Bangladeshi filmmaker Nuhash Humayun’s “Pett Kata Shaw” won best international feature at the 31st Raindance Film Festival‘s jury awards. British documentary filmmaker Kit Vincent won best U.K. feature for his debut feature “Red Herring.”
Some 75% of this year’s features are debuts and debut features swept the board at the jury awards with all eight award-winning films being debuts.
Michael Pitt won best performance for British actor Jack Huston‘s directorial debut “Day of the Fight.” Fisnik Maxville was named best director for his debut feature “The Land Within,” which previously won awards at Tallinn Black Nights, Galway Film Fleadh and PriFest. Catalan directors Alejandro Rojas and Sebastián Vasquez won the discovery award for their debut feature “Upon Entry.”
Chelsea Greene, Rob Grobman and Edivan Guajajara’s “We Are Guardians” won best documentary while David Wyte won best cinematography for “All the Colours of the World Are Between Black and White.” Erika Calmeyer and Johan Fasting won best screenplay for “Storm.”
Among the festival’s awards for shorts, following the success of their Oscar-winning short “An Irish Goodbye,” Tom Berkeley and Ross White won the Oscar-qualifying best short of the festival for “The Golden West.” Shalini Adnani’s “White Ant” won best U.K. short, Sophy Romvari’s “It’s What Each Person Needs” documentary short and Karni Arieli and Saul Freed’s “Wild Summon” animation short.
At Raindance’s script competition 2023 supported by Celtx, Cathriona Slammon’s “What Little Girls Are Made Of” won best unproduced screenplay.
This year’s juries included actor-director Celyn Jones, filmmakers Duncan Jones, Finn Bruce and Michael Winterbottom, actors Michael Socha, Rory Kinnear, Samuel Bottomley, Sope Dirisu and Vinette Robinson, critic Ashanti Omkar, director of acquisitions at Hanway Genevieve Segall, Mubi’s Natalie Ralph, director of MetFilm School Jonny Persey, U.K. Muslim Film’s Sajid Varda, senior global publicity manager at Universal Millen Lemma, director of public programs and audiences at BFI Jason Wood, director of shorts at Raindance Charlotte Hamblin, Bertha Doc House’s Jenny Horwell, producers Rob Watson and Nadira Murray, director-editor Claire Ferguson and founder and CEO of Together Films Sarah Mosses.
The awards took place at London’s Wonderville. The festival runs Oct. 25-Nov. 4.
