God's Own Country wins EIFF's Michael Powell Award

Edinburgh International Film Festival doesn’t end until Sunday, when the curtain comes down on the event with the much-anticipated Morrissey biopic England Is Mine. But today the festival announces the winners of its annual awards, the big prize being the Michael Powell award for best British film, named after the great director of films like The Red Shoes, Black Narcissus and I Know Where I’m Going!

We’re delighted to reveal that the Michael Powell judges have chosen a very worthy winner: Francis Lee’s directorial debut, God’s Own Country. It’s a moving drama about an isolated Yorkshire farmer (Josh O’Connor) who finds happiness when a Romanian migrant worker (Alec Secareanu) joins the farm for lambing season and romance blossoms between the two young men.

The jury (composer David Arnold, Rotterdam Film Festival artistic director Bero Beyer and writer Andrea Gibb) describe God’s Own Country, which opened the festival back on 21 June, as having “a singularity of storytelling and consistency of vision. Assured direction with raw and endearing performances result in a film that has an authenticity that is both tender and brutal, a juxtaposition of landscape and emotion, which explores the question of what it means to be a man.”

Francis Lee said: “I am thrilled with this honour for God's Own Country, especially when you consider the British films that have won before. After premiering at Sundance and Berlin it has been wonderful to see how the film has created a real resonance with people and that is why the Michael Powell Award feels so brilliant.”

The Skinny called God’s Own Country a “tender love story that’s deeply cinematic and builds to a heart-swelling conclusion free of sentimentality” and “EIFF’s best opening film in years”. Take a look at our review and read our interview with director Francis Lee.

Best performance is shared between two talented actors: Emily Beecham wins for her knockout turn as a foul-mouthed hedonist going through an existential crisis in Daphne, and Anne Reid gets kudos for two performances in the festival (Kaleidoscope and Romans). The jury praised the pair for their portrayal of “fascinating, complex and flawed characters who didn't strive for your affection but commanded your attention – real in the best sense of the word.”

Best International Feature Film went to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov’s Glory, which received its UK Premiere at this year’s Festival. The International Jury was comprised of actor Bernard Hill, actress and writer Shauna Macdonald, and Dallas Film Festival artistic director James Faust.

Best Documentary went to Chico Pereira’s brilliant Donkeyote, a study of Pereira’s uncle, whose wonderful spirit of adventure belies all of his 73 years. We spoke to Pereira before the festival to discuss the film and its influence; read our interview here.

Best Short Film went to The Full Story, directed by Daisy Jacobs, with Kevin Pickering’s Close to the Bone and Gordon Napier’s 1745 receiving a special mention from the jurors. The McLaren Award for Best British Animation, meanwhile, went to Paloma Baeza’s Poles Apart.

There are three days of festival fun still to enjoy. If you’ve not made it to any EIFF screenings this year, there still a chance to catch up with the festival highlights with the annual Best of the Fest, which features a selection of the most popular films from the last 12 days of the festival. This year’s lineup includes Withnail & I, Edie, Cars 3, Song to Song, Kaleidoscope, Paris Can Wait, Godspeed (Yi lu shun feng), Sweet Virginia, Wakefield, Becoming Cary Grant, The Farthest, That Good Night, Waterboys, Teenage Superstars, The Dark Mile, THE THE: Infected and The Inertia Variations.