EVENT 25th Leeds International Film Festival Announces Award Winners

The 25th Leeds International Film Festival ended on Monday, 21^st November 2011 after attracting its largest ever audience of 35,000, and with the announcement of its Audience Award winners and three prestigious Jury prizes. A full festival report will appear on this website soon.

The Golden Owl Award in Official Selection, the Silver Méliès Award in Fanomenon and the genre cinema section of the film festival were announced alongside the event’s four short film Jury awards (the Augustin Awards).

Michael Hazanavicius' The Artist received the Official Selection Audience Award.

LIFF25 AUDIENCE AWARDS

Following audience votes taken for every one of the festival programme’s 150+ feature films, The Artist (dir. Michael Hazanavicius, France, 2011) received the Official Selection Audience Award; and Juan Of The Dead (dir. Alejandro Brugues, Cuba, 2011) took home the Fanomenon Audience Award

"A powerful and evocative tale of guilt and redemption."

LIFF25 GOLDEN OWL AWARD

22nd May (dir. Koen Mortier, Belgium, 2010) was the recipient of the Golden Owl Award. The Golden Owl Jury said: “The film is a powerful and evocative tale of guilt and redemption told through the eyes of a security guard who blames himself for not preventing a bombing. Blurring the lines between fantasy and reality, Mortier mixes stark realism with pop video aesthetics to create a unique and intense film.

The jury believes that the film – and others in the Golden Owl Award – deserves a chance at UK distribution and would urge distributors to make sure they get to see 22nd May and many of the other challenging and thought provoking films in competition”

"Visually stunning, symbolic imagery and brave, outstanding performances."

THE MÉLIÈS D’ARGENT

Leeds International Film Festival is the UK representative of the European Fantastic Film Festivals Federation, and, as such, it holds its Méliès d’Argent competition in the UK for feature and short fantastic films. The Méliès Jury announced The Divide (dir. Xavier Gens, Germany/USA/Canada, 2011) as the feature film Winner, whilst there was a Special Mention for Masks (dir. Andreas Marschall, Germany, 2011). In the short film category, the Winner was Decapoda Shock (dir. Javier Chillón, Spain), with a Special Mention for Tommy (dir. Arnold du Parscau, France, 2011).

The Méliès Jury said: “Gens’ film delivered a number of factors so often lacking in contemporary horror; intelligent and multi-layered narrative, visually stunning, symbolic imagery and brave, outstanding performances.

The standard of the short films in competition was very high and the jury were divided. However, Decapoda Shock was very creative and achieved a lot in a short space of time – hilarious storytelling, strong pastiche techniques, multi-media visualisation and displayed a passion for the genre.”

Both The Divide and Decapoda Shock will now go forward to compete for the coveted Méliès d’Or at Sitges International Festival of Fantastic Film in Spain in 2012.

THE AUGUSTIN AWARDS (short film)

The Short Film City Jury chose the The Gloaming (dir. Nicholas Schmerkin, France, 2010) to receive the Augustin Award for World Animation in the Short Film City strand of the film festival, whilst Bear (dir. Nash Edgerton, Australia, 2011) took home the Louis le Prince International Short Film Award.

The announcements came as Leeds received news that it has been accepted by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in Los Angeles as a qualifying festival in the Academy Awards® category of Short Film. Starting with 2012’s 26th Leeds International Film Festival, the winners of the annual World Animation and Louis Le Prince International Short Film awards at the event will be considered by the Academy voters in the Academy Awards® categories of Live Action Short Film and Animated Short Film from the 2013 Oscars® onwards.

Submissions for the 26th Leeds International Film Festival will open in January 2012. For more information on this year’s event, head to the festival’s official website here.

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