A young North African inmate spends six years living in a French prison among rival Corsican and Arab gangs in The Prophet. (TIFF)A young North African inmate spends six years living in a French prison among rival Corsican and Arab gangs in The Prophet. (TIFF)

Jacques Audiard's French prison drama A Prophet won the best film prize at the London Film Festival on Wednesday.

It is the first year the British festival has awarded a best film prize, which organizers hope will boost its profile so it sits among the world's top film festivals.

Audiard's film follows a rootless North African man from the day he is put in a French prison through his rise as a prison kingpin. The film won the second-place Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival earlier this year. France has also entered it as a contender for best foreign film at the Academy Awards.

Juror Anjelica Huston called the film "a masterpiece" with "the ambition, purity of vision and clarity of purpose to make it an instant classic."

The jury also gave special mention to The Road, John Hillcoat's adaptation of the apocalyptic tale by Cormac McCarthy.

Jack Thorne, screenwriter of coming-of-age story The Scouting Book for Boys, won the award for best British newcomer.

The festival, which began Oct. 14, was impressed by films from the Middle East, including Ajami, which earned a best first feature award for Palestinian Scandar Copti and Israeli Yaron Shani.

The sprawling tale, set in Jaffa's Ajami neighbourhood, follows an ensemble of Jewish and Palestinian characters as they struggled to live together.

The Grierson prize for documentary was won by Israel's Yoav Shamir for Defamation, a look at anti-Semitism around the world.

The festival closes Thursday with Nowhere Boy, Sam Taylor-Wood's film about the young John Lennon.