Adam Elliot’s stop-motion animation Memoir Of A Snail has won the Best Film Award in Official Competition at the 68th BFI London Film Festival (LFF).
Australian director Elliot’s second feature-length animation is a story of a melancholic woman – voiced by Sarah Snook – who is a hoarder of snails, romance novels and guinea pigs.
Scroll down for the full list of LFF 2024 winners
The film had its world premiere in competition at Annecy in June where it also won the top prize, and went on to open Melbourne film festival and win awards at festivals in Sitges and Ottawa. Anton and Charades handle international sales, having secured a slew of deals earlier this year including IFC Films for the US. Modern Films is distributing the film in the UK and Ireland, setting a theatrical release for February 2025 and an awards campaign.
The Official Competition jury praised “a singular achievement in filmmaking. Emotionally resonant and constantly surprising, Memoir tackles pertinent issues such as bullying, loneliness and grief head-on, creating a crucial and universal dialogue in a way that only animation can.” It is the first animated film to receive the Best Film prize since its introduction for the 2009 festival.
Rungano Nyoni’s On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, centring on a sexual predator in a close-knit Zambian community, received a special mention.
Laura Carreira’s UK debut On Falling continued a successful festival run by taking the LFF Sutherland Award for Best First Feature, for its portrait of a young Portuguese warehouse employee in Scotland. The jury credited “a richly-layered portrait of a world governed by corporate profit motive, as seen through the story of an immigrant woman whose alienation we feel deeply, told with masterful cinematic precision and understated, lived-in performances.”
Carreira won the Best Director award for the film at San Sebastian last month, following its launch at Toronto. Conic acquired UK-Ireland rights on the film earlier this week, as one of a series of international sales.
The Grierson Award for Best Documentary went to Cecile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson’s UK title Mother Vera, about a young Orthodox nun who must confront her past and face her desires. The Documentary jury noted that “the balance of aesthetic beauty and emotional depth makes Mother Vera a powerful meditation on personal growth and resilience.” It is produced by Laura Shacham for She Makes Productions.
Palestine was represented among the LFF winners for a second consecutive year, in the shape of Rehab Nazzal’s Best Short Film winner Vibrations From Gaza, a documentary depicting the experience of Palestinian Deaf children in the territory under siege from Israeli military attacks.
Voting for three audience awards in Best Narrative Feature, Best Documentary Feature and Best Short Film is underway on the BFI website, closing at 23.59 BST on Wednesday, October 23 and announced at the end of the month.
The festival closes with the European premiere of Morgan Neville’s Piece By Piece, a Lego animation about the life of music superstar Pharrell Williams, this evening (Sunday, October 20).
BFI London Film Festival 2024 winners
Official Competition Best Film Award – Memoir Of A Snail, dir. Adam Elliot
Special mention – On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, dir. Rungano Nyoni
Sutherland Award for Best First Feature – On Falling, dir. Laura Carreira
Special mention – Olivia & The Clouds, dir. Tomás Pichardo Espaillat
Grierson Award for Best Documentary – Mother Vera, dirs. Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson
Special mention – The Shadow Scholars, dir. Eloise King
Best Short Film – Vibrations From Gaza, dir. Rehab Nazzal
Special mention – Dragfox, dir. Lisa Ott
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