This year’s festival concluded with its annual award ceremony, where crystal glass awards were given in eleven categories, and two new pendant awards designed and made by Bristol-based jeweller, Ephemera Rose, the Golden Breeze and the Silver Breeze, were awarded.
The 11th London Breeze Film Festival has announced the winners of its annual awards ceremony, following its five day event in which over 135 independent films, industry days and special events across nine London cinemas.
The inaugural Golden Breeze and Silver Breeze pendant awards were designed by Ephemera Rose – a Bristol-based jeweller.
These special new awards were for two new awards categories: the 19-25 Young Adult Award as selected by an expert panel including BAFTA nominated and Oscar longlisted filmmaker and London Breeze ambassador, Louisa Connolly-Burnham (Sister Wives/The Intimacy Coordinator), and producer, Damian Keogh (A Thousand Blows).
The Silver Breeze went to Ava Bounds for narrative short film, The Witches of Pool Bottom (UK 7 mins). Meanwhile, the Golden Breeze went to director, Ina Lüders whose film Such A Vivid Imagination with a very young cast led by Sheherazade Farrell in this coming-of-age thriller, was the closing film of the festival.
Auteur filmmaker and London Breeze ambassador, Maeve Murphy, is the winner of this year’s Women of Film Award. Murphy has had a long journey to get to where she is today, with her feature debut from 2001, Silent Grace (Ireland 2001) to be recognised as the landmark ‘Troubles’ film that it is. It had its RTE premiere in 2017, and in 2020, the Irish Times recognised it as one of the fifty best Irish films of all time.
This year’s IMPACT Award was judged by Georgia Hall, documentary filmmaker, IMPACT producer and safari guide and co-founder of the Friends of LAMO AURU Conservation Project. The prize is given to the film that best reflects the filmmaker’s and society’s concerns for the environment and the world that we share with all living things.
The winner was Rhapsody on the Outlaw Ocean (USA) by Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist, Ian Urbina and composer, William Segal. The film had its world premiere at London Breeze.
The feature documentary prize this year went to a Spanish/Jamaican co-prodiction, Miss Jobson (Spain/Jamaica) by Amanda Sans Pantling (Songs of Redemption). The UK premiere of this documentary about the now eighty year old fearless lawyer and indefatigable champion of the poor, friend of Bob Marley and a woman who lives her life entirely on her own term, Diana Jobson took place as part of the festival.
Meanwhile, Debut feature fiction, Man Baby, written and directed by Philip Hardy, won the UK Feature Fiction judged by director, producer Charlie McDowell, whose last film, The Summer Book, previewed at London Breeze’s 10th anniversary festival.
Other winners included:
- International Feature Fiction – Judged by Flaminia Graziadei, documentary filmmaker and Cinesister Winner: The Crowd/Jama’at (Iran) by Sahand Kabiri.
- UK Short Documentary – Judged by filmmaker, Daisy Ifama. Daisy’s films have received international acclaim, including winning London Breeze’s Short Doc award last year for her film SET PACE, as well as the inaugural Women of Film award. Winner: (UK 11 mins) Now That’s What I Call Dock Pudding directed by Sarah Mason.
- International Short Documentary – Judged by Johan Nayar – a British director and editor with roots in Guyana, Malaysia, and India. His debut feature film, The Banjo Boys, had its World Premiere at LBFF ‘25. His passion for music is a strong influence in his storytelling, shaping his approach to both documentary and narrative filmmaking. Winner: Miles of Life (Uganda 15 mins) directed by Charli Doherty.
- UK Short Fiction – Judged by Nathan Haines – a writer, director, producer at Iron Box Films. His short film An Imperfect Cadence has been recognised at 14 festivals, including a nomination for Best British Short at London Breeze 2025. He also co-founded CenterFrame and runs the British Short Film Awards, championing new talent. [Present] Winner: Uncle Artoo directed by Zoë Whittaker.
- International Short Fiction – Judged by Tara Aghdashloo – an award-winning writer, director, multidisciplinary artist and poet born in Iran. Winner: Synthesize Me (USA 15 mins) by Bear Damen.
- Outstanding Contribution: Soureh Cinema Organisation, Tehran. Soureh Cinema have submitted very high-quality Iranian films for London Breeze’s consideration over the past few years – dramas, documentaries and, this year, a children’s feature animation, Dreamland.
Speaking of the news, Madeleine Casey – lead programmer and festival coordinator says: “The whole Breeze team is delighted for all of our winners. It is always so hard to make these decisions, not least as the standard was exceptionally hard this year. Many congratulations to them all, and all who were selected for this year’s biggest ever edition.
We are incredibly proud of what we have achieved as a team with our eleventh edition. We chose our guiding principles for this year early on and they served us well.”