The Cannes jury has watched countless romance movies over the decades, but this year it was a small-budget Australian film about two troubled Aboriginal teenagers in the Outback which won the hearts of the judges at the world’s most prestigious film festival.

Samson and Delilah, made by indigenous Australian director Warwick Thornton, was awarded the Camera d’Or for first time filmmakers at the Cannes film festival closing ceremony last night.

Handing the Australian his trophy on stage last night, French actress and jury member Isabelle Adjani described Samson and Delilah as: “the best love film we've seen for many a year."

The film, which has been lauded by critics as one of the finest movies ever to come out of Australia, is a beautiful yet brutal love story set on a remote Aboriginal community in Alice Springs. It deals with the harsh realities faced by those living on Australia’s hundreds of Aboriginal communities, including petrol sniffing, destitution and violence.

Fighting back tears on the podium, Thornton – who wrote and was also the cinematographer on the $AU1.2million (£600,000) film - told the star-studded audience: "Thank you for believing in our first born baby. I don't know what to say. Viva Cannes, viva le cinema."

The director travelled to Cannes with his producing partner Cath Shelper, and the film’s two stars Rowan McNamara and Marissa Gibson, both 15. The teenagers, both first time actors, hail from local communities in Alice Springs similar to that portrayed in the film.

Thornton said winning the award caps off a fairytale start to making movies.

"My life has been a Cinderella story. You know, I grew up on the streets of Alice Springs, getting in trouble with the police. I needed direction, and somehow I found cinema, and cinema found that direction for me," he told a press conference in Cannes after his win.

"Cinema, in a sense saved my life, but the interesting thing is where I am today, I've only just begun. I've got so many more stories to tell, so many more (what I believe are) beautiful stories. They're things that I desperately need to show the world. It's almost like Cannes and the Camera d’Or is the beginning of a Cinderella story."

Thornton said he hoped his win would inspire more indigenous Australian filmmakers to tell their stories.

The Camera d’Or prize at the Cannes film festival is awarded to first time directors. Last year it was won by British writer-director, and Turner Prize winner, Steve McQueen for his drama Hunger, about the last six weeks in the life of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands inside the notorious Maze prison in 1981.

The last Australian to win the award was Shirley Barrett in 1996 for the romantic comedy Love Serenade.

Thornton, who had never been to Cannes until last week, said he was exhausted after his time in the spotlight on the French Riviera and was looking forward to going home to central Australia.

“Cannes has been the most amazing experience,” he said. “It’s such an amazing, special place that is the essence of cinema and storytelling, but after a week of it I’m ready to go home. I’m ready to sit back on my veranda in Alice Springs and live my life, and have my kids climb over me and make a stew.”

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