My Summer Of Love, by director Pawel Pawlikowski, has been named Best British Feature at the Edinburgh Film Festival. The film stars Emily Blunt and Natalie Press, and portrays the relationship that grows between two 16-year-old girls in the heat of a Yorkshire summer.
Pawlikowski also won the Michael Powell Award in 2000, for Last Resort. Ahead of this year's awards announcement he told us, "I love coming to Edinburgh... there's a fantastically enthusiastic head of the festival, Shane Danielsen. I think directors of festivals very much influence the character of the whole [event]. They bear the imprint of the organisers very often - it's a very nice, unfussy festival devoted to film... there's not much distraction from film which is a good thing."
The Polish-born film maker said he tries to avoid the social realism of much British cinema: "Every good film is a bit like a dream, that's what I usually aspire to, rather than some social document. I want to create a little world which will stay with the audience."
The Audience Award went to Inside I'm Dancing, directed by Damien O'Donnell, and starring Romola Garai, James MacAvoy (right) and Steven Robertson. The winner of the Guardian New Director's Award was Morgan Spurlock for Super Size Me.
There were joint winners of the Best British Short Film - Billy's Day Out, directed by Iain B MacDonald, and Who Killed Brown Owl, directed by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor. Molloy said: "We were leaving Edinburgh on the train when the telephone rang to tell us we were joint winners. We were pleasantly surprised that the panel had even shortlisted the film, but to have won was totally suprising - but fantastically so. Having our vision supported is a very good feeling. We'll take much from this." Find out more about the film.
The McLaren Animation Award for New British Animation was also shared, between Shynola for Blur's Good Song, and John-Paul Harney's Brand Spanking.
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My Summer Of Love and Inside I'm Dancing are due for release in October.
