The most unconventional of London Film Festivals has come to a close with a virtual awards ceremony, whose winners were chosen by members of the public who watched this year’s selection online.
The main prize – the London Star for Best Film – went to the Danish director Thomas Vinterberg for Another Round, which reunites him with Mads Mikkelsen, the star of one of his biggest global successes, the Oscar-nominated The Hunt. Vinterberg said, “We are very proud to receive this from a British audience; it’s a great honour.”
Tommy Gillard’s Shuttlecock was named the Best Short Film, while Benjamin Ree was awarded the Best Documentary prize for The Painter and the Thief, about the theft of works by Barbora Kysilkova from a gallery in Oslo.
The prize for the best immersive art during the festival went to Anna West and David Callanan for To Miss The Ending.
The ceremony was also used to present this year’s IWC Schaffhausen bursary, which last year went to Saint Maud‘s Rose Glass. This year’s £50,000 prize, which honours the best first or second-time writer, director or writer/director at the LFF, went to Cathy Brady for Wildfire, in which two Irish sisters see their relationship pushed to breaking point.
Brady said she was deeply honoured to received the bursary. “In a year that has been so turbulent for so many, it feels like a safe harbour and for a first feature filmmaker, the chance to recalibrate, dream and immerse myself in the next project is such an incredible gift.”
The honour is presented in association with the BFI, whose chief executive of the BFI, Ben Roberts, said: “Supporting filmmakers through the earlier stages of their career is one of our top priorities and we’re incredibly proud of how our partnership with IWC has contributed to this for the past 5 years, and hopefully many more.”
The other finalists were Aleem Khan for After Love and Francis Lee, whose second film Ammonite closed the festival. Roberts said he couldn’t wait to see what all three film-makers did next.