As the 2019 Raindance Film Festival draws to a close, the thirty-one strong jury has selected winners in a variety of categories from 90 independent features and more than a hundred shorts.

More than three and a half years after the cameras stopped rolling, the American dark buddy comedy, The Planters – starring, written and directed by Alexandra Kotcheff and Hannah Leder – was named the Film of the Festival.

James Jones and Olivier Sarbil’s documentary about the Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal war against drugs, On The President’s Orders, was named the Best UK Feature.

But the Best Documentary Feature went to Finland’s Iiris Härmä for her study of artificial intelligence in Who Made You?

Another documentary, the Iranian Platform – in which director Sahar Mosayebi followed three sisters who fight in the Wushu sport – was given the festival’s Discovery Award.

A Peruvian film about a woman forced into prostitution, By The Name of Tania, won the Best International Feature prize.

Other awards include Steve Krikris for directing The Waiter, Miha Mazzini for writing Erased and Bastian Esser for his camerawork on The Real Thing: Real Life in Fake Cities.

And here is the the full list of winners from this year’s Raindance Film Festival:

Features

Film of the Festival

Best UK Feature

Best International Feature

Best Documentary Feature

The Discovery Award

Platform (Dir. Sahar Mosayebi)

Best Director

The Waiter (Dir. Steve Krikris)

Best Screenplay

Erased  (Screenwriter Miha Mazzini)

Best Cinematography

Best Performance

The Man Who Surprised Everyone – Evgeniy Tsyganov

Spirit of The Festival Award

Shorts

Best Short of the Festival

Best UK Short

The Devil’s Harmony

Best Documentary Short

Best Animation Short

Best Music Video

Feet (Dir. CC Wade)