London Film Festival 2024: The full list of winners
Each year, the BFI’s London Film Festival screens and celebrates some of the most exciting upcoming films and series. The winners from the 2024 edition have now been announced after another successful festival drew to a close.
The festival included screenings of some highly anticipated pictures, including the premiere of Steve McQueen’s Blitz, starring Saoirse Ronan and Harris Dickinson, alongside showings of Sean Baker’s Anora, Marielle Heller’s Nightbitch and Ali Abbasi’s The Apprentice.
The programming also included a number of shorts, documentaries, and animations, each of which were celebrated by the awards juries this year.
Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animation, Memoir of a Snail, took home the ‘Best Film’ award. In response to the win, the director shared, “We could never have imagined when we started making our little blobby film eight years ago, how audiences around the world would connect and engage with our character Grade Puddle.”
Elliott went on to dedicate the award to the “wonderful artists who toiled very long days, months and years to bring our blobs of clay to life.” Ryngano Nyoni’s new film, On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, also received a special mention in this category.
The Sutherland Prize, which celebrates directorial debuts, was awarded to Laura Carreira this year for her film On Falling. This marks the first time a British film has taken home the award in over a decade. The last winner from the United Kingdom was Clio Barnard’s The Arbor in 2010.
Previous winners of the ‘Sutherland Award’ include Robert Eggers for The VVitch, Jean Luc-Godard for Pierrot le For, and Yasujirō Ozu for Tokyo Story. “I’m so honoured to receive the Sutherland award for On Falling,” Carreira commented, “and for our film to join the long list of winners which includes some of my favourite films and most important cinema reference points.”
Cécile Embleton took home the ‘Grierson Award’ for her documentary film Mother Vera, while Eloise King’s The Shadow Scholars received a special mention in this category.
Finally, the ‘Short Film Award’ was awarded to Vibrations from Gaza, which looks into the lives of deaf children living in Gaza. Director Rehab Nazzal thanked the festival for “recognising the experiences of the Deaf children in Gaza – who have known only torment, a suffocating 17-year-long siege, and frequent onslaught by the settler-colonial state of Israal.”
“During dark times such as these, I believe that art can contribute to justice and freedom for all, not just for a few,” the Palestinian filmmaker continued, “Thank you, and Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea.” Nazzal’s short film is now available to stream on the BFI Player.
London Film Festival 2024: The complete list of winners:
‘Winner of the Best Film Award in Official Competition’
Memoir of a Snail (Adam Elliot)
Special mention: On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (Ryngano Nyoni)
‘Winner of the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition’
On Falling (Laura Carreira)
Special mention: Olivia & the Clouds (Tomás Pichardo Espaillat)
‘Winner of the Grierson Award in the Documentary Competition’
Mother Vera (Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson)
Special mention: The Shadow Scholars (Eloise King)
‘Winner of the Short Film Award in the Short Film Competition’
Vibrations from Gaza (Rehab Nazzal)
Special mention: Dragfox (Lisa Ott)
Never Miss A Scene
The Far Out Film Newsletter
All the latest film news from the independent voice of culture.
Straight to your inbox.