06/11/2003

The jury of the prize given to new talent in World Cinema, the Sutherland Trophy, has just announced the three short-listed films selected from 12 nominated titles. They are No Rest For The Brave [+see also:
trailer
film profile] by the French director, Alain Guiraudie, the Danish entry for the 2004 Oscar nominations, Reconstruction, directed by Christoffer Boe and the first film from post-Taliban Afghanistan, Osama by Siddiq Barnak.

The Trophy was created in the 1950s and is given to the director of the most original and imaginative first feature film screened at the Times/BFI London Film Festival. Past recipients have included some of the greatest directors such as Antonioni, Bertolucci, Fassbinder, Godard and Greenaway, and the most recent awards went to the French director Delphine Gleize for Carnages in 2002 and to the British Asif Kapadia for The Warrior in 2001.

This year’s 11-member jury included director Ben Hopkins, actor Lennie James, producer Kate Ogborn and from the Times/BFI London Film Festival, the programmer Michael Hayden and the artistic director, Sandra Hebron. When announcing the shortlisted films, she said “After much deliberation and animated discussion, I believe the jury has selected an excellent and balanced shortlist. All three titles would be deserving winners of the Trophy and I look forward to seeing future work from those directors”. The winner of the Sutherland Trophy will be announced tonight (November 6) at the Festival’s closing night gala.