London Film Festival director 'super happy' with event despite 'tough circumstances'

Tricia Tuttle at the BFI London Film Festival
Getty Images for BFI

London Film Festival director Tricia Tuttle today said was “super happy” with this year’s event which has survived “tough circumstances”.

Ms Tuttle said the festival’s success was proof there was a strong “demand for culture”, adding it had provided film fans with a “collective moment” to come together amid the pandemic.

This year’s festival was part-digital and closed yesterday with the premiere of film Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan. Another Round, directed by Thomas Vinterberg and starring Mads Mikkelsen, was last night announced as the winner of the festival’s Best Film at the inaugural Virtual LFF Audience Awards. This was the first time audiences voted for the award-winners.

Over the festival there were 56 virtual premieres and 16 in-cinema premieres across the UK, with 237 screenings at BFI Southbank and 12 partner cinemas nationally.

Tricia Tuttle at the BFI London Film Festival
Getty Images for BFI

Around 60 per cent of audience for virtual premieres came from London.

Speaking to the Standard, Tuttle said: "We are super happy with how London Film Festival has gone. Especially in these tough circumstances. We have been very inventive in the climate we have been presented with. Doing it was challenging but we are very pleased.

Ammonite, starring Kate Winslet and Saoirse Ronan
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"We now have a hybrid festival which marked a lot of change but that we hope to have going forward. We had a really strong programme of films, events and VR. There hadn’t been a major film festival since Berlin – so on the circuit as it were there was nothing between February and September. We had a scaled down programme, from 200 down to 60, but they were really strong films. We know audiences engaged with them digitally and in person. It was great to have a collective cultural moment all together. The demand for culture is very much there."

Other winners of the Audience Awards included Cathy Brady, the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary winner who took home the £50,000 prize. She directed Wildfire, which premiered on October 10.

Best Short Film was presented to Tommy Gillard for Shuttlecock, Best Documentary was presented to Benjamin Ree for The Painter and the Thief and Best XR/Immersive Art was presented to Anna West and David Callanan for To Miss the Ending.