Stop-motion animation wins top prize at the London Film Festival

The London Film Festival has drawn to a close with an extra screening of the film that’s been named the Best Film – a stop-motion animation, Memoir of a Snail.

The jury described Adam Elliot’s tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia as a funny and moving triumph. “Our jury was incredibly moved by Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which is a singular achievement in filmmaking. Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can.”

The jury also gave a special mention to Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, which it described as “an intricately crafted story brimming with imagination that dares to say the unsayable about a sexual predator in a close-knit Zambian community.”

While festivals such as Cannes, Berlin and Venice have a small official selection, to any of which the prizes can go, the BFI London Film Festival screens about 250 films in total and selects – this year – just eleven films for its official competition strand.

The festival’s director, Kristy Matheson, explained the thinking to What’s Worth Seeing. “We’re trying to highlight films that we think are really pushing the boundaries of cinema – they’re imaginative – they’re original – we’re not saying they’re the best films – we’re saying these are films which have really sparked our imagination this year. We would love audiences to see them. To put them together as a collection of films, we feel it’s a small distillation of the festival – you could just watch the official competition and get a great sense of many of the films in the festival and you’d get a great spread of the kind of films we’ve been seeing this year.”

In addition to the Best Film Award, the festival also has long-running competitions for the Sutherland Award for the best first film and the Grierson documentary prize.

Laura Carreira’s On Falling was named the best first film. The Sutherland jury said it was “a richly-layered portrait of a world governed by corporate profit motive, as seen through the story of an immigrant woman whose alienation we feel deeply, told with masterful cinematic precision and understated, lived in performances. A powerful, mesmerising and bold first feature.”

The Grierson Award went to Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson for their documentary about an Orthodox nun, Mother Vera. The Grierson jury said, “This exquisite film masterfully captures the inner transformation of its central character using evocative visuals that mirror her emotional journey. Each frame is rich with detail, and the directors’ sensitive approach allows the audience to intimately experience Vera’s perspective as her story evolves. The balance of aesthetic beauty and emotional depth makes Mother Vera a powerful meditation on personal growth and resilience, and the delicate treatment of momentous issues such as addiction, lost love and faith is executed with profound potency.”

The festival also recognised Rehab Nazzal’s Vibrations from Gaza as the best short film. The short film jury said, “Our winner is a film that used sound to send reverberations through our bodies and souls. Through its simplicity of storytelling, Vibrations from Gaza demands our presence, urging us not only to bear witness but to deeply reflect on the impact of growing up deaf in Gaza — a reality that many of us could never fully comprehend.”