The Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) has unveiled the winners of its feature filmmaking and short filmmaking awards on Wednesday evening.
Skintown, directed by Kieron J. Walsh, was awarded the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, voted on by the audience and funded by the Connery Foundation. The winner receives £50,000 ($68,055) to fund future projects.
A portrait of Northern Ireland youth in the 1990s, Skintown sees best friends Vinny and Jonty party, cut deals and plan to escape small-town life in Northern Ireland during the 1994 ceasefire, a period known as the Troubles. The festival called the film a “humorous, poignant and terrifically acted period piece with a killer ‘90s soundtrack.”
In an interview about Skintown, Walsh and actor Jack Rowan told THR that making the film “was a bumpy ride!”
Meanwhile, the Edinburgh festival also revealed on Wednesday evening that the Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence was awarded to Grief Room, directed by Sinda Agha. The winner receives £15,000 ($20,416) to fund future projects.
“Emily Beecham, Daisy Bevan and Louisa Harland are on peak form in this film about estranged sisters who reunite at their mother’s deathbed,” the festival highlighted. And a synopsis teases: “Using experimental tech to interpret their mother’s thoughts, the youngest becomes convinced of an urgent, final message they must uncover.”
EIFF CEO and festival director Paul Ridd lauded this year’s film lineup. “The standard of films and filmmakers competing this year at EIFF has been exceedingly high,” he said. “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. 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.”
