Edinburgh International Film Festival announces winners of the new Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence and The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition.
The winner of the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence is The Ceremony by Jack King.
The winner of the Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition is Manny Wolfe by Trevor Neuhoff.
The relaunched Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has today announced the winners of its new prize for feature filmmaking and its new prize for short filmmaking.
The awards were presented at a special ceremony at Cameo Cinema in Edinburgh by Jason Connery on behalf of The Connery Foundation and by legendary film editor Thelma Schoonmaker.
The winner of the inaugural The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, decided on by an audience vote and funded by The Connery Foundation is The Ceremony by Jack King.
Ten feature-length World Premieres were presented at EIFF as part of the competition with the winning filmmaker being awarded £50,000 to support their future projects.
The other films in competition films were Arash Rakhsha’s urgent documentary All The Mountains Give; Mary Jiménez and Bénédicte Liénard’s richly poetic Fugue (Fuga); Will Seefried’s haunting queer drama Lilies Not For Me; Daisy-May Hudson’s stirring film Lollipop; Abdolreza Kahani’s subversive comedy drama A Shrine; Bryan Carberry’s clear-eyed take on artificial intelligence *smiles and kisses you*; Nina Conti’s absurdist road movie Sunlight; Kelsey Taylor’s dark psychological thriller To Kill A Wolf; and Manuela Irene’s delicately moving Xibalba Monster.
The winner of The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition is Manny Wolfe by Trevor Neuhoff.
The short film competition winner was also decided on by an audience vote and is awarded £15,000 to support their future projects.
The other shorts in the competition were Lisa Clarkson’s starkly realist Paternal Advice; Jamie Di Spirito’s powerful Homework; Gavin Reid’s quirky and poignant documentary My Dad and The Volcano; Liberty Smith’s experimental documentary My Exploding House; Max Olson’s bold and haunting Nico; Inés Villanueva’s beautiful Argentine comedy Shoal (Cardumen); and Wilma Smith’s Jubilee which blends live-action with napkin-based stop-motion animation.
EIFF Director, Paul Ridd has said “We are so pleased to be presenting these inaugural awards for excellence in filmmaking to two incredibly exciting films and filmmaking teams. These new EIFF awards were set up to support new and emerging filmmakers in their careers. Both these films show immense vision and skill at connecting with audiences and we wish both filmmakers the very best for the future.”
EIFF 2024 is supported by Screen Scotland and the BFI Audience Projects Fund, awarding National Lottery funding, the Industry Programme is backed by EXPO funding from the Scottish Government through Creative Scotland, and EventScotland part of VisitScotland’s Events Directorate.
Edinburgh International Film Festival ran from Thursday 15 to Wednesday 21 August 2024.
