The British Movie Institute as we speak mentioned that its annual London Movie Competition clocked its largest in-person attendance for a decade throughout this yr’s version, which ran from October 9 – 20.
Figures printed by the BFI mentioned attendance throughout each free and paid-for in-person screenings and occasions at London venues elevated by 92%, with 49% of tickets being booked by first-time LFF attendees. Total, 230,342 attended the competition in particular person, a rise of 18% from 2023’s 194,960.
“Our largest thanks go to the artists and business colleagues from the UK and throughout the globe who fueled our collective curiosity this yr,” BFI London Movie Competition Director Kristy Matheson mentioned in an announcement this afternoon. “It was a delight to see audiences interact with one another and this programme – proving as soon as once more the enjoyment and luxury all of us discover in display tradition.”
The BFI as we speak additionally introduced the winners of the competition’s viewers awards. Darren Thornton’s comedy-drama 4 Moms, about one Irish son juggling 4 very completely different moms, gained the Viewers Award for Greatest Function. Sophie Compton and Daisy-Could Hudson’s Holloway, which follows six girls who have been previously incarcerated at what was as soon as the most important girls’s jail in Europe gained the Viewers Award for Greatest Documentary, and Jamie Benyon’s Two Minutes, clinched the Viewers Award for Greatest Brief Movie. The flick is a story about two brothers who’re interrupted whereas they’re robbing an off licence.
The London Movie Competition ended two weeks in the past with a screening of the Pharrell Williams biopic Piece by Piece. Huge winners within the competition’s competitors strands included Memoir Of A Snail, the newest cease movement pic from Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot. That movie gained greatest movie whereas Laura Carreira’s haunting debut function On Falling gained the Sutherland Award within the First Function Competitors. Produced by Jack Thomas-O’Brien at Sixteen Movies, On Falling is the primary British function to win the Sutherland Award since 2010. Clio Barnard gained it that yr with The Arbor. Earlier winners embrace Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Robert Eggers, Julia Ducournau, and Mati Diop.
