Red Road Wins 2006 BFI Sutherland Trophy

'Red Road' is the winner of the 2006 BFI Sutherland Trophy, presented to Andrea Arnold for her acclaimed debut feature at last night’s Closing Gala of The Times BFI 50th London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square.
The trophy is awarded for the most original and imaginative first feature film screened at the Festival.
In awarding the trophy, the Sutherland jury said of the film: “The subtle innovation, the sheer courage with storytelling and the kind of attention to detail which makes a story resonate on an astounding range of levels resulted in massive support for this beautiful and unpredictable debut feature.”
Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director of the Festival said: “One of the most striking British feature debuts in years, Red Road is an assured, multi-layered slice of poetic realism.”
Red Road follows Jackie who is a lonely CCTV operator for a run-down Glasgow estate.
The BFI Sutherland award is judged each year by an invited jury of people with a knowledge of, and passion for, cinema. This year’s jury was: film-maker Amma Asante; producer Chris Auty (The Film Consortium); film programmer Stuart Comer (Tate Modern); Ian George (Twentieth Century Fox); musician Luke Haines; Cameron McCracken (Pathé); Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell; author Ali Smith; film critic and broadcaster Jason Solomons; and from the Festival Sandra Hebron and programmer Michael Hayden.
A showcase of new talent, the BFI Sutherland Trophy was first presented in 1958 on behalf of the BFI by the Duke of Sutherland and has been awarded to world-class directors such as Antonioni, Bertolucci, Fassbinder, Godard and Greenway.
Red Road also won the Grand Jury prize at Cannes earlier this year and was released in cinemas across the country on Friday 27 October from Verve Pictures. Andrea Arnold won an Academy Award for Live Action Short in 2005 for her film 'Wasp'.
(DS/SP)