The Austrian period drama Corsage has been named the best film in the official competition at the London Film Festival.
Directed by Marie Kreutzer, the film earned its star Vicky Krieps the best actress prize in the Un Certain Regard strand at Cannes this year, for her portrayal of Austria’s Empress Elisabeth.
The jurors described the film as “masterfully realised” and said they had been “completely seduced by Vicky Krieps’ sublime performance of a a woman out of time, trapped in her own iconography, and her rebellious yearning for liberation.”
Accepting the honour, Kreutzer said the most beautiful thing about her job was the opportunity to “collaborate with so many great creatives and artists.”
The jury also gave a commendation to Hlynur Palmason’s Godland for what it described as its “pure cinematic language and formal mastery.”
The Sutherland Award for the best first film in the competition went to Manuela Martelli for her Chilean drama 1976. The best documentary prize, known as the Grierson Award, went to Shaunak Sen’s All That Breathes.
In the new immersive art and XR category, the prize went to Charlie Shackleton’s As Mine Exactly and Yue Li’s I Have No Legs, And I Must Run won the short film award.
In the prizes voted for by the audience, Blue Bag Life won the feature award and Drop Out was named the best short film.