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| Richard Johnson with Gemma Jones and Tom Brown at Glasgow Film Festival. Photo: Eoin Carey |
It's 11 years old, but the Glasgow Film Festival has just given out its first Audience Award. Chosen by some of the 40,000 film fans who packed the city's screens during the 12 day celebration of cinema, it was won by British independent film Radiator and presented at tonight's closing ceremony, before a gala screening of Force Majeure.
"Receiving the Audience Award has made us all terrifically happy," said writer/director Tom Browne. "Radiator has an unfashionable theme and was made on a tiny budget. Unsurprisingly it is taking a while for the film to find a place within the film industry so to receive this award is very significant for Radiator's future. Richard [Johnson], Gemma [Jones] and I had a great time in Glasgow - we were treated so kindly and were touched by the engagement of the audiences."
"We’ve always known that our audience has the best taste and now they have proved that all over again," said festival director Allan Hunter. "They couldn't have picked a more worthwhile winner than Radiator. Tom Browne's deeply autobiographical film resonates across the generations as it deals with the dynamics of family relationships and the challenges we will all face in our final years... I only hope distributors will take encouragement from the public passion for Radiator and the Audience Award and bring the film to the wider audience it clearly deserves."
Although it ran fewer screenings than in previous years due to the unavailability of screens at Cineworld, the festival saw an audience growth of 7% per event, with 45% completely sold out. Next year's will run from 17 to 28 February and tickets will be available from late January, so choose quickly when the time comes if you want to be sure of getting them.
