Bird’s Eye View Film Festival announces its winners

Bird's Eye celebrated their pick of the best female talent in the film industry

In the spirit of International Women's Week, Birds Eye View Film Festival, which celebrates outstanding female talent in filmmaking, closed last Friday with a special awards ceremony.

Harry Potter's Bonny Wright and Happy Go Lucky star Sally Hawkins were in high spirits as they announced the prizes.

Best Feature was awarded to Lourdes - about a religious pilgrimage to the name-sake - directed by Jessica Hausner, while Juanita Wilson swiped the prize for Best Short for her piece, The Door.

It has been a seminal year for female filmmaking, with Kathryn Bigelow making history as the first woman to take the award for Best Director at this year's Oscars for her harrowing war drama, The Hurt Locker. Amy Mole, Managing Director of Birds Eye View, commented that the win was an inspiring triumph for women in the industry.

To continue to nurture female talent, Bird's Eye has set up two new training labs this year: Reanimate for animation, and She Writes, to encourage more British women to take to the film writing page, perhaps with a hope of finding a candidate for a forthcoming Best Screenplay award!

For further details, go to www.birds-eye-view.co.uk.