London Film Festival: Loznitsa's archive film 'Imperium' named best film
The jury led by Sam Pollard honours Sergei Loznitsa's look at the Soviet Union of the early 1970s at the 70th BFI London Film Festival.
Archive image · Photo: RIFF | Reykjavik International Film Festival (Foto: Otilia Martin) / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (cropped and resized)
Sergei Loznitsa's documentary 'Imperium' has won the Best Film award at the 70th BFI London Film Festival. The festival closed on 18 October with Jesse Eisenberg's 'The Debut', and the winners were announced on 19 October. The film is a co-production between Germany, Italy, France and Lithuania.
'Imperium' is made up entirely of archival footage shot by Italian documentary filmmakers in the Soviet Union in the early 1970s. According to Meduza, Loznitsa found the material in an archive in Rome. The jury, chaired by US director Sam Pollard, called the film "an extraordinary feature that explores the Soviet Union in the early 1970s from a rich archive".
The Sutherland Award for best first feature went to '9 Temples to Heaven' by Sompot Chidgasornpongse, and the Grierson Award for best documentary to 'Concrete Land' by Asmahan Bkerat. 'Aman' by Rahul Roye won best short film. The audience awards will be announced later.