Running from the 7th to 18th of October, the BFI London Film Festival chose it's award winners in a celebrity filled gala last night.
The jury featured the likes of BAFTA-winning and Oscar® & Golden Globe nominee Chiwetel Ejiofor, the BAFTA-winning and Oscar® nominee Kristin Scott-Thomas, Christine Vachon as producer of Carol, this year’s American Express Gala, and they were presided over by Pawel Pawlikowski, whose Ida won the LFF Best Film prize in 2013.
The winners for the top prizes are as follows:
OFFICIAL COMPETITION WINNER – BEST FILM: Chevalier – Athina Rachel Tsangari
Pawel Pawlikowski said “Chevalier is a study of male antagonism seen though the eyes of a brave and original filmmaker. With great formal rigour and irresistible wit, Athena Rachel Tsangari has managed to make a film that is both a hilarious comedy and a deeply disturbing statement on the condition of western humanity”.
FIRST FEATURE COMPETITION WINNER – SUTHERLAND AWARD: Robert Eggers for The Witch
Iranian-American writer/director Desiree Akhavan, said “This year’s Sutherland Award nominees were a bold group of beautifully crafted first features. Of the nominated films, one stood apart as the announcement of a new voice in contemporary cinema. A horror film that felt as though it were reinventing the genre with each frame and truly shocking moments that evoke both terror and empathy. With an impressive command of cameras as well as truly heartbreaking performances – it presented a fresh, feminist take on a timeless tale."
Watch the trailer for The Witch below.
DOCUMENTARY COMPETITION WINNER – GRIERSON AWARD: Sherpa, directed by Jennifer Peedom
The jury said “We are taken into the lives, homes and families of the Sherpas, who have for too long been overlooked and exploited, dependent for their livelihoods on an increasing number of tourists who sometimes regard them as little more than owned slaves. We’re left with an appreciation of the sacrifices the Sherpa community have made for over 6 decades. We applaud this impressive film for giving voice to a previously voiceless community, and we hope it reaches the wide, general audience that it deserves”.
SHORT FILM COMPETITION WINNER – BEST SHORT FILM AWARD: An Old Dog's Diary, directed by Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel
Academy-award Short Film nominee Daisy Jacobs had this to say: "An Old Dog’s Diary is as poetic and soulful as its subject. It offers a fresh and original way of documenting the life of an artist. It looks beautiful, sounds beautiful, but, more than that, it tells us about the beauty of the human spirit.”
BFI FELLOWSHIP Cate Blanchett
The award was presented to Cate Blanchett by her friend and co-star of The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit films Ian McKellen. Blanchett was present at the festival for the UK premiere of Truth, based on the story of Mary Mapes, an award-winning CBS News journalist and Dan Rather’s 60 Minutes producer and the risks she took to expose a story on the then President George W. Bush, as well as Todd Haynes’ Carol, in which she and Rooney Mara play lovers in 1950's Manhattan.
