London Film Festival recognises new talent and closes on record sales

Over the past 16 days and nights filmmakers, journalists, industry professionals and the general public have flocked to London to attend Europe's largest and most prestigious public film festival, The Times bfi London Film Festival.
This year the Festival broke all previous records with ticket sales increasing by 3%, the Festival also enjoyed a substantially broader audience with a new initiative of screenings in the outer boroughs all of which had packed auditoria.
Since October 20 more than 180 feature films and 103 shorts have screened across London from Hackney to Leicester Square. Of 364 screenings at the Festival almost 150 sold out. Particular favourites this year included Zach Braff's ‘Garden State’ starring Natalie Portman, Todd Solondz' latest film ‘Palindromes’, the ingenious ‘Czech Dream’ from directors Vit Klusák and Filip Remunda, ‘Strings’ a modern puppet show with a cast of marionettes from Anders Rønnow Klarlund, Daniel Burman's ‘Lost Embrace’ and Chinese independent feature ‘Tang Poetry from Zhang Lu’. The popularity of Juliet McKoen's ‘Frozen’, Greg Hall's ‘The Plagu’e and Saul Dibb's ‘Bullet Boy’, all directorial debuts, suggest that the future of British cinema looks bright, while similar positive responses to films such as Abdellatif Kechiche's ‘L'Esquive’ and Lucile Hadzilhalilovic's ‘Innocence’ indicate that French cinema is just as healthy.
Amma Asante, a young first-time film director, was awarded the prestigious £15,000 UK Film Talent Award for her directorial debut feature film ‘A Way of Life’, a powerful film which offers a chilling insight into racism through the lives of five children struggling to cling to their dreams.
Asante said: “I have found the experience of directing for the first time incredibly challenging. I mean, people told me it would be relentless, but relentless is a word. Understanding it as an experience is a totally different thing. But at the same time, it’s like being on a roller-coaster ride. There are massive highs.”
The UK Film Talent Award, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill, was created to recognise the achievements of a new or emerging British writer, director or producer who has shown great skill and imagination in bringing originality and verve to filmmaking. This is the first year of a three-year partnership between the UK film industry and Dunhill.
‘Tarnation’, the debut feature from Jonathan Caouette, was this year's winner of the British Film Institute's (bfi) Sutherland Trophy.
Awarded to the director of the most original and imaginative first feature film screened at The Times bfi London Film Festival, the trophy was presented at last night's Closing Gala.
Through a series of photographs, home movie footage, answer phone messages and pop culture moments, edited using Apple's iMovie software, Tarnation tells of Caouette’s chaotic upbringing in a dysfunctional family marked by mental illness.
Selected by a jury with a knowledge of and passion for cinema, the Sutherland Trophy recognises new talent in world cinema.
Sandra Hebron, artistic director of The Times bfi London Film Festival said: "Tarnation is visionary filmmaking which genuinely pushes the boundaries of how we understand cinema. Caouette has created a richly textured intimate portrait of his life, which is in turn heartbreaking, brutal, poignant and uplifting. This is a truly original and imaginative first feature and a deserving winner of the bfi Sutherland Trophy."
Nicole Kassell received the prestigious 9th Annual Satyajit Ray Award for her outstanding debut feature ‘The Woodsman’, while the TCM Short Film Award went to ‘Nits’, directed by Harry Wootliff.
(GB)