London Lift-Off Winners 2017 - Lift-Off Global Network

Many thanks to everyone who participated in this year’s London Lift-Off. It was great to see so many filmmakers and film enthusiasts filling the Arthouse Crouch End, in support of both local and international indie film.

The judges' votes have been counted and added to the audience's feedback.

Huge congratulations to the filmmakers who screened with us, who all did themselves proud. A special well done to the following films.

Photos from the event can be seen on the London Lift-Off Facebook Page.

Best Short - Mausoleum (next screening with Lift-Off in Berlin)

Dir. Lauri Randla
Synopsis: Lauri Randla’s short film tells a dark satire of the pathologist Aleksei Abrikosov who embalmed Lenin’s body and in theory managed to overcome death… so his further existence will be permanently attached to caretaking of the Lenin’s corpse. The story follows Abrikosov’s and his apprentice’s critical night, when they have to solve a problem with Lenin's body, just prior to the holy celebration of the First of May. Welcome to Moscow of 1936 and into the world of Stalinist terror where a human is less worthy than a fly.

Best Feature - Die Tochter - Dark Blue Girl (next screening with Lift-Off in Berlin)

Dir. Mascha Schilinski
Synopsis: When JIMMY and HANNAH finally find a buyer for their holiday home on the Greek volcano island Santorini, the ex-couple returns to the place where they broke up two years ago. In tow: Their seven-year-old daughter LUCA whose love the parents compete for. Hardly arrived on the island, old tensions and conflicts appear despite every effort to make it right. Above it all is Hannah, who is jealous of the close father-daughter-relationship she is not able to reach. But the upcoming sale of the house triggers something in Jimmy as well – the irrefutable end of his former dream: to have a future as a family.

Automaton (next screening with Lift-Off in Berlin)

Dir. Sydney O'Haire
Synopsis: Automaton is a story about grief, passion but most importantly forgiveness. After the death of her father, Eva returns home to attend to his life’s work; his automata. They shared a passion for mechanical clockwork figurines, but his was one so great and all-consuming that he lost sight of the most fundamentally human part of himself. He neglected his love for his daughter. This is the story of Eva’s appropriation of her grief; a journey of discovery and self-attunement.

Inspired by concepts of spirituality and philosophical thinking, this work is a meditation on the internal choices and decisions we must all come to make in life, despite our own setbacks and judgements. Through creating a dialectical relationship between audio and the visual; narration and unspoken action, our stylistic technique carries the enchanting world of automata into a vibrant and enigmatic existence.