Award winners announced at 2024 BFI London Film Festival

The BFI London Film Festival in partnership with American Express today announces the winners of this year’s LFF Awards. The competition sections are a celebration of the most exciting, innovative new films and cinematic storytelling; creative, beautiful and often provocative, the films showcase an incredible range of talent from across the world. 

The winning films, which were chosen by four esteemed LFF juries, explore a fascinating breadth of themes and stories, including an animation stop-motion triumph, a masterful depiction of an immigrant woman’s alienation, an exquisite and powerful documentary on the personal growth and resilience of an Orthodox nun and an urgent and reflective documentary on the experience of growing up deaf in Gaza. The winner of the Best Film award will screen again this evening to close the festival, while the winning short film is available to watch for free until the end of the festival on BFI Player.  

The popular Audience Awards also return for 2024, with audiences being able to vote for their favourite work at this year’s festival, be it fiction, documentary, short or immersive work. Three awards for Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Short Film will be awarded; voting is open now and closes at 23:59 on Wednesday 23 October. The winners of the Audiences Awards will be announced at the end of October. 

The winners of this year’s films screening In Competition are: 

• Winner of the Best Film Award in Official Competition – Memoir of a Snail (Dir. Adam Elliot) 
• Winner of the Sutherland Award in the First Feature Competition – On Falling (Dir. Laura Carreira)  
• Winner of the Grierson Award in the Documentary Competition – Mother Vera (Dirs. Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson)  
• Winner of the Short Film Award in the Short Film Competition – Vibrations from Gaza (Dir. Rehab Nazzal) 

This year’s jury presidents were: Alexandre O. Philippe, (Official Competition), Dionne Edwards (First Feature Competition), June Givanni, (Documentary Competition) and Chloe Abrahams (Short Film Competition). 

Oscar-winning director Adam Elliot’s tale of separated twins in 1970s Australia is a funny and moving stop-motion triumph. 

The Official Competition jury said: “Our jury was incredibly moved by Adam Elliot’s Memoir of a Snail, which is a singular achievement in filmmaking. Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can. The jury is delighted to recognise an animated film alongside its live-action peers.” 

“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 Grace Puddle,” said Elliot. “This film was made by so many wonderful artists who toiled very long days, months and years to bring our blobs of clay to life. This award is for them. To win best film among such incredible films from around the world shows that stopmotion animation is alive and well and is not a genre but a wonderful medium and vehicle to tell potent and universal stories that can make audiences both laugh and cry. Thank you to the BFI, the jury and the London audiences for supporting our eccentric film.” 

An intricately crafted story brimming with imagination that dares to say the unsayable about a sexual predator in a close-knit Zambian community. 

The importance of human connection lies at the heart of this nuanced portrait of a young Portuguese warehouse employee in Scotland. 

The First Feature Jury said: “We would like to give the Sutherland Prize to Laura Carreira‘s On Falling, a richly-layered portrait of a world governed by corporate profit motive, as seen through the story of an immigrant woman whose alienation we feel deeply, told with masterful cinematic precision and understated, lived in performances. A powerful, mesmerising and bold first feature. Congratulations to Carreira, we look forward to seeing where her cinematic journey goes next.” 

“I’m so honoured to receive the Sutherland award for On Falling,” said Carreira, “and for our film to join the long list of winners which includes some of my favourite films and most important cinema reference points. I want to extend my thanks to the jury and everyone involved in this amazing festival.  This award is shared with our incredible cast, and crew who brought this film to life. We hope the film speaks to the relentless and dehumanising growth of neoliberalism while reminding us that human nature will keep resisting. We offer our film in solidarity.” 

A kaleidoscopic feast for the eyes and ears that playfully blurs the line between memory and reality while masterfully exploring a range of animation styles. 

A visually striking documentary about a young Orthodox nun who must confront her past as she faces her desires and an uncertain future. 

The Documentary Competition Jury said: “This exquisite film masterfully captures the inner transformation of its central character using evocative visuals that mirror her emotional journey. Each frame is rich with detail, and the directors’ sensitive approach allows the audience to intimately experience Vera’s perspective as her story evolves. The balance of aesthetic beauty and emotional depth makes Mother Vera a powerful meditation on personal growth and resilience, and the delicate treatment of momentous issues such as addiction, lost love and faith is executed with profound potency. The Grierson Award goes to Mother Vera, directed by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson.” 

“We are thrilled and delighted that our film has been recognised by this prestigious award,” said Embleton and Tomlinson. “It was a great privilege that Vera trusted us with her story and was able to be so vulnerable in sharing her inner world with such honesty. We hope that audiences are moved by the film, which invites us to reflect and meditate on our own lives. We have been incredibly lucky to work with a team that brought tremendous amounts of care, innovation and dedication to this piece of work, and who are deeply committed to the art of documentary and cinema. 

“We would like to highlight the outstanding work of our producer, Laura Shacham, editor Romain Beck, sound designer Leonardo Cauteruccio and colourist Romain Kedochim. We would like to thank our executive producers Vikram Gudi and Murugan Thiruchelvam for their support. We would also like to thank the jury for recognising and celebrating the film, it means a great deal and we are very grateful and honoured.” 

Focusing on the groundbreaking work of Oxford professor Patricia Kingori, The Shadow Scholars shines a powerful light on the multi-billion-dollar global underworld of academic essay-writing, where overqualified yet underemployed young Kenyans write essays for students across the globe. Through Kingori’s search, the film presents a nuanced and layered exploration of an issue that not only deals with academic integrity but also highlights broader socioeconomic inequalities and ethical concerns, including artificial intelligence. The Shadow Scholars amplifies and empowers the voices of the shadows themselves, and Eloise King’s careful and insightful direction makes this work a thought-provoking and vital contribution to the global conversation on education. 

A documentary offering a glimpse into the resilience of Palestinian Deaf children in Gaza, who are living with Israel’s military attacks. 

The Short Film Competition Jury said: “We were astonished by the calibre of films in this competition and struggled to only award one film. We would like to give a special mention to Dragfox, a surprisingly moving and impressive stop-motion animation musical, which left our hearts melting after just eight minutes. Not a single frame was wasted. 

“Our winner is a film that used sound to send reverberations through our bodies and souls. Through its simplicity of storytelling, Vibrations from Gaza demands our presence, urging us not only to bear witness but to deeply reflect on the impact of growing up deaf in Gaza — a reality that many of us could never fully comprehend.” 

“I thank the BFI London Film Festival jury for honouring Vibrations from Gaza with the Short Film Award,” said director Rehab Nazzal, “and for recognizing 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 Israel. Since the 1948 Nakba, these children, their parents, and grandparents, have endured ongoing zionist colonisation, occupation, apartheid, and now genocide, while some western states continue to arm, finance and shield Israel from accountability. 

“I intended through this film to awaken our humanity to the cruelty imposed upon 2.2 million Palestinians in Gaza, and the use of the coastal territory as a testing ground for Israel’s killing machines, including sonic weapons. During dark times such as these, I believe that art can contribute to justice and freedom for all, not just for a few. Thank you, and Free Palestine, from the River to the Sea.” 

A child struggling with their identity and a charismatic fox learn to embrace their differences in this heartwarming stop-motion animation. 

• Official Competition (Best Film Award) – Jury President Alexandre O. Philippe (Director, 78/52: Hitchcock’s Shower Scene), Manori Ravindran and Reinaldo Marcus Green 
• First Feature Competition (Sutherland Award) – Jury President Dionne Edwards (Director, Pretty Red Dress), Julia Weigl and Bernardo Rondeau 
• Documentary Competition (Grierson Award) – Jury President June Givanni (Curator, programmer and founder of The June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive), Ella Glendining and Raul Niño Zambrano 
• Short Film Competition (Short Film Award) – Jury President Chloe Abrahams (Director, The Taste of Mango), Simisolaoluwa Akande and George Jaques