “A Better Life” directed by Cedric Kahn.

Canet plays Yann, a man looking to open a restaurant with his partner Nadia, who finds himself increasingly submerged in debt.

While 15 films competed this year for the Marc Aurelio prizes decided by a jury led by Ennio Morricone, questions lingered about the festival’s future.

The October 27 opening ceremony was disrupted by demonstrators from the People of Rome group protesting over cuts to arts funding, who threw flares and nails and tried to get onto the red carpet.

Police arrested three of the protesters after taking 10 in for questioning.

Giancarlo Galan, now Italy’s culture minister, opposed the creation of the Rome Film Festival in 2006 when he was governor of the northeastern Veneto region, citing concerns that it would compete with the prestigious Venice festival.

In recent days Galan said the festival faces extinction, and asserted that he was not invited to this year’s edition.

Festival artistic director Piera Detassis countered that after meeting with Galan’s top aide, he believes the festival’s short-term future is assured.

“No one has plans to shut down the festival,” he was quoted as saying Thursday by the daily Corriere della Sera.

While top stars like George Clooney and Al Pacino turned up in Venice in September, well-known performers such as Richard Gere, Kristin Scott-Thomas and Maggie Gyllenhaal did appear on the red carpet in Rome.