London Independent Film Festival announces 2020 winners

The London Independent Film Festival has announced the winning films from this year's official selection.

Following the festival’s opening with its sold-out screening for ‘The Golden Age’, LIFF welcomed a host of film professionals, actors and producers during its event and screened short films, documentaries and features in celebration of independent filmmaking.

Some of the winners announced today include ‘Philophobia’ for Best Low-Budget Feature, ‘The Cunning Man’ for Best Short Film and ’12 Days’ by Chari Eglinton for Best Screenplay.

Despite the coronavirus pandemic, the festival was able to run a majority of its screenings prior to the UK’s lockdown. Speaking today, LIFF Festival Director Natasha Marburger said: “We hope to celebrate with everyone when the time comes!” in regards to the current lockdown. The festival also hopes to reschedule at a later date several films that couldn't be screened in the final days of the programme.

Full List of selected award-winners

Below are the London Independent Film Festival’s list of selected winners from the 2020 official competition.

• Best UK Short (chosen by Twickenham Studios) - 'The Snow Maze'
• Best UK Short (chosen by RØDE Microphones) - 'Prospect'
• Best UK Short (chosen by Directors UK) - 'Brother'
• Best Short Film - 'The Cunning Man'
• Best Short Documentary - 'A Failure Of The Imagination'
• Best Animated Short - 'Pei’s Morocco Vlog'
• Best Experimental Short - 'StuK'
• Best Short Short - 'Neext'
• Best Sci-fi/Horror Short - 'Bad Dreams'
• Best Music Video - 'Idles'
• Best Low-Budget Feature - 'Philophobia'
• Best UK Feature - 'Kat & The Band'
• Best Documentary - 'A Soul Journey'
• Best Sci-fi/Horror Feature - 'Reborn'
• Best Production Design - 'Palindrome'
• Best LGBT Feature - 'Your Eyes On Me'
• Best Female-Director Feature - 'L’age D’or/The Golden Age'
• Best Screenplay - '12 Days' by Chari Eglinton
• Best Horror/Sci-fi Screenplay - 'The Dog Star' by Laura Matthews

Prizes are also being offered to winning filmmakers by LIFF’s partners including Twickenham Studios, RØDE Microphones and Directors UK.

Twickenham Studios is providing a day’s Baselight grade (projected or monitor) with a master file output for the Best UK Short winner.

RØDE Microphones is also awarding its RØDE VideoMic NTG, WS11 Deadcat, VC1 Cable and a Micro Boompole Pro to the Best UK Short winner.

All films selected at this year’s festival have the opportunity to be reviewed by UK Film Review where filmmakers can get in contact: info@ukfilmreview.co.uk.

All films can also be distributed online by UK Film Channel where filmmakers can email ukfilmchannel@gmail.com to find out more.

Highlights from the London Independent Film Festival

This year’s festival welcomed professionals from across the industry, and hosted a number of panels and talks. These included a festival panel covering aspects of short film production and what makes a good short film including how to strategise film festivals. The panel was held by Alida Pantone from London Rolling Film Festival, Philip Ilson from London Short Film Festival, Mark Brennan from Exit 6 Film Festival, and Paul McEvoy from FrightFest.

In addition, this year’s Film Business panel covered development, financing, sales and marketing. The panelists who took part include producer Julie Baines, Gary Phillips from Moviehouse Entertainment and Julian Richards from Jinga Films.

A lookback at 2020

Some of this year's memorable moments.

To find out more about the London Independent Film Festival visit the official website.