A locally made film that covers an unsung part of recent Scottish music history has won the coveted audience award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2015.
Grant McPhee's Big Gold Dream: Scottish Post-Punk and Infiltrating the Mainstream garnered more votes than the other 14 films selected for competition by the Artistic Director.
The top five most popular films, as voted by EIFF audiences were:
- Big Gold Dream: Scottish Post-Punk and Infiltrating the Mainstream (Grant McPhee) (see trailer)
- Desert Dancer (Richard Raymond)
- The Diary of a Teenage Girl (Marielle Heller)
- Love & Mercy (Bill Pohlad)
- Amy (Asif Kapadia)
The juried Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film went to Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years. Charlotte Rampling and Tom Courtenay play a married couple whose 45 year wedding anniversary celebrations are crashed by the discovery of the frozen body of his first love in the Swiss Alps.
The jurors described 45 years as "a quietly explosive film which represents classic filmmaking at its best. This is a measured yet provocative film, a masterclass in understated acting that was the unanimous choice of the jury.”
45 Years also won Charlotte Rampling the Award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film, which she shared along with James Cosmo for his performance in The Pyramid Texts.
The Award for Best International Feature Film went to The Diary of a Teenage Girl (which was also third place for the Audience Award ).
The Wolfpack won The Award for Best Documentary Feature Film (see Euan's round-up of EIFF 2015 documentaries).
Scrapbook directed by Mike Hoolboom won The Award for Best Short Film.
The McLaren Award for Best New British Animation went to Stems by director Ainslie Henderson.
The 12-day film festival ended on Sunday with the Closing Gala screening of Scott Graham's drama Iona at the Edinburgh Festival Theatre.