28/10/2010

Alexei Popogrebsky’s How I Ended This Summer was adjudged Best Film at the conclusion of the 54th BFI London Film Festival.

Jury Chair Patricia Clarkson said, “Director Alexei Popogrebsky has combined stunning cinematography with painterly attention to production detail and drawn intense and subtle performances from actors Grigory Dobrygin and Sergei Puskepalis. The film turns the hunter-versus-hunted narrative on its head to provoke powerful questions about life and death, resilience and human compassion. Tense, moving and universal in its scope, this is a cinematic tour de force.”

The jury also gave a special commendation to Joanna Hogg’s Archipelago [+see also:
film review
trailer
film profile].

Clio Barnard won both Best British Newcomer and the Sutherland Award, given to the director of the most original and imaginative feature debut in the Festival for The Arbor.

Festival Artistic Director and Chair of the jury, Sandra Hebron, said, “The Arbor [+see also:
trailer
film profile] is a brave and highly original debut with many levels of experimentation on show. With outstanding performances that give a great resonance to the words of real people, Clio Barnard’s film tells a fascinating story with sophistication and haunting emotional impact. This is a challenging, moving and utterly memorable film and a deserving winner of the Sutherland Award.”

The Grierson Award for Best Documentary went to Janus Metz’s Armadillo [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Janus Metz, director of Arm…
film profile]. Awarded to an individual whose body of work has made an outstanding contribution to film culture, the BFI Fellowship is the highest accolade that the British Film Institute bestows and was awarded to director Danny Boyle, whose film 127 Hours [+see also:
trailer
making of
Interview Danny Boyle e James Franco […
film profile] closed the Festival.