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| Imperium took the top prize at LFF Photo: Courtesy of London Film Festival |
The Sutherland award for Best Film in the First Feature Competition went to Sompot Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples To Heaven.
Imperium, which premiered at Venice Film Festival, "reframes Soviet history once again via the revealing gaze of Italian cameramen who captured life there in the early 1970s".
The jury, headed by documentarian Sam Pollard, alongside Mariano Llinas and DDA chief strategy officer Julie La Bassiere, said it is “an extraordinary film that explores the Soviet Union in the early 1970s from a rich archive with a wide-ranging perspective that looks at life in a country with an extraordinary social and cultural landscape that has rarely been seen. The film is richly evocative and emotionally engaging on all levels giving us a visually arresting perspective of life before the Soviet Union was broken apart”.
Chidgasornpongse’s 9 Temples To Heaven is a family drama about a man taking his ill mum and family on a pilgrimage.
Asmahan Bkerat’s Concrete Land won the Grierson Award for Best Film in the Documentary Competition.
The result of the Audience Awards will be revealed after voting closes on Wednesday, October 21.
Winners:
• Official Competition – Best Film – Imperium, dir. Sergei Loznitsa
• First Feature Competition – Sutherland Award – 9 Temples To Heaven, dir. Sompot Chidgasornpongse; Special mention – Masc, dir. Bertil Nilsson
• Documentary Competition – Grierson Award for Best Film – Concrete Land, dir. Asmahan Bkerat; Special mention – Queer Edward II, dir. Theo Rollason
• Short Film Competition - Best Film - Aman, dir. Rahul Roye; Special mention – Daughters Of The Late Colonel, dir. Elizabeth Hobbs
The winning Short Film, Aman, is available to watch on BFI player for free until October 24.
