MADRID -- Mystery thriller ****The Others**** controversially scooped top honors at Spain's equivalent to the Oscars early on Sunday, despite being shot in English and partly financed by foreigners.

****The Others****, set on the island of Jersey in 1945, won eight awards at the glittering Goya awards ceremony in Madrid, an annual celebration of Spanish films attended by the country's show business elite.

The film's creative and production teams may have been Spanish, but it was partly U.S.-backed and scripted in English, Reuters reported.

Its nomination in 15 categories had sparked a furore in Spain in the days preceding the awards by Spain's academy of cinematographic arts and sciences.

The director of a competing film questioned how Spanish the film really was and warned event organizers to beware of the encroaching power of Hollywood.

****The Others**** claimed the prize for best film and won a best director award for 29-year-old Alejandro Amenabar, a Spaniard born in Chile.

***The Others*** is being screened in the 20th Intl. Fajr Film Festival in Tehran.