56th London Film Festival Awards Ceremony Live Blog

As the 56th London Film Festival nears its close, the awards ceremony is about to kick off and London Film Fanatiq is in the house for Blogomatic3000.  The red carpet saw many representatives of this year’s nominees greet the crowds and discuss their work with the press.  Several jury members, ncluding Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman also came out to pay tribute to the talent behind some of the festival’s finest features.  For the full set of photos, just click on Ms Al Mansour below:

Haifaa Al Mansour, Saudi Arabia’s first female director whose amazing Wadjda is in contention tonight

Check out all the nominees after the jump and check back for live updates as the awards are handed out from 21.00 GMT.

THE NOMINEES

 

The Official Competition selection is:

After Lucia, Michel Franco, Mexico

End of Watch, David Ayer, USA

Everyday, Michael Winterbottom, UK

Fill The Void, Rama Burshtein, Israel

Ginger and Rosa, Sally Potter, UK

In the House, François Ozon, France

It Was The Son, Daniele Ciprì, Italy/France

Lore, Cate Shortland, Germany/Australia/UK

Midnight’s Children, Deepa Mehta, Canada/UK

No, Pablo Larraín, Chile/USA/Mexico

Rust and Bone, Jacques Audiard, France/Belgium

Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh, USA/UK

 

The Sutherland Award has been recognising original and imaginative feature debut directing talent since 1958. Presiding over the jury for this illustrious award is journalist  and former director of the Edinburgh International Film Festival, Hannah McGill and her fellow jurors comprise  award-winning novelist, Sebastian Faulks CBE, Emmy and BAFTA-winning filmmaker David Yates, BAFTA award-winning producer of Warp Films, Robin Gutch, and stage and screen actress  Louise Brealey.

The First Feature competition selection is:

Beasts of the Southern Wild, Benh Zeitlin, USA

Clip, Maja Miloš, Serbia

The Comedian, Tom Shkolnik, UK

Eat Sleep Die, Gabriela Pichler, Sweden

My Brother The Devil, Sally EI Hosaini, UK

Neighbouring Sounds, Kleber Mendonça Filho, Brazil

The Samurai that Night, Masaaki Akahori, Japan

Shell, Scott Graham, UK

Ship of Theseus, Anand Gandhi, India

Sleeper’s Wake, Barry Berk, South Africa

Tomorrow, Andrey Gryazev, Russia

Wadjda, Haifaa Al Mansour, Saudi Arabia/Germany

The Grierson Award for Best Documentary, presented in partnership with the Grierson Trust, recognises  films with integrity, originality, and social or cultural significance. The jury is presided over by BAFTA-winning documentary filmmaker Roger Graef  who is joined by the multi award-winning,  fearless  foreign correspondent and world affairs editor John Simpson,  vice chairman of the Grierson Trust Emma Hindley, Head of Documentary Commissioning at the BBC, Charlotte Moore and award-winning documentary filmmaker Morgan Matthews.

The Documentary Competition selection is:

Beware of Mr. Baker, Jay Bulger, USA/South Africa

Canned Dreams, Katja Gauriloff, Finland

The Central Park Five, Ken Burns, David McMahon, Sarah Burns, USA

The Ethnographer, Ulises Rosell, Argentina

For No Good Reason, Charlie Paul, UK

Free Angela and All Political Prisoners, Shola Lynch, USA/France

Les Invisibles, Sébastien Lifshitz, France

Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, Alex Gibney, USA/Ireland

The Summit, Nick Ryan, Ireland/Switzerland

Turned Towards The Sun, Greg Olliver, UK/France/Germany

Village at the End of the World, Sarah Gavron, UK/Denmark/Greenland

West of Memphis, Amy Berg, USA

The Best British Newcomer Award is presented in partnership with Swarovski and recognises new British talent, this year highlighting accomplishments in writing, directing and acting. Jury president is BAFTA-winning producer David Heyman and fellow jurors include acclaimed actor Tom Hiddleston, award-winning actress Olivia Colman, celebrated author Kazuo Ishiguro, and BAFTA-winning director Eran Creevy.

The Best British Newcomer selection is:

Fady Elsayed, Actor, MY BROTHER THE DEVIL

Sally EI Hosaini, Director/Screenwriter, MY BROTHER THE DEVIL

Rufus Norris, Director, BROKEN

Eloise Laurence, Actor, BROKEN

Chloe Pirrie, Actor, SHELL

Scott Graham, Director/Screenwriter, SHELL

Tom Shkolnik, Director/Screenwriter, THE COMEDIAN

Rowan Athale, Director/Screenwriter, WASTELAND

LIVE BLOG:

21.00 Well, we’ve been given a 15 minute warning.  So we’re not quite ready to kick off just yet.  Don’t worry, though, we’re all far too excited to mind.
21.21 I’ll be rooting for No, Wadjda, Maxima Mea Culpa, and Fady Elsayed

21.23 Host Sue Perkins has taken the stage and we’re off.

21.26  Piranha 3DD joke falls pretty flat. Which is ironic, when you think of it.

21.30  While a clip reel plays, I’ll mention that earlier Oliva Colman told us that her favourite of the five first features she saw is tonight’s winner.  What’s it gonna be?

21.34  Sir Christopher Lee gingerly takes the stage to present the BFI Fellowship Award to Tim Burton.

21.36  Christopher Lee really should narrate everything, always.

21.43 Burton tribute now screening with all his films highlighted along with interview bits from Danny Elfman and Martin Short (plus, Helena, of course).  I still think he gets a lot of unfair stick.  He has created a lot of magnificent imagery, if nothing else.

21.46  HBC vouches for Britishdom and a knighthood for her hubby

21.48 Burton onstage now, humbly accepting his award and keeping it relatively short.

21.50 Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman are up now to award the Best British Newcomer award.

21.53  Sally Hosaini wins for My Brother the Devil! Well earned, indeed.

21.59  Next up is the award for best doc…

22.04 Press room is overly eventful with Sally Hosaini speaking to press in one corner, Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman in another and the awards ongoing on the screen.

22.06  And Alex Gibney wins for Mea Maxima Culpa

22.12 First Feature award is next up, but we’ve lost all audio in the press room now…

22.16  The winner isssss…

22.17  Beasts of the Southern Wild… I won’t be class-less, but I respectfully disagree with this call.

22.20  Be sure to check out my twitter feed for dodgy phone cam shots of the stars in the press room.

22.23  Last up is the Official Competition.

22.28  “Respectability is sometimes a place where villains go to hide” – Alex Gibney

22.30  Rust and Bone wins the feature competition. Well… again, I’ll withhold comment.

22.31  That’s it for the awards and almost it for the 56th London Film Festival.  There’s still one final day tomorrow to catch some fantastic feature films well ahead of release or, in some cases, films that may not see a wide UK distribution.

22.35  Oh, wait… there’s more.  Another BFI Fellowship Award to Helena Bonham Carter.

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About LondonFilmFan

Amateur film critic and photographer residing in sunny London.