Friday, October 28, 2011

We Need to Talk About Kevin scoops top prize at London film festival

Lynne Ramsay's drama starring Tilda Swinton fights off opposition from a strong shortlist to win best film at ceremony

, arts correspondent -guardian.co.uk,
  • 64th Cannes Film Festival - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly in a scene from Lynne Ramsay’s hard-hitting drama We Need to Talk About Kevin. Photograph: Nicole Rivelli Photography/EPA
Lynne Ramsay's bold and memorable adaptation of Lionel Shriver's novel We Need to Talk About Kevin was named best film at the BFI London film festival awards on Wednesday.

The film is Ramsay's first in nearly 10 years and only her third since her breakthrough, Ratcatcher. At a ceremony in London her new film, which came out on general release last Friday, was named best film from a strong shortlist including Steve McQueen's Shame and Terence Davies's The Deep Blue Sea.
The director John Madden, who chaired the category's jury, said they had been struck by the "sheer panache" of a shortlist with "great storytellers".
He added: "In the end, we were simply bowled over by one film – a sublime, uncompromising tale of the torment that can stand in the place of love. We Need to Talk About Kevin is made with the singular vision that links great directors across all the traditions of cinema."
The film, which stars Tilda Swinton as the mother of a boy in jail for a Columbine-style high school massacre, has been much praised by critics.
After its first screening in Cannes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw gave it five stars and called it "a brilliantly nihilist, feminist parable".
More at The Guardian.

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