22nd Leeds International Film Festival is over

Thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this year's film festival such an incredible experience. Find the award winners of the Méliès and Golden Owl competitions here and the short film winners on www.shortfilmcity.com

Get ready for 23rd Leeds International Film Festival

Featuring Official Selection, Cinema Versa, Fanomenon, Thought Bubble, Short Film City and KiNETIKA!

11th to 22nd November 2009

Passes on sale from 6th April 2009
Film submissions open from 25th May 2009

Golden Owl Competition Winner Announced

Both the films chosen – the winner and our highly deserved special mention – display great honesty and personal dedication in bringing their visions to the screen and demonstrate near obsessive dedication in making cinema against the odds using readily available technology to bring forth exciting and forward thinking visions of cultures from around the globe.

It is with great honour that we award this year's Golden Owl to Tariq Tapa and Zero Bridge. Few films combine the observational honesty of Tapa's vision of Kashmir – creating an emotional and political landscape from the very personal and everyday experiences of his non professional cast. This is a raw, dramatic and thrilling film that never falls into melodrama or cliché.

A Special Mention goes to Nina Paley's Sita Sings the Blues. Completed over 5 years on domestic equipment it displays near limitless creativity in its wild collage of narrative strands, animation styles and music.

Judges John Bradburn, Paolo Moretti & Luciano Chelotti.

The full judges' statement can be downloaded here

Silver Méliès Competition Winners Announced

Feature Film Winner
We were agreed that Mum and Dad was an impressive debut feature, and its twisted narrative, claustrophobic atmosphere and almost prosaic approach to torture, kept us talking! Despite its low budget the film had excellent production values, great performances from the cast and an overall feel of Britishness, which somehow added to its disturbing tone. An unsettling viewing experience, but a film which manages to successfully balance graphic violence with very dark humour.

Sexy Killer we felt deserved special mention because it offered a completely different experience from the other films in the competition. It was fast, funny and fresh. There were too many ideas for it to be entirely successful, but it was great to see a horror/comedy which wore its enthusiasm for the genre on its sleeve!

Short Film Winner
The jury thought that Short Cut did everything that a short film should! It was self-contained, the story had a neat twist and a nice balance of horror and humour. The play with visual perspective enhanced the atmosphere of the film and worked in conjunction with the somewhat fantastical quality of the narrative.

Judges Shelley O'Brien, Emily Booth & Karen Cooper.