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LONDON 2017 Awards

Loveless triumphs at London

by 

- Andrey Zvyagintsev’s film won the official competition, while John Trengove’s The Wound took home the Sutherland Award for Best First Film

Loveless triumphs at London
Loveless by Andrey Zvyagintsev

Andrey Zvyagintsev’s fifth feature, Loveless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrey Zvyagintsev
film profile
]
, was named best film of the official competition at the BFI London Film Festival 2017. Loveless stars Alexey Rozin and Maryana Spivak as a divorcing couple whose neglected 12-year-old son goes missing. It is the second time that Russian director Zvyagintsev has won the honour. In 2014 he won at the LFF for the Oscar-nominated Leviathan [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
. Loveless
, which premiered in Competition at Cannes this year, where it won the Jury Prize, is Russia’s entry for the 2018 foreign-language film Oscar race.

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The official competition jury at the 61st London Film Festival was presided over by British auteur Andrea Arnold and included BAFTA award-winning filmmaker Babak Anvari, actor Eric Bana, BAM Brooklyn senior programmer Ashley Clark, actor and social entrepreneur Lily Cole, writer and director Alexei Popogrebsky and producer Emma Thomas.

The jury commented, “We felt that Loveless was a very poetic and beautiful film. Dark and told with a fierce passion. Although the film concentrated on the intimate story of one family in Russia, it felt like a universal tragedy; one that we recognised as one of the world’s great sadnesses.”

The jury also commended Annemarie Jacir’s Wajib [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
, saying, “We found this to be a very honest, tender and beautifully acted story about a father and son delivering wedding invitations to their relatives… we loved the glimpse into the lives of ordinary Christian Arabs in Nazareth.”

The Sutherland award for best first film went to John Trengove’s South African drama The Wound [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
. The jury led by composer and producer Melissa Parmenter, included artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien, actors Jason Issacs and Helen McCrory and journalist Kaleem Aftab. The jury praised the “heartbreaking look at masculinity and sexuality.” The first feature film jury also gave a special mention to Carla Simon’s Summer 1993 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile
]
.

The Grierson award for best documentary went to Lucy Cohen’s UK feature Kingdom of Us [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
, that tells the story and the fallout from the suicide of Paul Shanks in 2007. The jury presided over by producer John Battsek included Grierson-winning editor and producer Paul Dosaj, creative director of UK Factual at Raw TV Liesel Evans, directors Edward Lovelace and James Hall and documentarian Norma Percy. The documentary jury praised the “extraordinary level of family intimacy in its delicate exploration of grief and memory.” The documentary jury also commended Makala [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Gras
film profile
]
and Before Summer Ends [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maryam Goormaghtigh
film profile
]
.

Patrick Bresnan’s The Rabbit Hunt won the Best Short Film award. The jury president was Michael Dudok de Wit and included critic Simran Hans, Bafta-winning producer Afolabi Kuti, director William Oldroyd and actor Chloe Pirrie

The feature film awards:

Official Competition

Best Film
Loveless [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andrey Zvyagintsev
film profile
]
– Andrey Zvyagintsev (Russia/France/Germany/Belgium)

Special Mention
Wajib [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– Annemarie Jacir (Palestine/France/Germany/Colombia/Norway/Denmark/Qatar/United Arab Emirates)

First Feature Competition

Best Film
The Wound [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile
]
– John Trengove (South Africa/Germany/Netherlands/France)

Special Mention
Summer 1993 [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Carla Simón
film profile
]
– Carla Simón (Spain)

Documentary Competition

Best Film
Kingdom of Us [+see also:
trailer
film profile
]
– Lucy Cohen (UK)

Special Mention
Makala [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Emmanuel Gras
film profile
]
– Emmanuel Gras (France)
Before Summer Ends [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Maryam Goormaghtigh
film profile
]
- Maryam Goormaghtigh (France/Switzerland)

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