LONDON . British film producer Gayle Griffiths has been awarded the prestigious £15,000 UK Film Talent Award at the closing night gala of the Times bfi London Film Festival.
Griffiths was selected for the award, sponsored by the British luxury brand Alfred Dunhill , by the London Film Festival's director Sandra Hebron and the UK Film Council's fund managers, Sally Caplan, Paul Trijbits and Jenny Borgars.
Griffiths 's film Song of Songs screened at the festival, telling the story of a devoutly religious young woman played by Evening Standard Film Awards winner Natalie Press (My Summer of Love) who returns from Israel to care for her dying mother. When she tries to bring her estranged brother back to the fold, the result is a forbidden game under the guise of religious law - verging on the darkest realms of sexual obsession.
Sandra Hebron, artistic director of the Times bfi London Film Festival said, " With Kiss of Life and now Songs of Songs , which screened in this year's festival, Gayle Griffiths has produced two feature films which are bold and imaginative, qualities to be commended in new British cinema. Both films tell original stories and have a strong visual style. Gayle has the skill and enthusiasm to select interesting new directors to work with, protecting and championing them in order to help them achieve their artistic vision."
Griffiths begin her career in film working on films by John Sayles and Franco Zeffirelli before attending the National Film and Television School, where she produced five shorts including Stella Artois Screen Shorts award winning The Price , and Second Hand , which won the Cinéfondation Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Lion at the Taipei Film Festival, Taiwan and the Special Jury Prize at the Buenos Aires Independent Film Festival, 2000.
Griffiths then produced Emily Young's debut feature Kiss of Life for which Young won a BAFTA. The film went on to premiere at Cannes 2003 in Official Selection in the Un Certain Regard strand, and won Best Cinematography at Dinard.
Griffiths has also worked internationally for Arista Story Editor Workshops and as a development deputy at Company Pictures. Her production outfit Wild Horses Film Company now has three features in development.
The UK Film Talent Award, sponsored by Alfred Dunhill, was created in 2004 to recognise the achievements of new or emerging British film talent who show great skill and imagination in bringing originality and verve to film-making. This is the second year of a three year partnership between the UK film industry and Alfred Dunhill.
The new UK Film Talent Award is backed by a host of British film luminaries including Anthony Minghella, Daniel Craig, Bill Nighy, Richard Curtis, David Morrissey, Ray Winstone, Sir Alan Parker, Jonathan Rhys Meyers and Sophie Okonedo. |
