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| Author | Tom Linay |
It may have been in an understandably different format but the 64th BFI London Film Festival still felt like a life-affirming success. Packed West End cinemas had to be replaced by socially distant cinemas but crucially they were up and down the country, with the festival travelling to the furthest reaches of the British isles, with screenings as far away as Guernsey and Thurso, at the most northern cinema on the British mainland.
The festival drew to a close this weekend with the UK premiere of Francis Lee’s Ammonite. Lee's follow-up to God's Own Country is about pioneering fossil hunter Mary Anning, played in potentially award-winning form by Kate Winslet with support from Saoirse Ronan. The film was simultaneously screened across the country and was one of 13 highly anticipated films throughout the festival to do so.
A number of films premiered on the festival’s digital platform too and over 100 pieces of digital event content were created. A hugely ambitious XR and immersive strand was launched this year too, including building a VR museum from scratch. These are just a few of the innovative ways that the festival reached audiences during these unprecedented times.
For the first time too there was a virtual audience awards ceremony, which replaced the usual awards strands. Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round, starring Mads Mikkelsen about four friends, all high school teachers, who test a theory that they will improve their lives by maintaining a constant level of alcohol in their blood, was the winner of the Best Film prize.
Festival Director Tricia Tuttle said the awards have become a staple of the festival: “There was never a moment in this utterly crazy year when we considered not delivering a BFI London Film Festival,” says Tricia Tuttle, BFI London Film Festival Director. “We know LFF means too much to both filmmakers and audiences. So how fitting, then, that we put audiences in control of the awards this year with our first Virtual LFF Audience Awards. And dammit, don’t our audiences have great taste?!”
Once again, the festival team pulled off a hugely successful festival and while we all hope the festival is back to something closer to normality next year it shows that the LFF team can still pull off a celebration of cinema in even the most testing times.