Meanwhile, Inma de Reyes, who graduated in 2018 with an MFA in Film Directing, won the Grand Jury Award for Best International First Feature at Sheffield International Documentary Festival, for The Boy and the Suit of Lights, a film she started and made into a short during her postgraduate studies at ECA.
Filmed over the course of five years, the film follows Borja, a young boy growing up in Castellon, a small town in Spain, where the tradition of bullfighting weighs heavily on his shoulders. His grandfather, Matias, pins his own unfulfilled dreams of becoming a professional bullfighter onto his grandchild with the hopes that it will get the family out of poverty.
The Grand Jury citation said: “The jury has chosen the winning film for its visually stunning reflection on culture and society, told through the journey of a boy finding his way to manhood. It triggers an inner discussion, challenging our ideas about the modern world versus fading traditions and beliefs.”
Duncan Cowles, who graduated with a BA (Hons) Film and Television in 2013, won a special mention in the same category for his film Silent Men, with the observation: “The jury was impressed by the vulnerable approach to a sensitive subject, told in a fresh, open, even humorous tone.”
The awards were announced June 16 at Sheffield’s Crucible Playhouse.
