The award winners of the 15th edition of Glasgow Short Film Festival were announced on Sunday 27 August during the festival’s awards ceremony at the CCA – the festival’s first in-person ceremony in three years!
BILL DOUGLAS AWARD FOR INTERNATIONAL SHORT FILM 2022
Named in honour of Scotland’s greatest filmmaker, our international prize will be awarded to the film that best reflects the qualities found in the work of Bill Douglas: honesty, formal innovation, and cinematic storytelling that places sound and image centre stage. The award carries a cash prize of £1,000.
The Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film winner was decided by an international jury made up of Carla Vulpiani (Co-Founder of Varicoloured Holistic Film Agency, Project Manager for Torino Short Film Market, Short Film Advisor for Venice International Film Festival), Matevž Jerman (Programme Director of FeKK, Ljubljana Short Film Festival), and Ratchapoom Boonbunchachoke (Filmmaker of GSFF21 Bill Douglas Award winner, Red Aninsri; Or, Tiptoeing on the Still Trembling Berlin Wall).
The jury chose Handbook, directed by Pavel Mozhar (Belarus, Germany), as the GSFF22 winner of the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film.
The jury said: “Systematic government violence and rights reduction against opinions constantly happens under our eyes and in our own countries, and yet we deny to see or we become sick to fight against. Hit some to hit them all, that’s why we shall keep on fighting.
The jury decides to award a film which speaks universally and with clinical precision – thus appropriating the same systematic means of oppression used by the system it condemns. A film which was made out of sheer urgent necessity transforms a feeling of hopelessness into an empowering voice of rage. The Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film goes to Handbook by Pavel Mozhar.”
The jury’s Special Mention for the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film went to Sierra, directed by Sander Joon (Estonia).
The jury said: “For its entertaining quality, its strong cinematic feeling, heartfeltness and cuteness, a film takes us on for a hyper visual and colorful drive, portraying how to swing through life despite the expectations that are projected on us, a Special Mention in the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film goes to Sierra by Sander Joon.”
The International Audience Award as voted by the festival audience went to Love, Dad, directed by Diana Cam Van Nguyen.
SCOTLAND’S YEAR OF STORIES SHORT FILM AWARD 2022
This year our Scottish competition, the largest annual showcase of emerging local talent, has been supported by the Year of Stories 2022 Community Stories Fund. This fund is being delivered in partnership between VisitScotland and Museums Galleries Scotland with support from National Lottery Heritage Fund thanks to National Lottery players. This year the award carries a cash prize of £1,500.
The Scottish Competition winner was decided by a jury made up Aristotelis Maragkos (Filmmaker of the GSFF22 Opening Gala film, The Timekeepers of Eternity), Hannah Lavery (Poet, Playwright and Edinburgh Makar), and Ren Scateni (Head of Programme at Encounters Film Festival, Freelance Writer and Curator).
The jury chose The Bayview, directed by Daniel Cook, as the GSFF22 winner of the Scotland’s Year of Stories Short Film Award.
The jury said: “The Bayview impressed us for its gentle portrayal of a tight community of multiethnic fishermen and the extraordinary family that welcomes and nurtures them in a village on the northeast coast of Scotland. Daniel Cook approaches the characters kindly and gently invites us to join in their intimate moments of shared quotidian life. Questions of identity and displacement are subtly brought up pointing to the multicultural heart of Scottish rural communities, which are often undeservingly overlooked from nation-building conversations.”
The jury’s Special Mentions for the Scotland’s Year of Stories Short Film Award went to two films: Idrish, directed by Adam Lewis Jacob, and Too Rough, directed by Sean Lìonadh.
The jury said about Idrish: “In Idrish, at the core of the history of the anti-deportation movement in the UK stands the charismatic and thoughtful titular character. Adam Lewis Jacob poignantly allows veteran activist Muhammad Idrish to elaborate and reveal his thoughts, while linking the history of protest to potent issues of our present making compelling use of found fotage and archive sound.”
The jury said about Too Rough: “Too Rough allowed the narrative tension building to evolve into a gentle ant yet quietly revolutionary ending – a beautiful moment of a couple finding each other whilst upending the dominant, cis-hetero patriarchal gaze. Effectively directed to reveal difficult aspects of an abusive family while revealing the tender instances of a newfound love emerging.”
The Scottish Audience Award as voted by the festival audience went to Too Rough, directed by Sean Lìonadh.
YOUNG SCOTTISH FILMMAKER PRIZE
Glasgow Film Theatre and Eden Court in Inverness have joined forces with Glasgow Short Film Festival and GMAC Film to deliver the inaugural year of the Young Scottish Filmmakers Prize, supported by the BFI Film Academy (awarding funds from the National Lottery) and the Gannochy Trust and in association with BFI Film Academy SCENE.
The competition was open to young filmmakers aged 18-25, and judged by festival programmers and a jury of young people.
The jury chose Silvering, directed by Eilidh Nicoll, and Fart Car, directed by Fraser Scott,as the two winners of the inaugural Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize for 2022.
