The 26th Raindance Film Festival in partnership with Lumix announced this year’s Festival Award winners at its awards ceremony at Century Club on 5th October.
This year, Raindance Film Festival received a record-breaking number of submissions from over 120 countries and screened more than 200 projects, including features, shorts, music videos, web series and VR experiences.
A champion of independent filmmaking, Raindance aims to honour the best of indie cinema from across the world. Award winners were chosen by our amazing 29-strong Jury, which consists of some of the best names in British talent, including Rogue One: A Star Wars Story director Gareth Edwards and actors Ray Winstone, Carmen Ejogo and Jonathan Pryce. Read on to see the full list of winners.
Features
Film of the Festival

Princesita
WINNER: Princesita (Dir. Marialy Rivas)
Best UK Feature

We The Kings
WINNER: We The Kings (Dir. Lauren Mackenzie)
George Michael: Freedom – Director’s Cut (Dir. George Michael & David Austin)
Team Khan (Dir. Oliver Clark & Blair Macdonald)
Kaiser! The Greatest Footballer Never To Play Football (Dir. Louis Myles)
Nightshooters (Dir. Marc Price)
Best International Feature
WINNER: Princesita (Dir. Marialy Rivas)
Family (Dir. Veronica Kedar)
Love At Least (Dir. Kosai Sekine)
When Margaux Meets Margaux (Dir. Sophie Fillières)
We (Dir. Rene Eller)
A Crimson Star (Dir. Aya Igashi)
The End of Wind (Dir. Fog Forest)
Saint Judy (Dir. Sean Hanish)
Saviors (Dir. Christopher Greenslate)
M (Dir. Sara Forestier)
Best Documentary Feature

Tre Maison Dasan
WINNER: Tre Maison Dasan (Dir. Denali Tiller)
Ballet Now (Dir. Steven Cantor)
Nossa Chape (Dir. Jeff & Michael Zimbalist)
The Artist & The Pervert (Dir. Beatrice Behn & René Gebhardt)
Rumble: The Indians Who Rocked The World (Dir. Catherine Bainbridge)
The Discovery Award: Best Debut Feature
WINNER: Silent Night (Dir. Piotr Domalewski)
Ana By Day (Dir. Andrea Jaurrieta)
Borders, Raindrops (Dir. Nikola Mijović & Vlastimir Sudar)
Ederlezi Rising (Dir. Lazar Bodroza)
We The Coyotes (Dir. Hanna Ladoul & Marco La Via)
Best Director

We
WINNER: We (Dir. Rene Eller)
Princesita (Dir. Marialy Rivas)
Family (Dir. Veronika Kadar)
When Margaux Meets Margaux (Dir. Sophie Fillières)
The End of Wind (Dir. Fog Forest)
Best Screenplay

When Margaux Meets Margaux
WINNER: When Margaux Meets Margaux (Written by Sophie Fillières)
Princesita (Written by Camila Gutiérrez, Marialy Rivas)
Family (Written by Veronica Kedar)
The End of Wind (Written by Fog Forest)
We The Kings (Lauren Mackenzie)
Best Cinematography
WINNER: Princesita – Sergio Armstrong (Dir. Marialy Rivas)
When Margaux Meets Margaux – Emmanuelle Collinot (Dir. Sophie Fillières)
Family – Christian Huck (Veronica Kedar)
Team Khan – Oliver Clark, Asad Faruqi, Blair Macdonald (Dir. Oliver Clark & Blair Macdonald)
We – Maxime Desmet (Dir. Rene Eller)
Best Performance
WINNER: Princesita (Dir. Sara Caballero)
We The Kings – Timothy West
When Margaux Meets Margaux – Sandrine Kiberlain
Saint Judy – Michelle Monaghan
Princesita – Marcelo Alonso
Spirit Award
WINNER: This Is Love (Dir. John Alexander)
Best Festival Campaign
WINNER: Matsuchiyo – Life of a Geisha (Dir. Ken Nishikawa)
Shorts
Best Short of the Festival

Souls of Totality
WINNER: Souls of Totality (Dir. Richard Raymond)
The Last Day of the Empire (Dir. Anna Rubi & Julia Halasz)
June 21 (Dir. Nagisa Morimoto & Pierre-Audric Gadeau)
Clean Blood (Dir. Jordan Michael Blake)
Imfura (Dir. Samuel Ishimwe)
Best UK Short

Landsharks
WINNER: Landsharks (Dir. Aaron Dunleavy)
Thawed (Dir. Jon Drever)
Little Monster (Dir. Charlotte Regan)
Alien Culture (Dir. Iesh Thapar)
Ellston Bay (Dir. Nicholas Eriksson)
Best Documentary Short
WINNER: Earthrise (Dir. Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee)
The Mauritania Railway (Dir. Macgregor)
Anointed (Dir. Dan Lin)
Anarchy in the Philippines (Dir. Jess Kohl)
Clockwork Monsters (Dir. Ronni Thomas)
Best Animation Short
WINNER: Blind Mice (Dir. Nicholas D’Agostino)
The Velvet Underground Played At My High School Dir. Anthony Jannelli & Robert Pietri)
The Edge of Alchemy (Dir. Stacey Steers)
The White Spot (Dir. Chiara Sgatti)
Bike Trip (Dir. Tom Schroeder)
Best Music Video

Solicitous
WINNER: Solicitous (Dir. Zuzanna Plisz)
Fire in Grenfell (Dir. Brooke Colman)
Biggest Curse (Dir. Amy Allais)
Bop N Keep It Dippin (Dir. Romain Chassaing)
Low (Dir. Kevan Funk)
Webfest
Webfest Jury Award
WINNER: Bidune Kaid – Undocumented (Dir. Amin Dora)
Webfest Audience Award
WINNER: Gimel (Assaf Machnes & Miki Fromchenko)
Check out the Immersive Stories Award Winners here.