And the winners are...

Best Feature Narrative

Philophobia

Directed by Guy Davies 

Synopsis: Set in the rolling hills of the English countryside, Philophobia is a picture of small town adolescence. One week of school remains for Kai, an aspiring writer, and his friends while they sit their final exams. How they choose to spend this time will cost one of them their life and leave each of them changed forever.

Best Feature Documentary

Fighting For A City

Directed by Greg Hardes & Jacob Proud

Synopsis:The story of a young boxer on the road to his dream; a world title fight in his hometown of Leeds. On the way, we meet an extraordinary family, a father who trains his son and the most passionate fans in boxing. The film is set against the background of one city; Leeds. Half aspirational professionals and students, half austerity ravaged estates, Leeds is a schizophrenic metaphor for UK 2016. Our boxer bridges the two because this is a city in need of a hero. Can he match and fulfil their hopes and dreams?

Best Short Live Action Narrative

Dominant Species

Directed by Joseph Sackett

Synopsis: A queer sci-fi about 10 aliens in human host bodies learning how to be men.

Best Short Documentary

Yellow

Directed by Chris Franklin

Synopsis: When Australian documentary photographer Andrew Chapman was invited to the Austin Hospital in Melbourne to photograph open heart surgery for TIME magazine, the transplant team in the operating theatre next door invited him to photograph them as well. Little did he know, this same surgical team would be saving his life 17 years later.

Best Director

Philip Barantini 

For Boiling Point

Synopsis: During the busy run-up to Christmas, a single-take snapshot of the immense stress and skills of a talented head chef reveals that things are about to burst behind the restaurant’s flash façade.

Best Screenplay

I Don't Want to Set the World on Fire

Written by Tamara von Werthern

Synopsis: Society is coming to an end in the UK. But Emma and Paul are in luck, they built a bunker in their back garden and they will just sit it out. As long as they have each other and enough to eat, they should be fine. Their only contact to the outside world is their wind-up radio. But their dreams of safety are shattered.

Best Actor

Alice Lowe

For Innocence

Alice Lowe takes the trophy for her performance in INNOCENCE, a crime drama in which Alice's character detective sergeant Noble must solve a mysterious death at a care home. Her convincing and authentic performance guides audiences to solving the murder, but is she being misled?

Best Acting Ensemble

Cast Of Innocence

Synopsis: When a worker falls to his death at a care home, it appears to be a terrible accident. But when a detective questions a young man with Down syndrome spotted at the scene, they uncover a crime more shocking than anyone imagined.

Best Cinematography

BOILING POINT

DOP Matthew Lewis

This film is an ambitious single-shot drama that delicately follows a chef through his chaotic kitchen on a busy night. In a short of many remarkable aspects, the cinematography is something that stands out.

Best Animation

TWO BALLOONS

Directed by Mark C. Smith

Synopsis: Two adventurous lemurs navigate their dirigibles halfway around the world to a place where happenstance and fate threaten to disrupt their reunion.

Best Art Direction

One, no one, 100.000

by Karlijn Milder and Lotte Milder

Synopsis: Lynn, a young girl, stranded in a countryside manor. A storm raging outside gives her no other option than to stay. During this stay, she mingles with the inhabitants of her new environment, many like herself seeking refuge from the storm. One morning Lynn becomes intrigued by a mural depicting a utopian world. Staring around a room of vacant faces she can't help but notice the stark dissonance from her own reality. Is it all coherent or just a coincidence?

Best Post-Production

Unregistered

Post by Ivy Agregan

Synopsis: Unregistered is set in Los Angeles in the not too distant future, where the government limits one child per home as a solution to overpopulation. When the mysterious ATA and her boyfriend REKKER witness a second (unregistered) child get arrested in broad daylight, it ignites a fire burning within REKKER and forces ATA to question the state of society - as well as confront a secret of her own.

Best Music Video

MADBEN - GRIEF, DANCE TO DEATH

Directed by Charles Keramoal &Nobrain

Synopsis: A soldier wakes up in a desertic landscape. Completly lost, he walks for days and weeks before encountering a mysterious object. His journey will lead him to a brutal awakening

Best First-Time Filmmaker

Harris Alvi

For My Father The Martyr

Synopsis: A disowned ex-muslim travels back to his family home after hearing terrible news. However, things have changed in his family and in his home town.

For more information about the winners and all the nominations, please visit our website.

More information

Watch the winning and nominated films online!

The Lift-Off Season Awards VOD page is now live. Here you can find a wonderful collection of 35 of the winning and nominated films. This collection will be available for one month giving you the time to enjoy the films from the comfort of your own home. Attendees and Network Members can access this for free via the dashboard.

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Photos