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| Saoirse Ronan attends the British Academy Scotland Awards Photo: Getty Images for BAFTA |
The stars were out in force for last night's BAFTA Scotland awards, which celebrate the best of the country's film and television output. This year's Best Feature winner was, unusually, a documentary, Chloe Fairweather's dying to divorce, which looks at the frequency of domestic violence in Turkey through the stories of women visiting divorce lawyer Ipek Bozkurt. The director won the the BAFTA Cymru Breakthrough Award earlier this year. Despite taking the top award, it did not win in the Best Documentary category, with that award going to Lizzie MacKenzie's The Hermit Of Treig, which took the Audience Award at the Glasgow Film Festival back in March.
Jack Lowden was hailed as Best Actor for his portrayal of war poet Siegfried Sassoon in biopic Benediction, and the Best Actress award went to Izuka Hoyle for her work in Boiling Point. For Hoyle, the highlight of the night was receiving her award from her acting hero, Brian Cox.
The winner of this year's Short Film & Animation Award was Sean Lionadh's potent Glaswegian drama Too Rough, which now qualifies for a shot at the Academy Awards next year. "I’m amazed that a film so Scottish can enter the Oscars race," said Lionadh. "Growing up in Glasgow, nothing felt cinematic about my childhood in Scotland. To me, cinema was Hollywood, beauty and magic. But in making this film, I realised Scotland could be cinematic."
There was a special award for Peter Capaldi to celebrate his Outstanding Contribution to Film and Television. A regular attendee at the event, Capaldi said that he credited his award to being lucky enough to be born in Scotland, adding that his parents had taught him everything he knows about "the real Scottish virtues of hard work and sarcasm." He also thanked Bill Forsyth for casting him in Local Hero back in 1983, giving him his big break. "It was an act of kindness and confidence that baffled me and much of the industry to this day," he said, "but I wouldn't be here without him and nor would a lot of others."
Alongside the award winners, guests at the event, which took place at the Doubletree Hotel in Glasgow, included Saoirse Ronan, Kate Dickie, Catriona Balfe and Dougray Scott.
