We are delighted to announce the winners of our prize for feature filmmaking and our 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.
The winner of this year’s The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, decided on by an audience vote and funded by The Connery Foundation is Kieron J. Walsh’s Skintown. 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.
Skintown sees best friends Vinny and Jonty party, cut deals and plan to escape small-town life in Northern Ireland during the 1994 ceasefire in this humorous, poignant and terrifically acted period piece with a killer ’90s soundtrack.
The winner of this year’s Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition, decided by an audience vote and funded by The Connery Foundation, is Sindha Agha’s Grief Room.
Ten World Premiere short films were presented at EIFF as part of the competition, with the winning filmmaker awarded £15,000 to support their future projects.
In Grief Room, Emily Beecham, Daisy Bevan and Louisa Harland are on peak form in this film about estranged sisters who reunite at their mother’s deathbed.
Paul Ridd, EIFF CEO and Festival Director, “The standard of films and filmmakers competing this year at EIFF has been exceedingly high. We are so proud of being able to launch this terrific work into the world, and we wish all our filmmakers the very best as they continue their journeys with their films and with their careers. It has been a pleasure to spend some time with these talented people this past week. Grief Room is a contained gem of wit, warmth and sadness, and Skintown is a beautiful, funny and very moving film. We are delighted to see that audiences have responded so enthusiastically to both films. Cinema is alive and well in the hands of these immense talents.”
