The British Movie Institute right this moment stated 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 revealed by the BFI stated 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 pageant in individual, 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 stated in a press release 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 screen tradition.”
The BFI right this moment additionally introduced the winners of the pageant’s viewers awards. Darren Thornton’s comedy-drama 4 Moms, about one Irish son juggling 4 very totally different moms, received the Viewers Award for Finest Function. Sophie Compton and Daisy-Could Hudson’s Holloway, which follows six girls who had been previously incarcerated at what was as soon as the most important girls’s jail in Europe received the Viewers Award for Finest Documentary, and Jamie Benyon’s Two Minutes, clinched the Viewers Award for Finest Quick 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. Large winners within the pageant’s competitors strands included Memoir Of A Snail, the most recent cease movement pic from Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam Elliot. That movie received greatest movie whereas Laura Carreira’s haunting debut characteristic On Falling received the Sutherland Award within the First Function Competitors. Produced by Jack Thomas-O’Brien at Sixteen Movies, On Falling is the primary British characteristic to win the Sutherland Award since 2010. Clio Barnard received it that yr with The Arbor. Earlier winners embrace Andrea Arnold, Lynne Ramsay, Robert Eggers, Julia Ducournau, and Mati Diop.
