Editor

The Edinburgh International Film Festival today announced the winners in the six competition categories for feature films at an Awards Ceremony prior to the Closing Gala of the world premiere of THIRD STAR. The awards were presented by EIFF Artistic Director Hannah McGill and Patrons Tilda Swinton and Seamus McGarvey on the penultimate day of the Festival at Cineworld. This year's winners are:

The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film, sponsored by the UK Film Council

SKELETONS - Directed by Nick Whitfield

PPG Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film

DAVID THEWLIS in Mr Nice

Projector.tv Best International Feature Award

THE DRY LAND - Directed by Ryan Piers Williams

Moët New Directors Award

GARETH EDWARDS for Monsters

Best Feature Documentary Award

THE OATH - Directed by Laura Poitras

Standard Life Audience Award

The Award will be announced at the Awards Ceremony

This year's Michael Powell Jury were actor Sir Patrick Stewart who presided over the five-strong Jury: director Mike Hodges; film curator Laurence Kardish; director Rafi Pitts and actress Britt Ekland.

The Jury citation read: "The Michael Powell Jury, having considered the eleven films in competition for the Best New British Feature Film, is pleased to announce two unanimous decisions. A Special Mention to Edward and Rory McHenry for their animated revision of modern British history, JACKBOOTS ON WHITEHALL, and the Michael Powell Award goes to writer/director Nick Whitfield whose debut feature SKELETONS best exemplifies the spirit of Michael Powell in its original vision and dark humour."

On awarding David Thewlis the PPG Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film, the Jury cited: "The Michael Powell Jury is pleased to announce it has unanimously decided to present the PPG Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film to David Thewlis for his energetic and electrifying performance as Jim McCann in Bernard Rose's feature MR NICE."

David Thewlis commented: "This is a thrill and totally unexpected, and made all the more special by being honoured by one of my favourite cities in the world. Thank you."

Lizzie Francke, Senior Production Executive with the UK Film Council, sponsor of the Michael Powell and Best British Short Film awards added: "The UK Film Council's support for  Edinburgh's film festival and the Michael Powell award underlines our commitment to promote and nurture new British film talent.   Nick Whitfield's Skeletons is an imaginative and touching debut film and winning the Michael Powell award confirms he is a talent to look out for.  And in looking at new talent coming through short filmmaking, Daniel Mulloy's Baby proves he is a writer/director with enormous promise."

The Projector.tv Best International Feature Award was deliberated by a Jury of three: comedian/director Ben Miller, actor Jason Isaacs and producer Lynda Myles.

The Jury citation read: "The winner is THE DRY LAND. We thought this delicate and emotional film took a subject that could have been predictable and explored it with a refreshing subtlety of characterisation, with universally beautiful performances and with a respect for the audience's intelligence that made it not only a superbly told, gripping and relevant story, but a natural and unanimous winner.

We'd also like to commend two other films that gave us an enormous amount of pleasure locked, as we were, in dark rooms all day during the longest unbroken stretch of Edinburgh sunshine on record: For transporting us with a magnificent aesthetic flair, for its hypnotic cast and for creating an entirely believable world of monstrously amoral hit men that, despite ourselves, we all wanted to hang out with, we commend the epic landscape of SNOWMAN'S LAND.

And for giving us 2 hours of unbridled snorting laughter with a bucket-load of soppily embarrassing feelgood tears thrown in for good measure, we commend the unalloyed good time that is BARRY MUNDAY."

The Moët New Directors Award was deliberated by a Jury of three, and their citation read: "The very high standard of the competitors for the Moët New Director's Award made the selection process as difficult as it was pleasurable. There were, for all of the jurors, four stand-out films. We would like to give special mentions to NOTHING PERSONAL, SON OF BABYLON and WINTER'S BONE. And we give the award, which acknowledges both ability and potential, to MONSTERS and its maker Gareth Edwards, whose extraordinary talents we confidently expect to see a great deal more of in the years to come."

EIFF Artistic Director, Hannah McGill said: "We have had a tremendous festival experience this year, and it's a particular pleasure to close with the world premiere of a film as beautiful, idiosyncratic and moving as Third Star. I warmly congratulate all of our award-winners, as well as the generous supporters of those awards; and I thank the wonderful people on our juries for their enthusiasm and dedication."

The Documentary Jury citation read: "The jury found themselves faced with a difficult choice between two very different but oddly complementary films. We would first like to make a special mention: of Sebastian Junger and Tim Hetherington's RESTREPO, for its visceral intensity and unflinching honesty. But in recognition of the complexity and subtlety of its storytelling; the brilliance of its conception and execution; and the presence of an  authorial voice that is strong without being didactic, the jury awards the EIFF 2010 Best Feature Documentary