Our 2022 Awards

Best Documentary/Audience Choice

Ithaka

Filmed over two years, this documentary follows 76 year-old retired builder, John Shipton’s tireless campaign to save his son, Julian Assange.

Now with Julian facing a 175 year sentence if extradited to the US, his family members are confronting the prospect of losing Julian forever to the abyss of the US justice system.

Director – Ben Lawrence

Best Student Documentary

Pull

A short documentary following Grace David’s journey with trichotillomania, a compulsive hair pulling disorder. The film explores the sensory experience of having the condition as well as exploring how close relationships are impacted as a result of having the condition.

Director – Louise Deverux

Best Student Film

Letter To You

Sheltered in her own world of music and carefreeness, a curious young girl fights against a mysterious melancholia as she whizzes on her roller-skates around the most colourful London.

Director – Niccolò Salvato

Best Experimental Film

Kassandra

Five girls born to French families of the African diaspora are confronted with a murder. On an uninhabited island near Marseille the girls battle to find the truth and escape back to civilisation. Power dynamics within the group are tested and their mascot, partially sighted, Kassandra, could be the only one who can divine the crime and lead them back to safety.

Director – Ivar Wigan

Best Thriller

Back into Your Arms

At the end of the night, a phone call from a girl about her father’s decision shocks mother. Now, she must take the most important decision about her daughter’s life.

Director – Behrad Sahebgharani

Best Actor

Jonas Coppus – Brother

Brother (2021) is a short film (drama, fiction) about the impact of psychosis on a family. Brothers Ivo (16) and Tom (18) are very close. One day Ivo notices that Tom is showing unusual behaviour. His big brother Ivo who he has always looked up to is about to lose his mental sanity. When Tom’s behaviour is becoming increasingly alarming, Ivo faces a difficult decision. Will he ever get his brother back?

Director – Lisanne Sweere

Best Actress

Amber Rose Mason – Wildcat

Mary Todd Lincoln, who is committed to an insane asylum by her last living relative, tries to prove her sanity with the help of a medium and her dead son.

Based on true events.

Director – Cat Dale

Best Comedy

Thrill Of Missing Out

Thrill of Missing Out documents the lives of couple Sarah and Mel on the brink of becoming parents and how they overcame Sarah’s addiction to missing things.

Directors – Robert Gilbert, Griffin Stevens

Best LGBTQIA+ Film

Dash

A small town stable man struggles with his femininity amidst a rugged rural landscape. As his favourite horse is set to be euthanised at the end of the week he is forced to make a decision. Will he continue to live like this?

Director – Rory Fleck Byrne

Best British Film

Road Trip

A mother and daughter go on their last ever road trip together.

Director – Natalie A. Evans

Best Drama

All that Glitters

A desperate teenager snatches a rich woman’s handbag but in a bizarre twist of fate discovers her life is not as rosy as it seems and that they have more in common than he realises.

Director – Dan Bronzite

Best Animation

The Sprayer

In the land occupied with the sprayer’s army, no one has the right to grow any kind of plants either in public or private.

So many of the people and soldiers do not even know how a plant grows or looks, until one day one of the soldiers finds a seed buried deep down in the dust and his curiosity is just the beginning of something extraordinary, something big, something revolutionary.

Director – Farnoosh Abedi

Best International Film

The Lady Edison

In 1870, Margaret Knight launched a patent dispute that would be the first of its kind. She is forced to prove in court that she the designer, is the rightful owner of the patent of the machine that puts bottoms on paper bags; not Charles Annan, the man who has already built it

Director – Jaye Davidson

Social Impact Award

Hello, Muscles

Summertime in Scotland.

11-year-old Victoria lives with her mum and Samson the dog, along with Trevor, her mum’s boyfriend. Victoria hates Trevor. He’s a brute who calls her ‘Twiglet’ and locks Samson in a cage. But when she catches him stealing from her mum’s purse, Victoria realises enough is enough, she needs to get tough and get rid of Trevor once and for all.

But on her quest to build muscles, Victoria uncovers a different kind of strength, and reveals what it really means to be strong.

Director – Marnie Baxter